Celebrity Visitors. (captions by Mitchell) Out of the hospital!

 I was really surprised that Mac came to see me...

 Thanks Chief for being awesome...

 My team is the best...

 My grandpa and me being goofy...

Going for a stroll in the garden...

HOME AT LAST...

Mitchell had a good day today. We enjoyed some visitors but most of all a nice quiet Sunday. He will have his last dose of chemo for round two at 5:30 am on Monday morning then he has to wait for 12 hrs. of hydration through IV before he can be discharged. With finger crossed he should come home tomorrow night. I know he is excited to get out of the hospital. Over all he is doing really good, he is laughing, going for walks, and giving his nurses a hard time.

Nickole and I have had allot of help these last five days and can't thank those people enough. Had it not been for them we would be using toothpicks to keep our eyes open. So, thank you Grandpa, Grandma, Aunt Anna, Jessika, and Corryna.

Mitchell had a great nap today!!! Almost four hours. He had a visit this morning from his whole hockey team. At this time I am not posting the photo, but if I get approval from all the moms and dads I'll throw it up here. Thank you for coming up, it was a great lift for him!!

Mitchell is doing very well. He has been in the hospital now since Thursday morning. He has had four injections of chemo today and a spinal tap this morning (Friday). He will have chemo every twelve hour for the next 72 hrs. so his earliest possible release from the hospital will be Monday evening. If anyone wants to visit this weekend his room number at Emanuel is 3525, and visiting hours are from 9am-9pm. Thank you for all of your thoughts.

On a side note, we are trying to figure out a spelling for a new word Nickole invented. She was trying to say the word accusations and I said hoity toity at the same time and she said accusatoity. So PLEASE, help us spell this new word. Websters Dictionary is sure to use it. But we will need a meaning for it too. :-)

 The image on the left is from January 12th. The bright area in the abdomen is the active cancer cells. The picture on the right is from January 24th. The reduction is clear!

Mitchell had a surprise guest tonight form the Portland Winter Hawks. Mac Carruth-Gaolie 31

They hung out and played a little Halo Reach. Thank you for the visit!!!

Mitchell is currently having chemo, and is scheduled for more tomorrow along with another spinal tap. He is doing great!

60%!!!!

Mitchell had a dose of chemo today. Not his funnest moment. The Benadryl knocked him out and the chemo gave him up and down fevers. His chemo today was Rituximab which was a six hour drip. He will start his day on Thursday with the same drug.

The doctors wanted at least a 20% reduction in size of the tumor and some of you already know, they didn't get their 20% they got 60%!!!!! Mitchell was so excited on Saturday... For a several weeks now his stool has been very dark to black. The oncologist believes he has had internal bleeding based off of his blood labs. He has now had three blood transfusions to bring his iron levels up. When he had his first labs at the beginning of all of this his hemoglobin was at 6.5, it is now 10.3. The doctors thought was the large tumor was irritating his GI tract which was causing the bleeding. So Saturday he came running down stairs excited that his poop was brown! Sorry about all the poop talk, but it matters.

Even with the large reduction he will continue the same course of treatment as originally drawn up by his oncologist team.

Mitchell had a great weekend! On Saturday he went to the Winter hawks game courtesy of the U.S. Navy. Thanks Chief! On Sunday we had brunch with Aunt Paula and Uncle Jorge who were down visiting their new grand babies. In the afternoon he went to his hockey game. No he doesn't play but he does wear his jersey and supports his team on the bench. His attitude is great and he has proven to be a worthy adversary at Madden Football. Speaking of football, is this the best Super Bowl ever or what!!!

Today (Monday) he had another CT scan and PET scan. Not much to report about his treatment at this time. I will have more news tomorrow as we are meeting with his oncologist.

 Mitchell getting a little juice in his picc line...Yumm!

 Mitchell with his big sister on her way to Hawaii.

 Mitchells big sister Jessy, she's far too happy. She clearly didn't sleep at the hospital.

 Corryna, What'cha watchen?

Who knows what Grandma told him???

Mitchell is home!!! We are all done with the hospital till Monday. On Monday he goes in for another PET scan, and on Tuesday he goes in for a clinic check up, he has Wednesday off, and on Thursday, well...Round Two! This second round of treatment will have five additional Chemo drug and more in the dosage.

The PET scan on Monday is  to compare with the first scan he had and to see how much the cancer has shrunk, remember they want a 20% decrease. Fingers crossed!

Mitchell road home with me tonight. He got a gift card from his cousin Andrew for Best Buy, yep...Xbox games. As we're leaving the store he says to me- I wish I could be a normal kid with a normal schedule. I told him- you are a normal kid, you just have a unique schedule. So we walked to Target and out came a deep sigh, "It feels so good to be out of that place, walking around in the fresh air." What do you say to that other than, "yes it does."

So as I said we're home and the effects of the Chemo is evolving, he is tired and run down. Tomorrow he gets to hang out with Grandma for the day, and on Friday Tara.

The Hardest Part

Tonight was the hardest part of this whole experience. Nickole and I had to leave Mitchell at the hospital. Fortunately my dad is staying the night with him so we can go to work tomorrow, and he also has Nurse Ron, Nurse Megan, Nurse Lindsey, and the amazing staff at Emanuel Hospital to take care of our son.

You never know when life will smack you in the back of the head and turn things upside down, so live and love every moment to the fullest you have with your friends and loved ones. The night before all this stuff started Nickole and I were headed to the store. I had just come home from work. I was outside talking with Nickole and Mitchell had come outside. He had his coat on and I was already walking to the van, We told him to go back into the house and that we would be right back. Mitchell said, "but I want to hang out with my dad..."

The next day when everything was unfolding and the doctor said, "Tumor." That was the first thing that flashed through my mind..."But I want to hang out with my dad..."

Cherish those small moments, the store will be there tomorrow...

The day after.....

Mitchell's body reacted very well to the chemo treatment. He went all night without having any symptoms. All of his labs at this point have come back well. They are going to keep him on a saline drip throughout the night to make sure his kidneys continue to do their job. Tomorrow they will take him off the saline and we have to make sure his kidneys continue to work correctly. Some time during the day on Wednesday they will determine if he will stay the night again...
Today his spirits have been great, he has joked and laughed with his visitors, doctors, nurses and family. He has also played a game on his X-box and scared his nurses out of his room. He is even walking a around getting exercise. Tonight he will get some reading in and tomorrow he gets to start on his homework...

The Chemo is all done and we are settling down for the night. Mitch, mom, and I are sitting here watching Transformers. We had a long day of waiting around. He was supposed to have his spinal tap around 11AM but that didn't happen because he had breakfast and wasn't told he couldn't. So it was at 1PM when he had it, they also injected Chemo into his spinal fluid. After that procedure they started him on Elitek Rasburicase which had to be done 4hrs. prior to his Chemo, it helps to protect the kidneys. Then we had to wait for the PH balance in his urine to be right. At 9:30PM he had his first push of Chemo(Vincristine), then a 15min. drip of (Cyclophosphamide), and a handful of pills and mouthwash. He's got more drugs in him than Walgreen's. So now we are on pins and needle to see how sick he will get, if at all! I hope not!!

We are finally admitted to room #3518. Please visit tonight or whenever, he's bouncing off the walls. He will receive his first Chemo treatment at about 8PM all done by I.V.. His spinal tap went very well, allot of waiting around. We'll soon have pictures to post. :-)

Mitchell says~ Hi everyone, I am doing good. I am looking forward to my steak.

Mitchell goes into the hospital tomorrow. We all hope for the best as we begin the long process. We've had a nice weekend just hanging out with each other. I will post a room number tomorrow. Thanks to all...

So the results are in. Mitchell has Diffuse Large B cell Non-Hodgkin's Lymphoma. He is stage 3. He goes in Monday to start his first round of Chemo. His day on Monday will start with a spinal tap to see if the cancer has spread to his spinal fluid, and will receive an injection of Chemo in the spinal fluid to act as a prophylactic to prevent it from spreading. Then he goes to his room where he will begin his treatment of four other drugs (cyclophosphamide, vincristine, prednisone, and rasburicase). He should be in the hospital for about three day, then home, where he will continue the Prednisone till the eighth day, at that time he will go through more scans to see how much the lymph nodes have shrunk. The doctors want a 20% reduction after the first treatment! At that time he starts round 2. We won't get into that now, everything depends on the first treatment.

I will text everyone his room # and post it here. Visiting hours are 9am to 9pm they extend if we're good.

Mitchell is doing just fine! He was following his nurse around in a wheel chair. She walked faster than he could roll it so he jumped out and pushed it. He's still got his spunk!

Mitchells team mates.

Hey guys! I just wanted to let the team know that Mitchell will be able to come to the game on Sunday! In fact we are going to try and make it to all the games we can, provided he is up for it physically. We don't know how chemo will hit him. Keep playin hard and havin fun!!! -Matt (Mitchells dad)

GO WHITE LIGHTNING!!!

Mitchell had an ultrasound of his heart and E.K.G. today. WOW...they have come along way in ultrasound. When Nickole was pregnant with Kaila 19 years ago I looked at the screen, the technician said, "Their she is." a fuzzy blur. That's a baby? The clarity was awesome! at one point his whole heart was on the screen, valves opening and closing, blood movement...AWESOME! He liked it too!

So the reason for the ultrasound and the E.K.G. is standard practice. It is to make sure his heart muscles are strong enough for chemo.

One more test tomorrow, than chemo on Monday.

Once again, thank you to everyone for your support!

Mitchell had his PET scan today. All went well. He has an e.k.g. and ultrasound of his heart tomorrow and his bone scan is still scheduled for Friday. He slept through most of he appointment today, and had a great technician from Alberta Canada. They talked hockey quite a bit! He has become very open about his cancer and is just moving forward with his life!! If you don't ask about it...He'll tell you about it. Thanks to all...

Hi it's Mitchell, how are you all doing? I think it is real cool that you all want to know how I'm doing. I'm doing fine. Keep checking this out, my dad will put more stuff up. -Mitchell

Ok... I talked with Mitchells oncologist this morning. All of his appointments have changed. He has a PET scan on Wednesday, and a bone scan on Friday. Nickole and I have a consult with his doctor Friday morning to go over all of the test results. His oncologist did in fact confirm Lymphoma based on the results she has received to this point. What type of Lymphoma is uncertain, however she did say that she is pretty certain it is non-hotchkins. If all goes to plan he will begin treatment on Monday. It will be in-patient.

Mitch has an appointment on Thursday at 8:30am for a PET scan. This will give the doctors a more definitive image of what is going on inside. Maybe they'll find that 10mm socket I lost last summer?

I talked to the doctors office this morning and we have an appointment on Wednesday at 11:15 to go over his treatment. When he will start his treatment, I do not know.

We are currently waiting for the results from his surgery. We should have these results by Tuesday or Wednesday at witch time we will post here.

Mitchell has resently undergone surgery for what the doctors believe is Lymphoma. I have created this blog to allow any one to check updates as they come without waiting for a text or a call from us (mom and dad). I want to thank everyone for the love and support extended to him and our family. More to come...