We just finished up Ethan’s latest round of MRI/blood chemistries and all is good. We’ve still got that pesky Polio thing to contend with, but I’ll take vaccine issues over cancer any day. Bert actually took him to the MRI for the first time, which turned out to be slightly traumatic for all of us. Ethan and I went through extreme separation anxiety from each other during the procedure, and Bert experienced his first up-close-and-personal experience of Ethan undergoing anesthesia. I think we all grew a little from it, but will each be happy to return to our normal routine the next time around - in July.
That’s the big news to come out of our appointment… Because June 1st marks Ethan’s second year off treatment, we’ve graduated to a 4-month interval for follow-up MRIs, rather then 3. The plan has always been to evaluate him every 3 months for the first 2 years, then every 4 months for the next 2 years, then semi-annually for the next 2… which puts us 6 years post-treatment. At that point, he’ll enter the elite club of cancer survivors that are only monitored yearly. Similar to ending treatment, it feels weird (and somewhat unprotected) to start stretching these scans out to longer intervals, but is extremely uplifting at the same time.
For anyone keeping count, Ethan also turned 6 very recently in February. He asked me to make cupcakes for his class – 24 kids, which is exactly how many cupcakes a box mix yields! I thought I was golden, but then he looked at me with his big, brown eyes and said “What about Mrs. Maxell and Mrs. Good and Mrs. Markam?”… So I made 2 batches (yes, 48 cupcakes), only to wake up to school closings the next morning. So then we had almost 50 cupcakes downstairs, added to my own birthday cake that my parents gave to me earlier in the week, and a ½ sheet cake that was coming the next morning for Ethan’s big shin-dig at the gym. Holy cow! My hips started growing at the mere thought of it… By the time we made decent headway in clearing out the cake, I got an email from his teacher suggesting that I bring the cupcakes in the following Friday instead. Back to the store… 48 MORE cupcakes. I was very insistent that none of the extras return home with me, so I think they ended up in the office and teacher’s lounge… destined for someone else’s hips.
Ethan had a great birthday party at our gym and enjoyed a rousing game of field hockey, some time in the kids play area, and then the kind folks at Worldgate actually ran those kids around the indoor track! I couldn’t believe it. Even Kyra ran 2 laps, but was the last to finish… I asked Bert if we paid extra to tire them out, but apparently it’s all just part of the program.
Ethan received sad news the following week, which was that his best friend, Carson, was moving to Oklahoma. It’s been a few weeks since the move, and Ethan sometimes still gets a little weepy and asks us if we, too, can move to Oklahoma… Carson’s little sister was in Kyra’s class at Montessori, so Kyra’s sad as well. Her pronunciation could use some work (she turns all of the vowels into “Os”), but also seems intent on moving there.
I think now that we’re nearly two years safely off treatment, I’ll stop sending out email updates. I’ll still post an update to the web site (www.team-ethan.org) when we have one, but no use filling everyone’s mailboxes with no-news – even if no-news is exactly what we want!! I do appreciate all of your well-wishes and prayers over the last (almost) 3 years and think that they have carried us very far. We also love hearing from you all periodically, so please continue to drop us a line as often as you can.
Warmest Regards – And thanks again for everything!
The Gumabay Family
Kim, Bert, Ethan and Kyra.