KESJ

15 September 2015

noreply@blogger.com (Eleanor) — Tue, 15 Sep 2015 22:01:00 +0000

6 years post-transplant today!

All thanks to God's mighty healing hand & wonderful grace!

This is the day the Lord has made;
We will rejoice and be glad in it.
Psalm 118:24

15 September 2014

noreply@blogger.com (Eleanor) — Mon, 15 Sep 2014 12:22:00 +0000

Praise God for 5 years post-transplant!

Give thanks to the Lord, for he is good;

his love endures forever.

15 September 2013

noreply@blogger.com (Eleanor) — Sun, 15 Sep 2013 12:06:00 +0000

Praise the LORD for 4 years post-transplant - every day is a gift from God!

Happy Birthday!

noreply@blogger.com (Eleanor) — Wed, 15 May 2013 02:10:00 +0000

Thank God we could celebrate another birthday!

26 September 2012

noreply@blogger.com (Eleanor) — Wed, 26 Sep 2012 11:15:00 +0000

T+1,107

Today Jeremy went to hospital for a bone density scan, a pulmonary function test, an eye checkup and to see the bone marrow transplant doctor.

For his bone density scan, he lay on this bed and the machine moved slowly down his body taking a scan of his skeleton, which the operator printed out and gave to him as a souvenir!

For his pulmonary function test, he sat in this box with a peg on his nose and blew really hard and long into the purple mouthpiece. The test measures the total volume of air inside his lungs. He was allowed to keep the peg and mouthpiece afterwards!

Thank God that:

his growth is good
his 3-year blood results are good
his lungs are good
his eyes are good (even better than mine with glasses on!)
the bone marrow transplant doctor wants to see Jeremy again in a year, instead of 6 months.

19 September 2012

noreply@blogger.com (Eleanor) — Wed, 19 Sep 2012 23:11:00 +0000

T+1100

This morning we were proud to be invited to this term's Honour Assembly where Jeremy received a citizenship Honour Award for "always trying to be helpful in class and to others".

Yesterday he went to hospital for a few checkups. The dentist is happy with his teeth, and just put a bit of fluoride on them. However, he showed us Jeremy's teeth X-ray which was taken in April 2012, and told us that his adult molar roots are about 1/3 the length that they should be. This is due to all the chemo and radiation that he had to have, and there is nothing that we can do about it. Calcium won't help, but at least we know that he has to be very careful as it is easier for his teeth to be knocked out. He must wear a mouthguard if he plays contact sports etc.

He also had a skin prick test for peanuts. Although a tiny lump did appear on his skin, the immunologist was not worried as Jeremy has been eating 3 roasted peanuts every morning (he prefers them to Peanut M&Ms). She has written to our school principal to let him know that Jeremy is no longer allergic and can be taken off the school medical alert list - Jeremy is very happy to be off the list!

He was very brave and didn't complain when they took 11 tubes of blood from him for his 3 year bloods! We will get the results of his blood tests next week when we see the bone marrow transplant doctor.

15 September 2012

noreply@blogger.com (Eleanor) — Sat, 15 Sep 2012 09:17:00 +0000

Thank God for 3 years post transplant!

Jeremy and Stephanie celebrated with their cousins at Wizzy World after school yesterday, and today they enjoyed going to the Willoughby Spring Fair and watching the parade. But it had been an extremely busy week at school and all the excitement caught up to him at dinner tonight, when he spiked a fever of 38.1. Thinking back, we are thankful we no longer have to rush him to hospital whenever he has a fever - we can just give him Panadol and let him rest at home!

21 May 2012

noreply@blogger.com (Eleanor) — Tue, 22 May 2012 08:58:00 +0000

T+979

Jeremy lost his first tooth tonight!

His tooth had been a bit wobbly for a while, but became much looser thanks to being hit in the mouth with a soccer ball at lunchtime today. He was worried about his tooth falling out during his swimming lesson this afternoon, but was happy to go swimming when told that his teacher would be able to dive down and retrieve it if required! But his tooth waited until the middle of dinner to come out, and Jeremy was pleased to be given lots of frozen jelly pencils and grapes to stop the bleeding.

19 May 2012

noreply@blogger.com (Eleanor) — Tue, 22 May 2012 08:58:00 +0000

T+977

Thanks to Camp Quality, we had an enjoyable outing to the zoo today. It was Jeremy's first time to Taronga Zoo and he ran around giving the animals a rating!

Animal exhibit ratings out of 10. Lowest score is 1 and maximum is 10

Alligators - 1
Birds - 2
Corroboree frogs - 4
Reptile World (snakes, lizards etc) - 10 (started with an inert Komodo Dragon but got better ...)
Giraffes - 8
Chimpanzees - 8
Bongo 6
Barbary Sheep - Missing?
Himalayan Tahr - 1 (they were very stinky!)
Meerkats - 6 (not very exciting and not that many – better at Mogo Zoo)
Pygmy Hippopotamus - 2
Dhole - 6
Fennec Foxes - 6
Snow Leopards - 8
Tigers - 10 (one walked around a bit)
Lions - 6 (they were lying around and didn’t get up)
Gorillas - 1
Seal Show - 10
Elephants - 8 (although they were stinky!)
Bird Show - 8 (although his parents thought it was much more interesting and exciting than the Seal Show)
Tortoises - 4
Red Pandas - 1 (couldn’t see any)
Tropical Aviary - 1
Deer - 1 (stinky Bambi!)
Malayan Tapirs - 1
Binturongs - 2
Otters - 1 (in hiding)
Fishing Cats - 4
Penguins - 10
Sky Safari ride - 10

Birthdays and all

noreply@blogger.com (Zippy7) — Sun, 20 May 2012 07:13:00 +0000

It was with great joy that we were able to help Jeremy celebrate his 7th birthday with his family. We continue to thank God for his healing, and that we can enjoy watching our little boy grow up, tantrums and all :)

18 April 2012

noreply@blogger.com (Eleanor) — Thu, 19 Apr 2012 10:25:00 +0000

T+946

Jeremy went to hospital clinic this morning for a 6 monthly checkup. His physical exam was OK and he was pleased that he didn't need a blood test! However, the doctor told us that the dentist had ordered an X-ray of his mouth because still has all his baby teeth, so we went to medical imaging afterwards. The radiologist will report back to the dentist, who will then discuss his results with the doctor.

Jeremy also had a skin prick test for peanut and egg. He had a tiny reaction to peanut, but we are not concerned as he is still eating his medicinal dose of Peanut M&Ms on a regular basis. There was no reaction to egg, but this was to be expected - after all, he had eaten fried egg white for breakfast (he refuses to eat the egg yolk!).

His next visit to hospital clinic will be his 3 year post-transplant checkup in September.

25 December 2011

noreply@blogger.com (Zippy7) — Sun, 25 Dec 2011 11:19:00 +0000

T+831

Wishing you all a joyful Christmas as you celebrate the birth of King Jesus!

28 September 2011

noreply@blogger.com (Eleanor) — Wed, 28 Sep 2011 11:03:00 +0000

T+743

Jeremy went to hospital today for his 2 Year Post Transplant Clinic. There are two major follow-up clinics for transplant survivors at 2 years and 5 years post transplant. We are thankful to report that his eyes, teeth, heart, lungs and blood results are all good! We were also thankful that there was no traffic on the way to hospital this morning (hooray for school holidays!), and that the eye clinic took the initiative to rearrange his afternoon appointment to earlier in the day so that we finished much quicker than expected.

Another good piece of news is that his next checkup with the bone marrow transplant doctor will be in 6 months' time!

15 September 2011

noreply@blogger.com (Eleanor) — Thu, 15 Sep 2011 11:26:00 +0000

T+730 or 2 years post-transplant!

We are so thankful to God for healing our beautiful boy!

25 August 2011

noreply@blogger.com (Eleanor) — Thu, 25 Aug 2011 09:55:00 +0000

T+709

Praise God for the wonderful news that Jeremy's bone marrow aspirate results are MRD Negative! Thank you for praying for him!

This means that last Wednesday was his final bone marrow aspirate! He will still have regular blood tests (6 monthly or so) as well as other health checkups, but no more bone marrow aspirates!

17 August 2011

noreply@blogger.com (Eleanor) — Wed, 17 Aug 2011 10:02:00 +0000

T+701

We are thankful that Jeremy's bone marrow aspirate today was uneventful, and that the bone marrow transplant doctor had arranged for his 2-year bloods to be taken under general anaesthetic. We will hopefully know the results of both his aspirate and his bloods by the end of next week.

His next appointment at hospital clinic will be for his 2-year checkup of his heart, lungs, eyes, teeth and bones, and this will be at the end of September.

15 August 2011

noreply@blogger.com (Eleanor) — Mon, 15 Aug 2011 10:54:00 +0000

T+699 or 23 months!

Praise God that Jeremy is 23 months post-transplant today!

He is looking forward to his bone marrow aspirate on Wednesday 17 August 2011 - partly because he wants to have a "middle of the night party" on Tuesday before he begins his fasting, and also because he has ordered a special meal to eat when he wakes up from his general anaesthetic on Wednesday!

Please pray that the results of this bone marrow aspirate will be MRD Negative.

25 July 2011

noreply@blogger.com (Eleanor) — Mon, 25 Jul 2011 06:43:00 +0000

T+678

This morning before school, Jeremy had an appointment at Australian Hearing Services. He had another audiogram, which thankfully showed no further hearing loss.

He also did some different tests - listening the recording of a man reading a sentence and then telling us what the man said. These tests were carried out both with and without his hearing aids, and then again with background noise. In all cases, Jeremy was able to understand what the man was saying.

17 July 2011

noreply@blogger.com (Eleanor) — Sun, 17 Jul 2011 06:31:00 +0000

T+670

After church, we went to the Redkite Swans Family Day at the Sydney Football Stadium. This year, Stephanie and Jeremy had worked hard on their banner and were proud to win first prize in the banner competition! Unfortunately, the Sydney Swans didn't do as well in their match against the Freemantle Dockers!

Stephanie and Jeremy were happy to be part of a guard of honour as the Sydney Swans ran onto the Sydney Cricket Ground. We were pleased to see other Camperdown Ward survivors looking so well and to chat with their parents again.

Only a month to go before Jeremy has (hopefully) his last bone marrow aspirate on 17 August 2011.

15 July 2011

noreply@blogger.com (Eleanor) — Fri, 15 Jul 2011 09:34:00 +0000

T+668 or 22 months!

We are thankful that Jeremy is now 22 months post-transplant and that we could enjoy a holiday in Melbourne. Stephanie and Jeremy saw snow for the first time!

Actually, the "snow/crushed ice" playground was at Harbour Town shopping centre in Docklands - complete with 2 bubble machines on a level above spraying out foam as if it were "snowing".

They also had a wonderful day playing at Scienceworks, and of course loved to swim in the serviced apartment lap pool!

20 May 2011

noreply@blogger.com (Eleanor) — Fri, 20 May 2011 04:10:00 +0000

T+612

Thank God that the results of Jeremy's last bone marrow aspirate were MRD Negative!!!

His next bone marrow aspirate will be on 17 August 2011.

The immunologist is pleased with Jeremy's peanut progress, and told us that he no longer has to have a daily dose of peanuts. As long as he eats about 4 to 8 peanuts a week, his immune system should be fine.

15 May 2011

noreply@blogger.com (Eleanor) — Sun, 15 May 2011 04:52:00 +0000

T+607

Hooray! Jeremy is 20 months today!

We are thankful that this weekend we were able to share in his excitement of attending 2 of his school friends' birthday parties (1 on Saturday afternoon, and 1 today after church), and to see him come home so pleased with all the enjoyable things that he did and the delicious food that he ate. It makes us especially glad when he is so happy!

11 May 2011

noreply@blogger.com (Eleanor) — Wed, 11 May 2011 09:48:00 +0000

T+603

A while ago, Jeremy had asked BaBa to take him to his next bone marrow aspirate, and was very pleased when BaBa arranged to take the day off work to drive him to hospital today. Although he was again last on the general anaesthetic list (because of his ESBL), Jeremy didn't complain and played iPad, cooking toys and Lego while he was waiting. Thankfully, his turn came at 11.30am - nearly an hour earlier than the previous time.

Jeremy wanted BaBa to hold the "happy gas" mask while he drifted off into his "special medical sleep". This time there were no problems when he woke up, and he made the nurses envious with his delicious smelling breakfast/morning tea/lunch of chicken burger and hot chips from the hospital cafe.

We will hopefully know the results of his bone marrow aspirate sometime next week, and his next bone marrow aspirate has been scheduled for Wednesday 17 August 2011.

In relation to his daily peanut dose, Jeremy has surprised us by suddenly declaring that he will eat 3 Peanut M&Ms every morning - and then proceeding to do so, chocolate and all!

4 May 2011

noreply@blogger.com (Eleanor) — Wed, 04 May 2011 02:50:00 +0000

T+596

The immunologist has increased Jeremy's peanut dose from 1 to 2 peanuts per day. She wants to keep him on 2 peanuts per day for about 6 months, and then do another skin prick test. And Jeremy is happy to eat roasted peanuts instead of Peanut M&Ms - he calls his peanuts "my medicine"!

Next Wednesday he will have another bone marrow aspirate - please pray that the results will be MRD Negative.

20 April 2011

noreply@blogger.com (Eleanor) — Wed, 20 Apr 2011 09:16:00 +0000

T+582

The immunologist told us today that we can increase Jeremy's peanut dose from 1/2 peanut to 1 peanut per day. As Jeremy does not like the chocolate part of the Peanut M&Ms (he refuses to eat his daily dose until the chocolate has been removed!), we will buy him some roasted peanuts instead.

It's a bit ironic - the first Easter when he can actually eat chocolate eggs/rabbits/whatever, and he doesn't want to!