MRI and Oncologist appointment coming up

Ashers MRI is on Tuesday. Yes, i'm starting to get really nervous. I'm sure my daughter is too. It's nerve wrecking to say the least. I'm guessing that they will do a full scan since this one will determine if they can move his regular scanning to every six months.

He always has an appointment at the brain tumor clinic close to his MRI, this time it will be on March 5th. We will see everyone from neurologist, oncologist etc. It usually lasts about 3 hours. I've always looked forward to these visits, getting the reassurance that everything is fine, we will have to get used to doing this every 6 months now. That's a good thing, it's also bitter sweet. The longer in between MRIs the longer in between us hearing "All Clear". I'm praying for good results.

Everytime I look at Asher I remember how lucky he's been. A tumor that is unusual for a child to have, a very aggressive fast growing tumor unusual to be found in the brain,  but here he is, alive and smiling from ear to ear (unless you tell him No). I've learned more from this little boy in the past three years than I did from anyone in my life. I learned that I can not always be in control of life, I learned to sit back and have faith in doctors, I learned who my real friends are and those who aren't. I learned that there are people out there that care, sometimes complete strangers. I learned that tomorrow isn't guaranteed and to take full advantage of today, I also learned to stand up and follow my gut and to speak out.

Asher still has a long road ahead of him..the after effects do not slow him down though. Even though he can not use his right hand he tries even harder to do the things that should be normal for kids his age like climbing. Watching him struggle to get on the couch is heart breaking, but seeing him glow with pride once he's made it up there by himself melts my heart. For him these struggles are normal, for us they seem so hard. He's a fighter and my hero. He's changed our lives, for the better.

And here are the latest pictures..

Watching Nick Jr

Waiting for g'ma to put his shoes on

wearing g'pas hat

Racing with his cousin

Love you lil Asherman, so proud to be your grandma.

Grandma being mean...

Sorry for not updating sooner...another busy busy week. Asher went back to school last monday after getting over his Fifth Disease. His next MRI is scheduled for February 28th and i'm sure it will be followed by a brain tumor clinic appointment shortly after. I will keep you all updated as soon as i know that date.

Asher came on Saturday this weekend. My daughter had some plans so we switched days around. After a really busy week at work I was hoping Asher would be in a good mood and he was. I honestly have to say this was one of the best weekends we've had in a long time. Just overall. He slept thru the night, he was in a great mood, he was funny and smiled the whole time he was here except a couple of times, once cause we made him go inside and another time when him and I had a standoff about putting on a jacket. I won after many tears and stomping feet..I was not gonna let him go out without the jacket on. Period.

He's starting to pick up words and repeating words. We noticed a lot of times he will not finish words..for example if i tell him to say please his version will be pleaaaa. That's ok..we'll work on that. Friday evening he managed to sneak into our bedroom and found $8 laying on my nightstand. Within a few seconds he snatched them up and stuffed them in his pocket. After wrestling around and playing with him for a while I ended up sneaking $6 back into my pocket. He was left with two $1 bills. These two bills kept him occupied for almost the entire time he was here. Everytime we said..that's my money he would reply : "MY MONEY", needless to say he went home with $2 in his pocket lol.

 We had so much fun this weekend it's hard to put it all into one post..so i will let the pictures speak for themselves..

Asher and his hat

His new hair do

Asher and my his money

Wearing his hat..kinda

Hanging out under the coffee table

Playing outside

This part was totally fun to watch...my husband running and pulling Asher along. Asher LOVED it, screaming all the way lol

And this was even more fun...everytime I told him no he would run to my husband, point his little finger at me and say "Being mean"

Here is grandma being mean, according to Asher

Sigh..i'm the mean one i guess, i'm ok with that because he's just too cute tattling on me lol

Asher is not feeling too well..

Asher came over last friday and we could tell right away that he just wasn't himself. Constantly coughing, runny nose and just looking at him you knew he wasn't feeling too great.

When my husband went outside Asher was crying and i picked him up, he laid his head on my shoulder and just snuggled up with me. HUGE sign that he definitely was sick, he never snuggles with me. He's just not a snuggler. I patted his back and five minutes later he was out. We changed him into his pajamas and again he fell asleep. At 7:45pm.

I listened to him cough off and on till i went to bed. I was prepared for a long night ahead...and I was wrong. He slept till 6 am.

Saturday he was just pretty whiney. We wouldn't let him play outside, it was cold. I brought his trike in the house for him to ride and that made him happy, for about 10 minutes. His cheeks were bright red and he felt warm so I didn't think much of it, I figured he was running a little fever and of course gave him medicine for that.

On tuesday my daughter took him to the doctor and was told it's probably just a viral thing. Pretty well has to run its course. Today the school where he gets his physical and speech therapy called my daughter and said he was broke out in a rash and for her to come to take a look at him. When she got there they said that they thought he might have Fifth disease and suggested for her to take him to the doctor. She called me and asked me what i thought about the rash and I asked her if he was wearing any new clothes (Asher always seems to break out in a little rash if we don't wash his new clothes before he wears them, his skin is just really sensitive). She told me that he wore a new shirt the day before and I told her that might be causing the rash and I had never heard of Fifth disease so wasn't sure what the signs were...again i was wrong. The doctor thinks that the teacher was right and that it sure looks like its Fifth disease. The signs are there...it starts with cold like symptoms, cheeks that look like they've been slapped, followed by a rash. It is contagious in the early stages but usually not anymore once the rash appears. Sometimes arthritis like pain can also be part of the illness.

He won't be able to go to daycare or school for a few days, just in case he's still in the contagious stage. It's a childhood disease so there really isn't a chance of any of us getting it but keeping him away from other kids at this point is best.

No wonder he wasn't feeling too well...and I'll have to check on my "grandma knows best" status cause i'm sure slacking in that department lately.

Hope you feel better soon Asher, grandma hates seeing you miserable.

Can you say Nightowl?

First of all before I forget..Ashers next MRI is on February 28th!

I didn't post an update this weekend because frankly i was tired...way tired. I sure don't want to blame anyone for my tiredness, so i won't. *Cough* Asher.

That little booger decided he was done sleeping Saturday morning at 1 am. You read that right. ONE AM.  I went to bed about 11:30 and fell asleep around midnight. After an hour I heard him on the baby monitor making noise..not crying just noise..so i ignored him. I listened to him for 30 minutes when he started going into full blown crying mode. I got up...tried to convince him that it's still sleepy time but he had other plans in mind. Unfortunately for me. Once we were making our way to the living room he must have realized that one person was missing...my husband. So Asher decided he would just march into our bedroom and wake his buddy up and when i told him NO he figured if he can't go in that person sleeping will just have to wake up and come out...so he stood in front of the bedroom door throwing a major fit. Didn't work lol.

I finally got him back to bed around 3:30..honestly he had no choice, I was tired, I wanted my bed and I think he realized this g'ma was getting pretty grumpy so he might as well go back to sleep too..till 6 AM. SIX AM! Sigh. My hubby got up with him and i got up at 8. Still grumpy and tired but that's ok..I LOVE having him here..still. I love each and every minute he is with us as tiring as it can be sometimes. Trust me the fun times we have with him make up for it ten times over.

We were blessed with beautiful weather on Saturday. Unreal for January but we'll take it, specially since Asher LOVES to be outside.
Of course I have pictures to show you....

Attacking g'pa with leaves

Getting showered with dirt leaves

Riding the trike

Loving the weather

Acting all innocent

And that was our weekend...

Well..

I really don't have much to report today. Asher is doing great. My daughter got his first report from school and nothing unusual there. They stated that he needs max assistance with his left hand, I think they must have gotten the side wrong because it's his right hand/arm that was effected by the tumor.  He loves circle time and sometimes it's hard for the teachers to get him to do things specially if he doesn't want to. No surprise there either lol.

No news is good news i guess. We are probably looking at another MRI next month. My daughter hasn't gotten a date yet but if this scan is clear we are moving to scans every 6 months. We are very excited about it. I'm a little nervous since that will also mean we don't get the reassurance that he's ok as often but I do understand it's for the best. MRIs, CT scans all those add to cancer risk and of course we want to keep his risk as low as possible.

Asher just simply amazes me. After everything he's been thru he just keeps on smiling and adjusting to his limitations. Every time he's here he's a reminder to me how precious life is and to just enjoy the moment. Seeing him smile and laugh out loud makes me just want to scoop him up and kiss him all over, if he would let me.

We were blessed with beautiful weather again this weekend and of course we spent most of the time he was here outside, we just can't keep him inside even if we wanted to.
Here are the weekly pics:

Yep he got me wrapped around his finger, can you blame me?

Happy New Year!!

Lamar advertising was doing free New Year shoutouts and this was mine : )

We finished off the year with having Asher with us. Couldn't ask for much more than that. We had beautiful weather, almost seemed like spring instead of winter. Luckily for us that also meant we were able to play outside a whole LOT while he was here. He loves being outside.

This weekend he also slept from Friday night (9pm) till Saturday morning (7am) without waking us up in the middle of the night. I hope this trend will continue. We still have not figured out why he keeps waking up here, we have closed vents, thinking maybe his room was getting too hot, to giving him warm baths before bedtime...to keeping a light on to turning lights off. You name it we've tried it.

We are very thankful for this past year, continued clear MRI scans and huge steps in developmental progress, we are also hoping and praying that this will continue in 2012. His next MRI scan will probably be in February, if it's clear Asher will move to scans every 6 months.

Silly boy

Outside and loving it

He loved this...I was running thru the leaves pulling him on his tractor.

And i finally managed to upload part of the christmas video.

Enjoy : )

Christmas 2011

Sorry for not updating last week. It's been pretty busy around here trying to get ready for Christmas and being short handed at work left me exhausted most days.

We've had a wonderful Christmas. Asher is getting to the age where he enjoys opening presents and it's so much fun to watch his excitement.

Both my husbands kids and my kids were here Christmas eve plus both grandkids. We always open up presents on Christmas eve so that all the kids can spend Christmas day with the other part of their families. If I remember right this was probably the first time that we were all together, usually there is always one missing. Not this year. And it was great.

Asher and his cousin were so excited about the presents I put them to work to help hand them out. They did such a great job. I have a video of them doing it and hope to post it soon, being on satellite I have no idea how long it will take to upload an HD video. I've tried it once before and it takes FOREVER. So i'm not making any promises, just trust me when I say it was pretty darn cute : )

Here are a few pictures..

Opening presents

See the excitement? oh yeah Asher liked it too lol

Asher finally went to bed around 10pm and he wasn't happy about it. He had been going non stop all evening and was just not ready to end the day yet, thankfully he fell asleep after a while. I woke up about 7 or 7:15 to some loud banging and racket in the kitchen. Appearently he found his new trike when he woke up this morning and even though his mommy tried to keep him on the carpet with it he thought it was more fun to hear it banging on our tile in the kitchen. 

Loving his new trike

I hope all of you had a very MERRY CHRISTMAS!

Please remember all the children and their parents who are unable to spend Christmas at home but instead spend it in hospitals around the country.