Results!

Alex had his MRI in March which was the usual day in hospital, followed by several days of biting our nails, followed by enormous amounts of relief when we got good news in the results. There are 3 tumor sites still under observation, and of those sites one stayed the same and the other two shrunk. Since the first MRI after radiation finished was used to create baseline, this MRI was a little more stressful, since it would be the first indicator of whether the treatment might have worked. There were more than a few happy tears when we were told the results, but unfortunately we can’t relax to much. The radiation caused a lot of swelling so the shrinking that was observed on the scans is most probably due to the effects of the radiation wearing off. However these results are pretty much the best possible result we could have hoped for, so we now go back to a 3 month wait where we try and keep life as normal as we can until the next MRI rolls around.

The grommets Alex had put in back in February seemed to be doing their job until we noticed a fairly large amount of discharge coming from his left ear, since it had a bit of a funny smell to it, back to the hospital we went! Ear drops were prescribed and swabs done, and a fungal infection was diagnosed. While Alex wasn’t what you might call a fan of the drops, he was, as always, super brave about it all. We went back to ENT 2 weeks later only to find that, while his right ear was ok, the left was not, so poor Alex had to have another 2 weeks of drops. 2 weeks further on and the ENT doctor gave us the ok to stop the drops, but said that Alex’s right side grommet was blocked. The solution to remove the blockage is Sodium Bicarbonate drops, and if works anything like what happens when you add vinegar to bi-carb, we will be sure to video it and put it on youtube. Hopefully this is the end of Alex’s ear woes, but with grommets you never know 🙂

We did have some fun on Tuesday, Alex was invited to attend a Mad Hatter’s Tea Party photo shoot for the Cancer Council, and since it’s currently school holidays we were able to go. The pictures were taken in the park just outside the Adelaide botanic gardens, under one of the big trees, Cancer council had set up a beautiful table and chairs complete with cupcakes and flowers, which we got to eat after the shoot – the cupcakes not the flowers.

Alex and two other children dressed up as Alice, The Mad Hatter and the White Rabbit (yes I know it should have been the March Hare, but he looked gorgeous anyway). Alex got to be the white rabbit, complete with waistcoat bunny ears and pocket watch. The photographer was really great and I’m pretty sure he got some photos of all of the kids smiling at the same time 🙂

I managed to snap a few pictures in between trying to get Alex to smile and trying to keep Jenny out of the shot, and while I’m certain they aren’t up to the photographer’s standard, they are free from newscorp’s copyright so I can post them here 😀

The photos and the stories of the amazing kids who were in the photo will be in the Advertiser some time soon to promote the Biggest Morning Tea fundraiser, so keep an eye out!

I know this is a fairly short blog post compared with some of the others we have shared, but as they say, no news is good news at least for now:)

Thanks as always to you all, it’s really nice to share some good news with you!