The Hallen Home Needs

More Celebrating. More cake. Good wishes. More to come...

Top of the Third - Update on Peter

Peter just started the third course of chemo over the weekend. The dreaded 4 day hospital stay. He was in the hospital on his birthday. Not the happiest place on earth. But it's a birthday we'll never forgot and one I'm sure he'll never remember. The nurses made his day when they all came in singing Happy Birthday and give him presents. Even the nutritional service sent up his meals on special happy b-day place mats with extra treats and a small b-day cake. What wonderful caring people doing more than their job requires. Through these small and simple acts of kindness for Peter I feel Heavenly Father's love for him. I'll always be able to tell him how much he is loved and thought of. Then the rest of the family came with more presents. He loved it! It made the day go a lot faster.

Some really good news: There's a blood test that has been a routine test since the diagnosing process with Peter's cancer. It's called the AFP[alpha-fetoprotein] It's a tumor marker test for this kind of cancer. A normal healthy person's level is 10 or under. Peter's AFP was 9,000. We've read about other cases where the levels have been much higher, in the 100,000's or even over 1,000,000's. After Peter's 1st course was completed his afp was down to 350. We just found out about his afp after the second course was finished. It is down to 28. That means the tumor is not growing. It's smaller. Very good news.

The plan is to go through 4 courses of chemo. Maybe by the end of November he'll be finished. Then the ct scan to get a look at his liver and tumor. Then we'll go from there to either more chemo, or surgery, or we're hopeful that maybe there won't be a need for surgery.

I feel a little greedy hoping for such a miracle. We've already been blessed with a huge miracle with the tumor responding to the chemo so well, which we are very grateful for. Where ever this trial leads us to, we know that good will come out of this. Life is full of challenges and obstacles. We all are subject to this. It's to help us grow and learn and gain experience. It's hard sometimes. But I know it could be a lot harder. I hear of other families cancer stories, and health problems and actually feel grateful for what we have been given. I feel like we can handle this.

Every time we have to go back to the hospital for the impatient chemotherapy I just dread it. I get nervous and worry about how I'm going to entertain this little 2 yr old boy. He has to stay in his tiny hospital room for the 4 days because the hospital is not the cleanest place to be. A lot of sickness going on there. His risk of getting sick is really high because his white count is low and his body isn't able to fight even just a normal cold. One of the hardest things is when he asks to go on walks. One night when there's nobody around on the unit the nurses let me walk him back and forth in the hall. It's not much of a walk but he enjoyed it. I had to push his iv poll and try to keep up with him. Not easy. You wouldn't believe the toys, movies, games,....I pack for the 4 days. I even borrow toys from family and friends that will be new to Peter. [How nice that I don't have to worry about the other three children. Doug, Kathy, & John all work together and cover it all. It's amazing.] But each time we go back Peter does better than I anticipated him to do. This time was amazing. He didn't have one tantrum until an hour before he were discharged. He only threw up a couple of times. He didn't yell "no" to the nurses or doctors. He was happy. It's getting easier. What a blessing!

The day Peter gets home from the hospital is a good day. Happiness. Then the next 3 or 4 days are rough from all the side effects of all the chemo. It sets in and he feels awful. He wants and needs to be held constantly. But by the fourth day he feels better and back to himself. And life gets back to normal a little. That's good for all of us.

Enjoy life. Enjoy the moment. Don't anticipate the hard times to come. Learning to be happy in the moment is sometimes a little hard to do. But I'm getting there. Thanks to Peter.

Birthday Buddies

We call these two the birthday buddies. The oldest and youngest born on the same day with 11 years that separate them. This headache happened because on Meagan's birthday two years ago I jumped out of bed to make breakfast for her. I didn't hear the alarm and was already 15 minutes late for the day. I literally jumped out of bed. That's not easy to do when you're 38 weeks pregnant. Then I felt a pop and a gush of water. Denial set in quickly. I told myself that I must have just wet my pants from the impossible leap out of bed. I admit it. When you're pregnant it's hard to be rational at times. The contractions started immediately. John was anxious to get me to the hospital but I had to do the girls' hair first. And the rest is history.

I teased Meagan when she asked about the plans for the birthday party(ies). Just one birthday dinner and party for the two. The theme this year will be Barney. Peter loves watching Barney, the purple dinosaur, [annoying, singing, purple dinosaur] When Meagan was 2 she loved Barney too so I didn't think she would mind. I was wrong.

Make a Wish

Why do I think that making a wish when blowing out my birthday candles is like finding a genie in a bottle and being able to make three incredible wishes? I don't hold back when making wishes. It's my birthday. The sky's the limit. Top three wishes: Peter's cancer to disappear and no more chemo, the hair on my head to all grow back, finding the perfect dining room set at a garage sale. See what I mean?

Addie asked me in a serious tone what I wanted for my birthday. I couldn't think of anything that I wanted that was under $1000. She made me a darling card and had everybody write sweet birthday wishes. It's a treasure.

I loved my birthday. I was given the gift of good food. John took me out to dinner the night before. Then for breakfast he and the children woke up early and made me my favorite homemade buttermilk waffles with all the extras. The table was set with a tablecloth and cloth napkins. That touched me. Then for lunch Cheryl, Amy & Jenny took me out to lunch to Mimi's. It was great. I laughed a lot and didn't have to worry about Peter because Kathy & Doug were taking care of him.