Well, my mom is REALLY tired. But we're hanging in there. This morning Uncle Cameron and Daddy brought me some new airplanes, jets and cars, so I'm pretty happy. I'm still making progress... trying to talk more and more. My lips don't quite come together yet, but we're getting there. I practiced speech therapy with mommy this morning and tried to quit after a minute, but a sucker enticed me back into practice. I did pretty well.

Today my parents encouraged the docs to let me go home soon. They all sounded pretty confident that I would be going home by Wednesday which could actually mean Thursday around here. Still, that is really exciting. I'll still have my feeding tube and possibly a suction tool, but I've been pretty healthy for several days so we should be in good shape. Wednesday is also the first day I go in for radiation. They don't actually start but set the machine up for me and "map it out."

My newest roommate had a horrible cough so Dad an Mom got really upset and the doctors decided to send that patient upstairs to the infections floor. I sure hope I don't get sick, I've had enough bumps in the road.

Looking forward to starting treatment, wish me luck!

So all the big docs in town think I'm doing quite well. They're finally starting to see what my parents see all day long. :) :) Anywho, they might send me home this coming week and I'll get to come in Monday through Friday and do my radiation and rehab therapies out-patient style! I can't tell you how happy I am to hear that. I'll get to go home and see my best bud, Ladybug, and of course my sister, Brynn.

The radiation doc should be "mapping" my radiation treatment Wednesday, then I'll start treatment shortly thereafter. The plan is to have six weeks of radiation along with one chemotherapy medication. Again, this is only Mon-Fri and I don't have to stay overnight at the hospital. After that, I'll have four weeks off then I'll start my chemo cycles. This part is 48 weeks long, barring no complications or setbacks. There are two cycles, A & B. A requires a one-night hospital admission three times a month and B cycle requires a two-night hospital stay three times a month. The A & B cycles sort of rotate, though there are more A cycles than B. Not too bad, I think I can deal with it.

They're going to test my hearing frequently to be sure both the radiation and chemo are not damaging it too much. It may be affected somewhat from my treatment.

By the way, for those of you who know that my dad had cancer, this is in no way related to his cancer. Surprisingly, I did not inherit this from him. We just both happen to have a stroke of bad luck! That's okay, I'm tough like my daddy and I'll beat it too.

Last night I spoke a couple words to my Daddy. I said "I want" and tried to make out the word "Mommy". I am making progress every day... moving my arms and legs more and more. Now if I could just get this swallowing thing down...

Ethan is our beautiful five year-old boy.