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Making Watermelon Punch

By Margot | December 11, 2009

First of all, thanks for all of the kind comments and offers of help.  Just being home has given us all an enormous emotional boost.  I’ve made some headway on Christmas (and work) in the past couple of days and am feeling much better.   Sam was set free on Tuesday afternoon and we all went to Andrew’s Christmas pageant that night.  He sang beautifully – even the dreidel song ;-).  Wednesday, Sam went to school and his entire class roared when he came in.  It was the loudest “Sam!” with lots of hugs and high fives.  His class is just awesome.  He was so happy to be at school. We had Tanner over after school and went out to lunch (half day) and played with him all afternoon. Grandpa came in on Wednesday late afternoon and we went and got our Christmas tree and decorated with Grandpa, Uncle Matt and Rosco Wednesday night.  We put on Christmas music and the boys did a great job with the ornaments. They are very excited about Christmas.   Charlie had a great day at preschool on Thursday and though drop off was tough, he was happy and talkative when I picked him up. Last night was Sam’s Christmas pageant and he did so well for being out for over three weeks.  He came home from school and practiced Jingle Bells on his recorder all afternoon with Mimi as his music teacher.  It’s great that we have our own recorder expert next door.  She took him from zero to near perfect in one afternoon.  I marvelled at how hard he worked at it.  About an hour before we had to go his head started to hurt and he asked to take a bath.  I was afraid he wouldn’t make it but I gave him some Tylenol and then a half of a decadron (decadron has Tylenol in it so if you’ve already given Tylenol, the most you can give is half of a tablet).  Anyway, that seemed to do the trick and he said he wanted to go.  “After all that practice….”  He was happy to be there with all of his buddies and Colleen and I almost cried when all of the kids linked arms and sang Auld Lang Syne.  Sam jumped up onto the top row and told me later, he didn’t want to put his arms around the girls so he jumped up where his buddies were.  It made me laugh. 

This morning he went to two hours of school and then we went to the hospital and did a blood check and vinblastine infusion, and to check the trough for rapamyacine.  Grandpa came with us and Sam was back to being annoyed at having to miss school which is good.  He hasn’t had any pain at all today.  His LDH was 1700, platelets 93, hemoglobin 11.3 and white blood 1.4.    They ordered the wrong VMA/HVA test on Monday and only the HVA came back. It is 78.  Highest ever.  We did a repeat of the test today but that number sure drives a stake of fear through our hearts.

Please think good thoughts for a pain free Christmas.

Margot

Topics: Progress Reports | 5 Comments »

5 Responses to “Making Watermelon Punch”

  1. Colleen Kuhn Says:
    December 12th, 2009 at 2:46 am

    There’s nothing like school children in Christmas pageants…
    melts everyone’s hearts… esp. if one of them is Sam or Andy !!!!

    Glad everyone is back home and preparing for Christmas. So wonderful to have Matt and Grandpa with you all!

    I haven’t seen a list appear… 😉
    please give a shout if we can pick up something special for you , Neil and the boys !

    Here’s to painfree days for Sam,
    love, the Kuhn’s

  2. Angela Rowe Says:
    December 12th, 2009 at 2:50 am

    Sam did such a great job at the music play- loved how he was the only one waving his arms in the air at the right speed to the music (I think Elvis). I will keep praying- hang in there. Angela (Madison’s Mom)

  3. Lisa Bonebrake Says:
    December 12th, 2009 at 5:42 am

    Rock on, Hutchisons! Happy Hanukkah and Merry, Awesome Holiday Season with your family all at home. Lotsa love from the Bonebrakes.

  4. tom hutch Says:
    December 12th, 2009 at 2:57 pm

    Amazing how the kids react when someone who belongs goes missing for three weeks..

    Sometimes I think about Sam and his journey and like all of us wonder “why, Sam”. The only thing I can come up with is that it is for all of our benefit-to develop empathy and a self beyond our own. Triple that for his brothers and Redman and Margo.

    So, where is the list? Pretty simple thing-two columns..left column is name of boy and or parent and right column is suggested gift.

    Not kidding.

  5. Abra McKean Says:
    December 14th, 2009 at 6:24 am

    Margot,

    so happy to hear you were able to steal some small moments of “normal”….praying here as always.

    love
    Abra