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Back from a Wonderful Trip
By Margot | February 5, 2009
Sam giving me the hang loose sign as he surfs into shore.
We are back and in day two of chemo. Hawaii, aside from an unplanned really sucky 38 hours in the Maui Memorial Hospital, was wonderful.  We had a blast and really relaxed. We weren’t ready to come home at all.  We went on  a snorkeling trip on a catamaran, saw turtles, whales, stingrays, went to a Luau, the boys took surfing lessons, spent lots of time in the pool on the slide and at the beach. We went golfing, saw the volcano, went to touristy restaurants, Bubba Gump Shrimp Company and Cheeseburgers in Paradise and generally enjoyed the whole scene. The volcano was great and the boys really liked seeing it though it was pretty cold.  Sam’s ready to buy a surfboard now. The surfing lessons were a big hit. Both boys loved it. Charlie road out with Dad on Sam’s board and liked it until he got terrified.  He made great strides in swimming and hung out at the Pirate Ship pool a lot. He also went down the big slide all by himself and Neil or I caught him at the bottom. He loved it. We got there in the middle of the night Sunday night, had a wonderful day on Monday swimming and beaching it at the hotel Monday night at about 2am, Sam spiked a fever and we wound up 45 minutes away in Maui memorial hospital calling Dr. Sholler and Dr. Willert for help. They talked the pediatrician there through the antibiotics and GCSF shots. Sam’s white count was only three hundred and it bought us a night there.  It was the only day it rained so a good day to be in the hospital but I would be lying if I said we were all looking at the bright side at the time.   We were really scared we had totally miscalculated and might be on the way down and would be spending the entire trip in the hospital.  Luckily, Wednesday dawned and Sam’s counts were 700.  The boys amused themselves with a new game they invented. They found a red sharpie and made “bloody hand surgical gloves” which then after we blew them up morphed into “bloody hand volleyball.” Nice huh? Sam had a reaction to the antibiotic and got painful red splotches all over his body. They stayed with him for the next few days and it was painful for him to walk for a while. He was okay swimming and on the beach though. He rallied like a champ and really had a good time. We went to the Maui aquarium on the way back to the hotel which had a diver in the big aquarium diving with rays and sharks. As you can see in the picture,  Sam lost his hair while there and on our way back from seeing the volcano, we had a head shaving party at a Supercuts we passed, Neil, Sam and Andy, though Andy’s hair is just really really short (about as short as it can get without actually shaving it).  He wanted to shave his head too but we thought we’d better go in steps for him.   He had a great birthday with snorkeling and a luau and is having a party tomorrow night as well.  The Westin hotel was great and we had an ocean view with a suite that they’d upgraded for us and the person who booked our room had it decorated for the boys with all sorts of sports stuff and fun stuff for them to do and she gave us complimentary spa treatments which I put to good use on the last couple of days there. We had a lot of beautiful sunsets and it was whale migrating season. We saw them jumping out of the water right from our hotel and we were up even closer on the boat we took snorkeling. All in all it was a magical trip and we are so glad we went though reality is hard to come back to.
We came in on the redeye Sunday night and got in at about 8:30 Monday morning.  We were pretty much worthless on Monday but yesterday we started chemo and today we got the radiation sim. done.  Sam is having four of the new spots radiated starting on February 11th. His VMA/HVA are going down. Numbers from the past few weeks:
              VMA     HVA
Jan 12Â Â Â Â Â 53.3Â Â Â Â Â Â 51.9
Jan 20Â Â Â Â Â Â 47.2Â Â Â Â Â Â 39.4
Jan 26Â Â Â Â Â Â 39.9Â Â Â Â Â 34.4
So, he is having a response. Hoping we’ll keep going in the right direction. Sam started chemo with a white count of only 1700 which is a bit scary to be so low on day one. Also red blood was only 9.0 so I see some transfusions in our future.  Otherwise though, he is tolerating the chemo well with not much nausea.  We got our HAMA kit from Memorial Sloan Kettering today and we are trying to figure out when and what on that front.       Â
Thanks for checking in. I’ll update more soon.
Margot
Topics: Progress Reports | 9 Comments »
February 5th, 2009 at 4:38 am
I was sooo excited to read about your wonderful trip!! I was jealous when you left and I’m even more jealous now. Sam looks like he was born on a surf board. I’ll be thinking of you over the next week as you get back to reality. As always you are all in my prayers. Shelby says hi to Sam and loved the pictures of the boys buried in the sand. She thinks thats how all boys should be haha.
With Hope,
Abra
February 5th, 2009 at 6:32 am
wow! Apicture really does say a thousand words! I am so very very happy youall had such a good time! Sam looks so healthy and happy, even bald! I guess he got a lot of color! Why don’t you make Hawaii a perennial? So glad Sam is responding to the chemo cocktail; and I hope he is through after this week! Charlie and Andy are adorable as usual!; and I hope Andy will get a bacugon or whatever from me! Also, hope you have entered the Ronald Mac Donald’s raffle for a house! If not; I’ll buy the ticket!! Wish you, Margot, could have a spa treatment once a week and Neil a massage! Much Love “Mom” Grandma Sara
February 5th, 2009 at 1:54 pm
Redman, Margs and the boys..of the entire post the most encouraging thing was the vma trend…think good things…book another trip two years from now. Missing you .T
February 5th, 2009 at 2:50 pm
Wow. I can’t even swim, yet alone surf! Sam looks like a pro on that board! Glad you guys a great time:)
February 5th, 2009 at 7:38 pm
so glad to hear you guys had such an awesome time. and glad that sam pulled through the hospital visit quickly. i’ll be thinking about you guys and check the blog daily.
i have photos for you and will be dropping off to one of the boy’s teachers.
xo,
deb
February 5th, 2009 at 8:03 pm
I’m so glad you finally got to go to HI & that you had such a great time!! (& that Margot got to do the spa!!) Love the pics-especially the one buried in the sand……..
February 5th, 2009 at 8:53 pm
Welcome Back and Aloha! Sorry to see all that beautiful red hair gone, but Erin’s is starting to come back in, so she’ll pick up the mantle of the reds for a while.
Everybody looks great and it sounds like you did everything up in style. Good luck with the next round.
VB
February 7th, 2009 at 4:15 am
What an awesome trip ! Very much deserved and needed!!!
Book one for next year !
The boys look adorable and happy !
Hope the treatments went well and he can play more basketball this weekend !
We had an exciting week celebrating our football team !
Black and Gold everywhere !
Happy Friday,
xo, colleen
February 9th, 2009 at 5:02 pm
margot,
i’ve been a lurker/reader for almost two years now, but your recent photos finally got me to give it up. that red hair was my first point of contact… i don’t think i’ve “known” sam without it. well, he’s just as delicious without.
i’m inspired by how sam lives: the surfing shot should grace a magazine cover. kudos to him and all of you for grabbing life with passion.
your trio of boys always brings a smile to my lips.
mooki
toby pannone’s mom