Save Jace

We just got back in the room from Jace receiving his 4th and final (for this session) treatment of methotrexate.  This is the chemo that is administered directly into his head via Needle into his Ommaya Reservoir.  This is the thing that was put into his head surgically thsi past Thursday!  It is working fine.  The Oncologist is Happy and I actually saw him crack a smile and the Neurologist was happy with the CAT Scan that Jace had on Friday as far as his placement of the Reservoir.

This has been an interesting 8 days!  Not so many ups and downs as the first time around, but I think Jace is getting used to everything that he is having to go through from the Blood Pressure check, to having a needle stuck in his head!

Last week was really neat also as you know from the photos with the Sea World Animals, Corpus Christi Hooks Players and Rusty, as well as photo with Miss Rodeo Texas 2006, and he also got to meet Izzy the Islander Mascot but wouldn’t take a photo with him!

As I sat here typing, the Oncologist came in one last time and said that he was very very pleased with this admission!  The other day he even said “I am now slightly Optimistic… I shouldn’t be saying that, but I am” as he smiles! 

So all in all, Things are going very well.  The visit was great (long, but great) and things went as planned.  We will go home and watch the usual things (blood counts, fever, etc.) and then we will prepare ourselves for the 3rd session!

As usual THANK YOU THANK YOU for ALL THOSE POWERFUL PRAYERS!!!!  He’s doing as Great as can Be and is actually doing better than the doctor expected, so we can’t ask for much more!

Jace and I are gonna make like Hippies and Blow This Joint!  WE’RE GOING HOME!!!!!!  Thank you all again for everything that you do!

 Joshua

Well, I talked to Jamie and she said that I was lucky and that we picked a good week to be here!!!  Well, you all saw the photos with the Hooks Players from Wednesday and the Sea World Animals from Tuesday…  well today Jace got to meet Joanna “Miss Rodeo Texas 2006″ and a Rodeo Clown and a Cowboy!  He froze up and didn’t say a thing, but as soon as they left, he started yelling YEEHAW YEEHAW!!!

Also Yesterday evening, Jace’s “Head” Twin was here so we took photos!  His “Head” Twin is Uncle Nick for those of you that were curious!  Anyways, enjoy these photos!!!  Cause I enjoy sending them…  it gives me something to do!

PS - Jace wanted nothing to do with Miss Rodeo Texas 2006 but Daddy wanted a photo!!! hahaha!

Joshua

Well, here we are at the Hospital going through our 2nd session of chemo! 

Well, we are still  on a High from the News that we found out on Monday and we are full steam ahead!

(Tell me he is not amazing!!!)

Yesterday (tues) Jace and some of the other patients were visited by some friends from Seas World!  (Some of you might have caught it on the News) with Jace’s Mug plain as day on the TV!!!  Well he pet a Red Tail Boa (made Mama proud) and he also pet an Alligator!  Neither of these which made Daddy proud much less comfortable! hahaha….and then just a few minutes ago Jace was visited by “Rusty” Hook and 4 of the Corpus Christi Hooks Baseball Players!  He was cool until daddy walked away to take the photo!  So you’ll see!  It was funny!  I told them all that he was now hitting left and they all said KEEP THAT UP BUDDY!!!!!!  hahaha…

Anyways, we have surgery tommorow to have a reservoir put into his head to help administer chemo directly into that area!  A simple process, needless to say, it’s surgery of the brain!  All is well and Jace is ALL OVER THE PLACE!  and Doing a WHOLE LOT BETTER than the last time he was receiving Chemo!

Love and God Bless, 
Joshua

They are going to put Jace under again on Thursday for a different type of brain surgery.  This time they are going to insert a Ommaya Reservoir so that they can directly put chemo into the tumor area.  The reason they didn’t do this sooner was becuz of the gliadel wafers he had inserted after the second resection.  The methatrexate that he will be getting is a cousin of the gliadel wafers that kept the tumor from growing back in the area it did twice.

Of course we are nervous for this surgery, but at the same time still way up in the clouds over what is happening right now.  It can only get better and we can only think of how well he did through both actual brain surgeries.  The same Dr will be doing the procedure and we have a lot of faith in him.

I don’t know the details of the schedule yet, but will post as soon as I know.

Love to all, God Bless!
Jamie

I fall to my knees and thank the Lord above for the news we heard today. The GOOD news that we have been waiting on since January 31. Walking down the hallway with a paper in hand, the Dr presents it to Josh and says…”Someone must really be praying…”

If he only knew.

But the MRI doesn’t lie. There are no new tumors, no new growths and the tumor that resides currently has shrunk 25%.

The CHEMO is working!!!! We are elated. There are no words to tell you the emotions I am feeling. I want to just explode and be greatful and throw my arms up in the air and give thanks to God for this good news. And I do. And I squeeze my baby and thank him for being so strong. Now my hopes soar even higher.

And I hugged the Dr. And I thanked the Lord.

And now we press on. WE are going to beat this!!!

Thank you God!

God Bless!!
Jamie

Hope you had a Great Weekend!  We sure did as well as Jace!  His Birthday was a Blast and he had SOOOO MUCH FUN!

It is 1:15pm and he is in the pre-op holding room, fixing to go into his MRI!  For the next 2 hours is the tiem to pray for a good MRI reading! I will update on that MRI as soon as I get the results!  The Dr. is hopeful and so are we! 
God Bless You All,

PS… a friend of mine sent me an email last night I wanted to share it with all of you! She and her husband are fixing to have a Baby.  It’s a Boy and they were looking through a book of Boy names and ran across Jace… this is what she wrote:

Name: Jace
Gender: Boy
Meaning: Healer

Joshua

Today he is 2.  And he knows it.  And its the cutest thing ever. “Jace, how old are you?” “I TWOOOOOOO!”  It sounds more like ACHOOO…but you know. 

This morning I sang Happy Birthday to him about 5 times before I had to leave for work.  I even had him say hap-py birth-day to himself.  He liked it.  He kept saying Again. Again.  Now I don’t know if he liked my morning singing or the fact that I touched his belly every sylable and then his chin and nose on the last two.   But either way…his smile this morning was my light of the day.

I can’t believe he is 2.  It seems like only yesterday when I was anticipating his birth.  I can remember details, oddly.  Since I dont usually remember details at all.  I remember that every 6 months was my favorite age.  And again this is my favorite age. I remember laying in bed with him and cooing to his sounds.  I remember when he learned to crawl across the living room floor.  I used the toy piano and he couldnt resist.  I remember when he learned to walk to his mailbox.  I think it was the butterfly that buzzed instead of my words, but I can dream.  I remember his first words and everytime he learned and learns a new one.  I love how he says things randomly now and they make absolutely perfect sense.

I love how he knows things.  I love that we taught him everything he knows.

I love how he randomly says i love you momma but it sounds like LUH U MOMMA. Out of no where.  And when he can’t see me…MOMMA ARE U? in five different pitches.  I love his hair, as thin as it is now. 

I love his eyes - alive and curious.  And looking at everything.  And soaking it all up.  My little sponge.

I love his hugs.  He has two kinds.  Give momma a hug and he leans his head in and puts it on my shoulder.  Give momma a squeeze and he wraps both arms around my neck and squeezes so tight that you can barely feel it, but to me it feels like the world.

Today he is 2.  And it doesnt even seem like it.  I want to wrap him up in a blanket and hold him close to me, though that doesnt work anymore becuz he is so long.  I want to guard him from the world but at the same time I am sooo anxious to see it again through his eyes.  When he stands in the backyward and notices every single bird that flies overhead and he talks to them…tweet tweet tweet.  And every airplane and every siren and every dog bark has its own place in the world and Jace notices them.  And at night, every star is so exciting. “Momma tar (star)” followed by “Up above the world so high.” but sounds more like “up abuba ba ba ba bigh” 

I love 2.  Excited for lollipops and putting his shoes on, brushing his teeth and taking a bath.  Sidewalk Chalk writing and blowing bubbles is the highlight of our Saturday. And he still needs me to be at the bottom of the slide. Naked butts and fake cries. All wonderful occassions.

Happy Birthday Jace.  I Love you!
Mommy

Its been awhile.  The last week has been another great up week!  Jace’s spirits are back and his personality beams at me with every word he says.  Aside from the rapid hair loss, you couldnt tell anything was wrong with this little guy!  I don’t think I have ever been on a more jilting rollar coaster in life than this one. The difference in just days is so drastic that my emotions and mind is on overload.  It just goes to show you though how truly amazing children are.  I know mine is!

So we are ending the first cycle of chemotherapy now.  He bounced up pretty quickly from that first round.  He got the last shot of Vincristine last Monday and it didn’t seem to affect him much at all.

Daddy is staying at home with Jace now, so that eases a little of my mind.  It makes it easier to be at work, but still hard to be away.  I guess on the face of the planet, if its not me taking care of my baby, who better than his dad, right?

His blood counts are way back up to almost normal this week.  We got the clearance to take him out but the excellent news is we get to have a birthday party!!!  I’m so excited for this as we were really worried that it would either be in the hospital or it wouldnt be at all.  But the doc says no go ahead.  We are planning it for the 21st.

The schedule right now is back in the hospital for round 2 on April 23rd.  My assumption is that they will do another MRI that morning before they start the chemo so they can get a picture of where we stand.  PRAY BIG and PRAY HARD that the first round of chemo shrunk this thing.  We are ready for some POSITIVE news.

I’m so hopeful and I pray that I am not setting myself up for a let-down.  I will try to write more, as I have been really busy trying to get back in the swign of work, catch up on home stuff, and keep going with all the things I’m supposed to be on top of.  I think some of my sanity is…well I wouldnt say back to normal…I would just say….I guess its more organized.

Thank you God for toddler tummy laughs!!!
God Bless!
Jamie

So its Tuesday night and we are still here. Jace has been through the first 4 days of his chemo. He has been doing fairly well with the chemo. There has been some vomiting and fever a few times. He has a cough that wont go away when it gets too cool in the room, and sweating that wont stop if we turn the air up. But mostly he just sleeps. Today he finally got out of bed for a little while and got on his feet. It has been 3 days and he was very wobbly.

He has no appetite, which they say is normal. Course when the pump as much liquid through his body as they have been, who could be hungry. We were supposed to go home today, but they said he wasn’t eating enough to take him off the fluids and they were worried that he wouldnt be able to get around since he hadn’t been out of bed. We finally got him to eat some food, black olives, his favorite and some crackers…it was not much, but it was food. Course all he does with food in his system is throw it back up…and he probably knows that. (I wouldnt eat either).

We were informed that we have to learn to give him a shot. The revival shot. He has to have it for 3 days every time after he chemo stint. Its to help repair his body platelets. The expected timeframe is about 9 or 10 days when his white blood count drops drastically.

I’m not sure what I’m going to do and I have been procrastinating entirely TOO long. I have been trying to work as much as possible and have even been working from the hospital. I have my phone transfered to my cell phone. its not been too difficult. I can work at nigh when Jace goes to sleep and then just turn on the laptop in the morning and email everything off before he wakes up.

I’m just rambling and I know it, probably not making any sense either.

I HATE THIS!!!! I want someone to wake me up. To tell me that everything from January 31st has been a dream. That this disease is not infecting us. I want it to go away.

But its not going away. Its here and it is burning a hole in my heart. And my baby is sick and stuck in a metal crib that screams at you everytime you lower the sides. With tubes sending toxic poisons into his body killing the cells that are making his body grow just to kill off a disease that is consuming his body faster than it takes me to get a cold.

And you know what it boils down to.
There is absolutely Nothing I can do about it.

There is a girl here, Dolores. Her baby is in PICU. He is 5. His name is Moses. We were in PICU together the first time Jace had his brain surgery. When we all stood around the ICU Waiting room and prayed together as strangers for our families. Tomorrow they will take Moses’ tubes out and let God decide his fate. Pray for a miracle for Dolores that Moses wants to get better and go home. She cried with me. She is terrified that they will take the tubes out and his body wont work and he will die. And that is a possibility. A probablity actually.

The lady in the room next to me, has her 16 year old son here with Leukemia. Cancer of the Blood. 16 years old. Completely aware of what is going on around him. They are giving him medicines that are reacting with his body and making him violent. He screams and curses at her. She has cried with me while out smoking our cigarettes that he has even choked her and grabbed at her. She is not used to the violence. She said he has strokes at least once a week and his body is fighting the chemo.

There is a baby in the room on the other side of me, I dont know anything about, they just got here today. But their baby cries and I rememebr the sound. Jace couldnt have been more than 4 or 5 months old. The cry just sounds tiny and I dont want to imagine.

And theres more. More families that we are getting to know here. More moms I meet while we take our “breaks” out in the front of the hospital. While our babies are laying up here in these beds.

Its a whole new world here in the hospital. A world that is becoming all to familiar and will only be more and more familiar to us in the next year.

Last night Jace pulled his metaport out. Just reached down and yanked it. Luckily he wasn’t on chemo anymore, it was only the flush. otherwise it could have burned his skin, at least. It took them a few times to get it back in but they finally did. Then he was neurotic about it for a few hours, trying to pull it and take it out. he kept saying all done all done.

Maybe we’ll go home tomorrow.

Chemo cycle 28 days.

Doxorubicin day 1,2 and 3
Dactinomycin day 1
Cisplatin day 4
Vincristine day 8 and 15
Methatrexate day 1,2,3 and 4.

I should attempt to get some rest before the clanking starts again. At least they dont have to flush his IV every hour tonight.

Goodnight all - God Bless!
Jamie

So I’m sitting here at the hospital on Saturday night wondering what the heck has been going on this past month and a half.  Wondering where life went wrong and when it is going to change. Jace is sleeping as peaceful as he can with tubes of chemo being sent into his blood.

We got here Friday morning.  The MRI was scheduled for 10AM and as hospitals go, they were running late.  They got started around 11.  But he went through great and came out as groggy as usual.  We immediately got put in a room since they were expecting us.  I should log the rooms we have been in now.  Even though its already exceeded 7, I dont remember most of them…but this one is 423.

They gave him his first dose of chemo sometime in the afternoon and then started the 12 hour drip at 6PM.  He was playing as usual and getting into everything he possibly could.  Some things just dont change.  Friday evening he got sick once, as was to be expected but I was not fully prepared for.  I think the reality of it all just kind of sank in when he got sick on the first night.

Staying on this floor is much different from the others.  When we have been here in the past, we would usually go to sleep around 10 and that would be it for the rest of the evening.  Here, the cancer floor, they come in pretty often all through the night, checking vitals and flushing his IV to make sure the chemo is still going directly into his veins.  Apparently if the chemo goes somewhere else, not in the veins, then it can burn the skin and cause complications.  So we get minimal sleep here.

This morning they brought breakfast and he ate it down.  But he got sick again.  Of course typical Jace, and anyone who knows him…he wanted more food.  To now, those are the only times he got sick.

I met with the Dr sometime around noon.  He just informed me more about the side effects of chemo and the normalcy of some of the things that go on on this floor.  From now on, I am to wear gloves whenever changing his diaper or wiping his nose.  The chemo is excreted through bodily fluids.  Soon, even if he cries, his tears could be orange from the red chemo.  That will scare me.

When the Dr was getting ready to leave from our visit I remembered to ask him about the results of the MRI.  If EVER there was a deer in the headlights look, I just received it.  I knew there was bad news.  JUST by the look on his face.  Almost like he was dreading me asking and was trying his best to answer my questions and get out of there before i could.  But I did.

And what he told me, of course devastated me.  And what I saw is something I never could have imagined.  There is a new tumor.  New growth in a completely different spot.  Below the original baseball sized tumor and almost the same size.  This one is 3 inches in diameter and located below and behind the original tumor.  1/3 the width of his tiny brain. 

The Gliadel Wafers that the Surgeon put in the first resection are obviously working because when you start looking at the MRI pictures. The first resection is on the top right frontal lobe and its a good picture. Clean resection with the little black dots that are the wafers and nothing in the contrast that was not to be expected. Some scar tissue where the first and second tumors were removed. But then when you go a little deeper in the MRI, BAM. Another 3 inch diameter tumor staring back at us as big and as scary as the first one. I asked the Dr what that meant and he said the same thing we have been hearing since day one…how aggressive and how scary this cancer really is. That every day is a gift and every month is another miracle. 2 WEEKS!!!! 2 WEEKS!!!! And this thing grew 3 inches that quickly. He described this cancer like mushrooms.

“One night your there in your house and you see its raining, and the next morning you get up to see your back yard covered in mushrooms.”

What we do now.  Finish this first treatment and see if the chemotherapy can slow this massive thing down any.  Hopefully, it can shrink it as it is now pressing on the center of his brain.  After we finish this treatment we will see what the results are and go from here.  Hopefully, hopefully, hopefully we finally get some kind of good news. The MRI they did yesterday was only of the brain, so we are unsure of spreading anywhere else.  The fact that this tumor grew 3 inches in 2 weeks and completely separate from the original is scary.  But we are hopeful that it has again only remained there in the brain.

We pray again.  We see where this road is taking us and we follow it, faithfully and committed to beating it.

God Bless us all!
Jamie

So Tuesday night the 6th Jace was running a small fever off and on.  I was worried a little bit but gave him some tylenol and watched.  It got up to around 102.6 and he was really hot.  We took his socks and shirt off and tried to let his body cool off, really all he wanted to do was sleep, so we let him.

Wednesday morning around 6 he came walking into our bedroom.  They had rescheduled his surgery for noon so we didnt actually have to be at the hospital til 10.  So we pulled him up in bed with us and he was steaming.  Took his temperature and it was 103.5.  I KNEW that they would send us home and not do the surgery that day, so I called up their and talked to the nurse.  She said she had to call the neurosurgeon, even though she was pretty positive, like me, that they would reschedule it.  Well about 30 minutes later, the neurosurgeon called me at home and said “Hey I hear my little buddy has a fever.”  I said yes and told him the story.  He told me just to take him into his pediatrician and get clearance for surgery just to make sure that there was nothing really wrong like the flu or anything.  He said, “I;m a great neurosurgeon but a really bad pediatrician.”  lol.

We got an appt at 3 and the Dr said that it was probably just a little bug and that he was ok with them doing the surgery if they were ok doing the surgery on fever.  He said the only complications that could possibly arise were that after surgery they wouldnt know if the fever was from the bug or from the surgery, but they would treat it either way…so go ahead.

I called the neurosurgeon and they rescheduled for Friday the 9th.  At 7AM.  Which meant we had to be at the hospital at 5AM.  Better than telling a toddler he can’t eat in the morning and arriving at 10AM.

So surgery went as planned.  It started around 9AM and they were done within an hour.  They removed a golf ball size tumor this time. We found out they were inserting some Gliadel wafers directly into the resection so that chemo could directly be put ont he spot.  These Gliadel wafers are time capsulated wafers that send off secretions of chemotherapy directly into the spot.  This kind doesnt go into the bloodline.

He was in a lot of pain Friday so they kept the morphine coming, and he was really pissed that he was stuck in the bed again, but other than that, he was doing ok.  I stayed with all day and til he fell asleep around 9:30.  When they are in ICU, its almost ridiculous for me to stay there since he has a night nurse directly appointed to him and my only bed is a rocking chair.  I decided to go home and get some rest so I could be with him in the hospital.

When I got there Saturday morning.  He was just waking up.  he was cranky and the nurse asked me if he needed morphine.  But when I looked in his eyes, his eyes were clear.  He didnt seem to be in pain to me, just cranky.  So I said no, lets just let him wake up.  A few hours later the resident Dr on the floor came by and they checked his blood count and it was down to 7 from 11 before surgery.  They wanted to do a blood transfusion…but the actual Dr came back on the floor and said, “Obviously you dont know this kid, take him off the IV and get him some food and he will heal himself.”

And he did.

We were in our room by Saturday afternoon.  They removed the brain drain and the head bandage.  The nurse took out his ART line.  When we got up to our room, I convinced the night nurse to take out one of his IVs since he hadn’t had any meds or fluids through his IV since noon, and did they really need two of them.  By the next morning, we had convinced the morning nurse to remove the other one so he was completely IV free.  Well he thought this meant freedom so my child began running up and down the hallways.  To the playroom, to the front lobby (of our floor), to play with the trains and the balls.  He was crazy.

When the neurosurgeon came up to the floor, he said allright let me see how this little guy is doing.  I put Jace on the floor and he turned around towards me and put his arms in the air and said up…but I had moved.  It was my dads friend and Jace took one look at him and ran out the door and bolted down the hallway towards the playroom…full speed.  The neurosurgeon poked his head out of the room and yelled after him….”Hey Mr personality…didn’t anyone tell you, you just had brain surgery two days ago.”

Needless to say he let us go home.

So we get the staples out on Tuesday.  And we are also going to meet with the Oncologist who is going to tell us about a stronger chemo that he is wanting to put Jace on.  Apparently the one he had originally talked to us about isn’t getting many good results with the ATRT and he has some other things to show us about a study that is going on right now in Europe.  So we will find out about this chemo on Tuesday…but we do know it is “stronger and harsher” with the “stronger and harsher” results and side effects.

I have been crying all day.

They want to start his first round of chemo on Thursday. We’ll find out more on Tuesday.
Jamie

Jaces brain surgery is scheduled for tomorrow (Wednesday)morning at 8AM.  We have to be in the hospital at 6AM and the surgery will start at 8AM.  Please pray for him during that time,that he gets through this as before and the recovery is just as smooth.

Thanks!
Jamie

February 27, 2007

We got the Prelimenary Results back from the MRI that was taken of the Head… (we are still waiting on the results of the spine) and looking at the Preliminary Head MRI, there is still a Tumor Mass roughly 1 1/2 inches x 1 inch in size. We will wait for the results of the Spine MRI as well as the results from the Bone Marrow Sample and Spinal Tap. We are hoping that all comes back Negative with the other 3. If the Spine MRI comes back with “Activity” then we have already been told that “Surgery” probably wouldn’t help! If the Spine MRI does come back Negative then we will probably be looking at a 2nd Brain Surgery REAL soon!!! (probably next couple of days) The race is on and we’ve already faced some bumpy roads and got through them with the help and support of God, Family, and Friends. Now we are ready to climb any obstacle that is put in front of us! God Bless You All!!!

February 28, 2007 ROUND 2: They did find a tumor mass in Jace’s head that measured roughly 1 1/2 inch x 1 inch. We spoke to the Oncologist and he just informed us that it is “New” mass that has grown in the past month! so now we know that we really are dealing with an aggresive disease! We waited to hear from the Neuro Surgeon to see if he is going to operate again to remove the mass and then we would start chemo therapy right away, or if we are going to just start chemo treatments and hopefully slow down the growth. The Neuro Surgeon finally came in and spoke with us. He said this definetely wouldn’t be the first or last time that he would have had to go back into the head to remove something on a patient! He asked how Jace has been since the last operation and asked if we thought he was ready (body and health wise) for another surgery…. he said exactly what we already knew… go in take it out and start chemo asap! so Jace will be having a 2nd brain surgery on Wednesday March 7th. Thank you all for the prayers and support!!!

Emotionally: drained. Tired.  But still up for the fight.  I mentally prepared myself for everything possible with the news we had.  I was prepared to hear some pretty nasty things with these results, I was never prepared to hear that the tumor had grown back an inch and a half in the last 3 weeks.  Just wasn’t.  Its terrifying to think that in less than a month my “baby” who isn’t supposed to be going through any of this anyway is having his second brain surgery.  The facts aren’t as traumatic as they were though…we know what to expect now.  We know how he will look after surgery and how quickly he recovered from the last one.  We are ready for this….we are.  Next Wednesday he is scheduled to go in and they will take the tumor out again.  While he is under, they will administer his first dose of chemo directly to the spot in the brain and then we will wait for the head to heal and start chemo as soon as possible after so that we can start to fight this thing before it starts to grow back…again.

My baby is so strong.  He is.  He is going to be the amazing one through all of this and it amazes ME everyday to see him. 
Jamie

They are doing a story on Jace on Channel 3 tonight at 10:00.

I don’t do stuff like that very well, so excuse me…Josh was late from work and he wasn’t able to help. 

But I just wanted to let everyone know.
Jamie

Jace had an “Atypical Teratoid/Rhaboid Tumor” It is extremly aggresive!

We met with The Oncologist today and he went over his plan with us. In 10 days Jace will undergo another MRI as well as have a bone marrow sample taken out, a spinal tap done, and have his medi-port put in. The medi-port will be used to administer 4 different agents of Chemotherapy.

Josh did ask if this Tumor was Metastatic and the Dr. said from what we’ve seen so far, it is NOT. Of course he can’t come out and tell us it definately has not, but he “seemed” as hopeful as we are. If the cancer has not spread to the rest of his body, our chances for survival are greatly increased.

Jace will undergo 12 months of Chemotherapy with each session putting him in the Hospital for 4-5 days each time he gets treatments. The plan is to have chemo administered every 4 weeks.

After asking questions and talking to the Dr. there are a few things that are in Jace’s favor… All we need now is to pray for a couple more things to stay in Jace’s favor and it will make things that much more easier! This is going to be a long 12 months with plenty of health ups and downs, but we are preparing ourselves for this long battle!

After yesterday Josh and I are alot more clear on where we stand with this disease and we are ready to fight it. At one point the Dr said, “I am trusting you with his life, just as you should trust me.” The Oncologist we are going with has been in the cancer business 8 years…1 year at MD Anderson, 2 years at St Jude, 2 years at Duke and has spent 3 years here at Driscoll Childrens Hospital. In all his years he has only worked with Pediatric Brain Tumors.

This particular tumor affects only 1% of children across the country! Leave it to our little man to stay as unique as he can - even in brain surgery!

We love each and every one of you that send words of praise and hope our way. We are on our last “waiting period” before this fight starts and we pray that you will all stand by us and pray for us so that after this year we can all celebrate is Jace’s success!!

Jamie