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“I Just Look That Wave in the Eye and Say ‘Hey Bud, Let’s party.” – Jeff Spicoli
By Margot | August 10, 2009
- Sam, Andy and Joe Surfer Dudes
- All three standing up
- Charlie’s version
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Sam received a surf lesson for two from Joe for his birthday.  We added Andy and he and Joe and Andy took the lesson on Friday and they had the best time. With 15 minutes to go in the hour and a half lesson I was warming up a shivering blue Sam and he said, ” How many more hours do I have?” They all three got up several times and rode all the way in. The picture where Andy’s is falling down doesn’t do him justice because in his own words, “Dude I rocked about a million waves.”  Joe got into the car after they all got their wet suits on and we were on our way to the beach and said, “Ok guys, we all have to say ‘Dude’ a lot because we are surfer guys.”  It was funny.   After the lesson all of the boys said, “Can we do this again next week?”
Sam and Neil are on their way to Philadelphia for scans and bone marrow biopsy on Wednesday.  They moved back the date of the actual Ultratrace infusion by a couple of days but otherwise everything is on track. We are nervous waiting this long for the treatment but so far things seem under control.  Sam’s LDH was 551 on Thursday. His VMA went up last week and HVA went down. 31 and 29. Added together they are the same as the week before but the numbers switched themselves around.  We spent last weekend in the hospital -Neil’s birthday pic above and our anniversary.   We toasted our anniversary in the hospital and Neil wrote his very beautiful post - that just floored me- after I went home from the hospital.    Sam and Andy had each picked Neil out a present from Sports Chalet for his birthday. Charlie picked out the soccer cake in the picture above. Andy picked out weights -after he picked a whole exercise system that I said was out of our price range- and Sam picked out lacrosse sticks that we put to good use in the hospital halls in a lacrosse/handball game Sam and Andy made up. We all gave him a new tennis racket.   We were out by Monday. Joe and Mimi and Maureen came to visit and he was in good spirits.Â
We went up top to Children’s LA on Tuesday to sign all of the consents for the Ultratrace trial.  Sam had to sign his own consent this time around. He was joking around with me when I explained it to him the night before and he said, “I’m going to sign a big “No Way.”   He signed his name though and I think he’s most worried that he’ll have to stay by himself. Dr. Villablanca was really good about explaining things to him. In the car he said, “Why can’t we do chemo?”    He did tennis and basketball this week and we swam and swam and swam. Friday he developed a rash that started bothering his feet. He played in his basketball game on Saturday and played the whole game but was pretty worn out and his feet were hurting him. His team lost but they haven’t won a game yet. Joe said it was good he missed last week’s game against Joe’s team because “he missed the horror.”   His feet are still bothering him today but it seems to be getting better. Â
Andy is good. Currently has ketchup and frozen yogurt all over his Lakers jersey from dinner.   His reading teacher said he is reading really well. He was great again in his basketball game Friday night and is looking forward to soccer.
Yesterday was Charlie’s birthday party. We had a pool party and about ten kids. Charlie’s two best three year old buddies Jett and Trevor came and he was very happy. In the middle of opening his presents he said, “This is the best birthday I ever had.”   He was so cute.  His actual birthday is Tuesday.   He was doing air guitar tonight at the frozen yogurt place and cracking us all up.
I’ll post again on his actual birthday.
Margot
Topics: Progress Reports | 6 Comments »
August 10th, 2009 at 5:14 am
Hey Margot,
I love the title of your post!!! I vote for that to be the Hutchinson family mantra. From my perspective it seems like its how you all live your life’s. I will be praying extra hard for all of you in the coming weeks.
With Hope
Abra
August 10th, 2009 at 1:40 pm
Margot,
You must have very athletic kids, I can’t get my head around them all having surfing lessons, along with basketball, soccer, hallway lacross/handball, et cetera, et cetera.
I hope all goes well in PA!
VB
August 10th, 2009 at 2:48 pm
Keeping your beautiful family in my thoughts and prayers for a good trip to PA.
August 10th, 2009 at 5:40 pm
What cool dudes! That photo with the 3 of them and their surfboards is absolutely priceless. What a great send-off for PA. Sam is going to ride those waves, too. Thinking of you. Jan
August 11th, 2009 at 1:51 am
Great post- as always I am always amazed by your little family. Good wishes to all- Angela (Madison’s Mom)
August 12th, 2009 at 3:01 am
Each Wednesday at Being Cancer.net we feature a Guest Blog. This week we are highlighting neuroblastoma with two guest posts. The first is by Connie Powell, mother of Miss Madelyn, who recounts what the experience of diagnosis was for her and her family. In the second a twenty-four year old NB survivor, Erik Ludwinski, reflects on how cancer has affected his young life. I know that neuroblastoma has a strong blogging family. So thought you might be interested in visiting. Also please visit the “Neuroblastoma†section of our blogroll, Cancer Blog Links, to see if your site is listed. http://www.beingcancer.net
Take care, Dennis