JUST DANCE

Another day, another radiation treatment. 8 down, 22 more to go. It feels good to be making progress toward our end goal, slowly but surely. Caleb scarfed down a bag of mini muffins, 2 pop-tarts, and some fruit loops after treatment today.

We are thankful for each day Caleb is his happy self, and today was no exception. I wanted to run to Old Navy this afternoon and Caleb came along with me. He had his iPad to keep him entertained while I shopped. But at one random moment as we were walking through the store he said “hold this”. He handed me his iPad and had a dance party to the music that was playing right in the middle of Old Navy. That’s the thing about Caleb. He always finds a way to make me laugh. He makes his doctors and nurses laugh every day too. I’m just wondering, if all this hadn’t happened, would I look this closely at my kids and truly appreciate these little things, or would I be annoyed that it was taking us longer to leave the store because Caleb needed to dance? I don’t know, but I am grateful that life slows down in those moments and I am able to take it all in.

Tyler had soccer practice tonight. He was so excited when I picked him up from school and told him it was soccer day! Caleb isn’t able to play soccer officially because of the risk of a ball hitting him in the chest where his port is. But he kicked the ball around with Dad and played on the playground. He loves to watch Tyler play and at one point in the middle of practice Tyler waved at Caleb and yelled from across the field “Hi Caleb” and Caleb yelled back from the playground “Hi, I see you!!!” I’m so thankful for their bond!

Tomorrow is a little bit longer day for us. We start at 7am for his weekly blood tests. On top of Caleb’s regularly scheduled radiation treatment he also has a CT simulation and MRI simulation scheduled immediately after. This means instead of being sedated for 1-1.5 hours he’ll be under about 3 hours. The CT and MRI Simulations will help them line Caleb up for the next phase of his radiation treatments. After treatment 13, radiation will go from total brain and spine to only targeting the tumor bed site. This phase of treatment is called the “boost” because they are giving more radiation to just the area where the tumor was. This is very important because as far as we can tell, based on MRIs and other scans, the only *possible* additional cancer cells are in and around that area. So they will give a boost to the tumor bed plus a margin around it to eradicate those cells.

I just have to say once again I’m so thankful for the thought and care that goes into planning and executing these radiation treatments. The precision is so important because they don’t want to radiate any areas other that what is absolutely necessary. I put my baby in their hands every single day and no, walking away from him asleep on that table still isn’t getting any easier. But I know he’s in the best hands with people that are amazing at what they do!