Please Pray

I'm sure you are all in shock that I would update the blog twice in one day. I just got off the phone with Aaron; and William has an appointment with a heart specialist tomorrow. William's echocardiogram came back with a few places that need further investigation (look like potential clots in his heart). The neuroblastoma (NBL) coordinator at Cook Children's said that there is nothing to worry about, William has never had heart problems and it is normal for NBL patients to have abnormal echo results from the medicines they take. Please pray for him anyways...

Sincerely, Angela

Some Results & Boys Growing Up Too Fast...

We have received some initial results from last weeks scans. The CT scan and bone marrow aspirate/biopsy came back normal. The verbal response from the Oncologist was that the MIBG scan came back normal but we haven't seen it in writing yet. Please keep praying.

As for my two little boys, they are not so little anymore...little Ri-Ri just had his 9 month wellness check and he weighed in at 23lbs and 9 ozs! 29 and 3/4 inches tall! 90th percentile all around...The Dallas Cowboys haven't started calling yet but we are expecting the phone to start ringing any day now. :)

I think Will gets taller everyday and is saying more words. His last audiogram came back with additional hearing loss (his left ear worse than the right) and the audiologist said he may have trouble saying the F sound ('ph' included), the TH sound and plurals (an S on the end). However, Will and I were laying in bed last night and he pointed at the fan and said some word that did not sound like FAN. So laying just to the side of his right ear I said, "William, look at me (so he could see my mouth make the word), that is a FFFFFFan, FFFFan, like FFFFeet." He smiled and said, "fan." It was so sweet to my ears. I just praised him, high-fived, busted knuckles and we both repeated the word a couple more times. He thought it was a fun game but I thank God for proving the audiologist wrong! :) Maybe I'm just a little competitive. :)

Ok, ok more pictures...


Here is more from the FuzzHead - getting more hair, eyebrows, and eyelashes:




And Reilly Roo loving the bath tub and pulling up on everything!




Love to you all...The Fallon Family

Week of Scans + Crazy Animals

This week William will have a bunch scans back to back. Like before, he will go through a 12 hour urine/kidney analysis, MIBG scan, CT scan and and bone marrow aspirates...all to make sure their are no signs of progressive disease. After we get all of the results back, he will be admitted for four days to start his first cycle of antibody treatments.

Many people ask me what the antibody treatment is and it is a little hard to explain. The antibodies are a protein made in cultured cells, using DNA technology to morph/fuse a human antibody with a mice antibody (called ch14.18). The ch14.18 binds well to neuroblastoma (NBL) cells and to tumor cells that are positive for GD2 (a sugar lipid that is strongly expressed on the surface of neuroblastoma cells), and helps destroy cancer cells. It binds very little to normal tissue, unlike chemotherapy that kills most rapidly-forming cells, normally found in our bodies. So to put it a little more simply, these little cooties can ID, bind to and destroy the neuroblastoma cells, but only on a small scale and only specific types of NBL (there are many types). Sorry for going technical on ya...

We are grateful that the antibodies don't beat up on Will's immune system like the chemotherapy but the therapy does have it's own side effects. The treatment does cause significant pain because it is pulsing the nervous system.

Bottomline: Please continue to pray for William as he undergoes this week of testing. Pray for clean test results and that Will will endure the antibody treatment as amazingly as he has everything else. He is truly one tough blonde kid. Oh, did I mention his hair is coming back in, just as white blonde as before. :)

Here are a couple of recent pictures of the boys, in their halloween costumes:
This giraffe looks very excited...



Look who can reach the door bell (and the deadbolt!)...





Then things got a little silly when we gave William his favorite new toy -- a whoopee cushion -- to get him to sit down

New Fuzz Pic: you can see the fuzz on his head, if you click on the picture...

More updates to come...Love, Angela

Almost there...

William has two more radiation treatments (tomorrow and again on Monday). Then he will go through a week of scans, before starting antibody treatments. Five rounds of antibodies are the last step in William's treatment. Then he will have scans, regularly scheduled, for a long time. We can see the light at the end of the tunnel...

I keep getting requests for more pictures. So, here are two of William getting ready for winter.

This is Reilly's first shot at cheesey scrambled eggs.

And did I mention Reilly is sitting up, un-assisted? He's pulling up on things too. Aaron went to wake him up in the morning and he was pulling up in his crib. They grow up way too fast!

Thank you all for your continued support!

Love,

Angela