Joey turned 6 on Oct 20. It really felt like another milestone for him. He's come so far from where he was when he turned 5. He was in so much pain and still really battling the cancer on his 5th birthday. This year, he was able to have a ton of fun bowling with his family and friends. Even though times are still not as easy as we'd like them to be, he's doing so well.
Here he was on his 5th birthday:
On Oct 15th, was the Light the Night Walk, where Joey was the honored hero. We had a team of about 90 people and we raised almost $9,500 for the Leukemia & Lymphoma Society. Our goal was $5,000, so I was very impressed with what we did. We even won the award for the most raised by a friends and family team. The weather was great and the entire night went smoothly.
Katherine's 9th birthday was Oct 16. We had her party on the 15th at Color Me Mine where all the kids picked a ceramic to paint.
The day after Joey's port surgery, he wanted to go to the Camp Quality Reunion at the pumpkin patch. We spent most of our time in the corn maze.
Joey had his port put in today. It's a pretty minor surgery, but it still involves general anesthesia. It was scheduled for 3:30 but the surgeon was ahead of schedule so they asked us to come in early. We got to the hospital at about noon. He spent some time in the prep room and went into the OR around 1:30. It took about an hour and he then went into recovery. At about 3:30, we got to see him. We was awake but in a lot of pain. They gave him a 3rd pain medication but he aspirated some of it and choked for a while. I felt bad for him b/c he was already in pain and then choking and coughing on top of that. After about 30 min, the medicine finally kicked in, he was more comfortable, and asked to go home. We left for home about 5:00.
He's been doing ok while at home. He was hungry, so we got him what he requested: Sonic. After just a few bites, his tummy got upset so he didn't eat much. A little while after that, he was crying from the tummy ache. We got him some Sprite and Benadryl, and he eventually felt better. He's still sore but I gave him more pain medication right before bed and I'll get up and give him more at 3:30am.
Joey and I were on live TV yesterday to talk about the Light the Night Walk (an LLS fundraiser). It's really fun having Joey as the Honored Hero for the walk. We have a large team and a high goal, but we're falling short of our goal. If you feel led to make a donation and help us reach our goal, please use this link to do so. Thank you!
http://pages.lightthenight.org/ks/WichitKS11/ABacon
Joey will be going into surgery again on Friday to have a port placed in his chest. Please pray that he'll have a fast recovery with very little pain.
