Tuesday, April 29, 2008 update

Rick had a excellent trip to NYC with his Mom. He loved the city. Still feeling good, back at school full time yesterday and hopefully today too.

Another round of Chemo.....

Rick had his third treatment yesterday and it went pretty well. Seven and a half hours, some nausea, but otherwise he is holding up well. His exam was very good except his platelets dropped from 88,000 to 66,000, which is an issue since he needs 75,000 to continue to receive the same doses and if he drops below 50,000, they will suspend treatment. Next treatment is two weeks, and MRI in a month.

He and I hiked for around five miles Monday. He’s on his way to NYC for the next four days with his mother made possible by the Make-a-wish foundation.

Thanks for the prayers and good thoughts

Friday, April 18, 2008

Just a quick update before the weekend and the start of school vacation. Rick got rid of his bad cold and was able to go to school all but Monday this week. He has been feeling really good, and he’s very active, running around the yard last night with his brother for an hour. He's glad to have the week off and he has some special plans.

I spoke with Dr. Herrington from Dana Farber yesterday and she is somewhat surprised but very happy that he’s feeling so well between the tumor and the chemo. She also told me that it's possible the new medicine is already slowing the growth of the tumor. We'll take "stable" for now.

So we’ll count these as good days!

Next MRI will be around 3-4 weeks, and we are back at Dana Farber for chemotherapy Tuesday.

All is okay.......

Nothing new to report, which is good news. It's been a week since the second treatment and beside a nasty head cold, Ricky has had no major side effects or complaints related to the tumor.

He's in school pretty much full time and doing well. Last night we shopped for his mom's birthday present and had a nice diiner at Friendly's. He managed to get a webkinz and a bunch of CDs out of me before we left the mall. That's my boy!

Bill

Doing well after yesterday's treatment

Aside from mild nausea and a tempory fogging of his right eye, he did well at Dana Farber yesterday. Dr Herrington said he looked great, better than she expected and that he was "tough as nails". We knew that already! We came back to the office afterwards and he was really excited that my office mates had collected a bunch of CDs for his collection. It made his day, thank folks!

He ate a ton at the local Thai place and had left over Pad Thai this morning for breakfast and is on his way to school.

Next treatment is in two weeks.

Bill

Another fine weekend

Rick is feeling good. He's got a slight cold, but he is eating well, very active and had a great time at Grandma and Grandpa's house this weekend. He is amazing us all.

He goes for round two of chemo Tuesday.

His mother has started a page for Rick as well. http://www.carepages.com/ You'll need to register (it's free) and then search for RickHoffman.

Regards,
Bill