Welcome to Nathan's Cancer Journey

This blog is a reposting of Nathan's Caringbridge page which we updated throughout his battle with Neuroblastoma.

Nathan was born on June 16, 2000, diagnosed with Stage IV Neuroblastoma on April 1, 2003 and died on July 29, 2007.

I have posted the journal here to make it easier to look up by date and also to be able to easily add pictures to the journal entries.

Some of the pictures go along with the text, but many of the pictures you will see were pictures taken on the same date the journal was added, even if the pictures have nothing to do with the text. In the future I may add additional journal entries to go along with pictures to add more explanation/memories.

I am just getting started posting the years of entries and so this will be incomplete for some time. I hope to eventually also post the guestbook entries by date as a comment on the post.

Wednesday, September 15, 2004

Wednesday, September 15, 2004 2:29 PM CDT

Hello,

I just called Sloan to verify Nathan's HAMA status and as expected it is negative. So...we will be off to NYC again on October 24. The good thing about knowing so soon is that I checked ticket prices and they are great. Half of what we pay sometimes and we can even go on a Sunday instead of a Saturday. So - tickets are booked. I need to speak with Nathan's local doctor about the scans. At this point we are planning on doing them here...I just have one more question that needs to be answered.

Nathan had a HUGE tantrum today as I was trying to take him to preschool. I had given him milk with lunch and after I had him in the car ready to leave he told me he wanted more and I said I would bring him fresh milk after preschool like I usually do and he just lost it. We got to preschool and I had to wrestle with him and put him in the stroller and it became clear he would not calm down and so I brought him home and put him to bed and told him that since he chose to nap instead of preschool he would have to stay in bed for a long time. He just loses control sometimes and it seems to be more frequent. I really wonder if he needs some professional help to work through all the rage he has built up. I haven't a clue where to turn though. Also, I don't have a good feel for what is normal 4 year old behavior. Coupled with the fact that he is normally so very well-behaved I just don't know if this is just a normal way of letting off steam or if he has psychological trauma from all he has been through. If any of you are cancer parents reading this entry I would appreciate your perspective via e-mail.

Our morning was good at least. We went to a play group and it was good for all of us. Last night I got to do womething wonderful for me. I got a sitter for the kids and went to a choir open house at a friend's church. I used to sing in choirs when I was younger and I LOVED being able to do it again. I will go back next week and talk to the director to see if I could join. I was not able to stay late enough last night to talk to him. It was my first experience with a teenage sitter at my house and the kids behaved really well for her and she did a great job. Her family is the one who takes care of Ellie for us and we knew we could trust Brenna. So - I am very happy to have taken this step and now maybe Luke and I can actually go out on a date every once and a while when we don't have family in town. I just really prefer the kids get to go to bed in their own beds which is why I have not taken people up on offers to watch the kids at their houses (while we really appreciate the offers!).

I will have to wrap this up. Julia is just screaming because she doesn't want a nap and I am having trouble concentrating. It is a banner day when I have to deal with both kids having horrible trantrums....ughh.

I will update again when I know something new!

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