{"id":1966,"date":"2013-05-11T15:40:52","date_gmt":"2013-05-11T21:40:52","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/jacobhickford.com\/?p=1966"},"modified":"2013-05-11T17:43:32","modified_gmt":"2013-05-11T23:43:32","slug":"fantastic-five","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/jacobhickford.com\/?p=1966","title":{"rendered":"Fantastic Five"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"2013-05-02<\/a>It’s been a bit of a blustery week and a half and\u00a0we have\u00a0lots to report. Mr. Handsome celebrated his BIG 5th, and it\u00a0was a fantastic birthday! Although we spent the day at TCH, we were home in time to blow out candles with an outrageously cool\u00a0cake from Cakes Against Cancer and Ali’s Cakes, and open PRESENTS!\u00a0 While we were meeting with Jake’s docs that morning, Saraben\u00a0came in with big news, offering a special birthday weekend\u00a0at Squirrel Creek Ranch\u00a0with four other families from the cancer center.\u00a0 How could we say no?\u00a0 The plan… to whisk\u00a0us off by plane, bright and early Friday morning and spend the weekend enjoying the ranch and all of it’s\u00a0activities.\u00a0 There were exotic animals like zebra, camels, kangaroo, emu, ostriches, bison, so many.\u00a0\u00a0 The kids were able to \"2013-05-03<\/a>bike all over, fish, swim, ride horses, feed the\u00a0baby camels (Mary, Martha and Sarah), hang in the\u00a0hammocks,\u00a0and just play.\u00a0There was cake to celebrate Jake’s birthday, each family made an Olympic\u00a0family banner to represent our warrior spirit,\u00a0there was a fashion show,\u00a0we painted tiles for a bench that will find a home somewhere on the ranch, and moms got pedicures!\u00a0 It was a really, really good weekend for\u00a0all of us and\u00a0it was especially geared toward th\"2013-05-04<\/a>e kids and\u00a0all they go thru as part of a cancer family –\u00a0something\u00a0they needed desperately.\u00a0 We were accompanied by our child life specialists, Saraben\u00a0and Kelly, Doc Hary, Nurse Teresa, and several medical students. And some \"2013-05-03<\/a>prayers were answered as Ryan was the hit of the weekend.\u00a0 He has a bit of an old soul so hanging out with the med students and the older kids\u00a0was right up his ally.\u00a0 He played Monopoly, told them all of his many thoughts and life “plans”, and picked Doc H’s brain for\u00a0medical advice.\u00a0 Everyone was quite “impressed” (or entertained)\u00a0with all he had to say.\u00a0 Jake was able to participate in some of the activities but we noticed him slowing down Friday night and by Saturday afternoon he was puny and getting warmer and warmer. By early \"2013-05-04<\/a>Sunday morning, he hit the magic number and we were off to the ER.\u00a0 Thank God we had our own Doc in tow!\u00a0 As we walked in, the nurse asked, “You travel with your own doctor?”, we grinned, “yes, yes we do!”\u00a0(Felt a little like Phineas and Ferb.)\u00a0 The ER that is close to \"2013-05-04<\/a>the ranch doesn’t see a lot of cancer kids and thankfully, they allowed Doc Hary\u00a0to be completely involved in Jake’s care.\u00a0 They\u00a0juiced him up with antibiotics and fluids, took his first set of blood cultures, and we darted out to make our plane just in time.\u00a0 Doc H hit the phones immediately\u00a0to get everything lined up at that little ER, as well as made all the necessary\u00a0arrangements at TCH\u00a0so they were prepared for us when we landed (exactly why Tx\u00a0Children’s sends a crew for the weekend… for circumstances just like this).\u00a0What a huge blessing it was for Doc H to be with us.\u00a0 \"2013-05-03<\/a>Had we been on our own, the ER would have\"2013-05-03<\/a> ambulanced\u00a0Jake\u00a0to the children’s hospital in San Antonio where we would have sat until we could be transported to Houston, maybe a couple of days.\u00a0 So we were “THAT” family.\u00a0 They’ve had 57 of these family retreats so this isn’t new for them. As I was worrying they reminded me that we weren’t the first and we won’t be the last to be carted off with a sick kiddo.\u00a0 That was Sunday… and here we are today.\u00a0 It’s been a really, really rough week for Jake.\u00a0 He’s had fever, the mouth s\"2013-05-05<\/a>ores are back in full force, and something new has hit… horrible leg pain.\u00a0 We’ve never experienced this side effect before and the bone pain\u00a0has been\u00a0beyond aweful.\u00a0 He’s on a full time\u00a0pain pump which\u00a0has kept\u00a0him pretty sedated, and\u00a0when awake, \"2013-05-03<\/a>he’s been\u00a0fussy and uncomfortable. He’s also on lipids and TPN for nutrition since he can’t eat.\u00a0 He looks so tiny. Since he’s neutrapenic we’re here\u00a0for a while. Some good news… he’s actually been awake most of the day and\u00a0there is\u00a0some slight upward movement in his ANC – we’ve gone from ZERO for the past 6 days to 30!\u00a0It’s not much, but it’s progress and once it starts moving, we’re on the mend. We left the room this morning to walk and\u00a0took a complete circle of the floor and he’s had moments of being\u00a0playful and smiley – all big changes from \"2013-05-04<\/a>this\u00a0week.\u00a0 As soon\u00a0as\u00a0his white cells begin to recover, the mouth sores will\u00a0follow.\u00a0 I’m not sure that the kids will come up for Mother’s Day since Jake is has been so blah.\u00a0 We need to be very careful of anything they could bring around but I’m just happy to have this Mother’s Day with him!\u00a0 These kind of weeks put it all in perspective.\u00a0 I just want to say a VERY BIG THANK YOU to\u00a0the Faust family\u00a0for allowing our family to\u00a0visit their ranch where they treated us like royalty… they have a true heart for\u00a0the families of\u00a0Texas Children’s Cancer Center… it was a tr\"Kid<\/a>ue blessing of a weekend!\u00a0So I’ll leave you with a little fun… http:\/\/www.youtube.com\/watch?v=pQ4Rnba85o8<\/a>\u00a0 A little Mother’s Day Note from Kid President that made me smile!<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

It’s been a bit of a blustery week and a half and\u00a0we have\u00a0lots to report. Mr. Handsome celebrated his BIG 5th, and it\u00a0was a fantastic birthday! Although we spent the day at TCH, we were home in time to blow out candles with an outrageously cool\u00a0cake from Cakes Against Cancer and Ali’s Cakes, and open … <\/p>\n

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