Jayson's In Remission!

It's been awhile since my last blog, but I come with great news.  Jayson is in remission!  Praise God!  The results of his last MRI and bone marrow evaluations showed no signs of any cancer cells.  We are all so very thankful for the progress Jayson's made these past months.  It's been a long road, but his journey still continues. He still has 11 weeks of treatment left and the remaining chemo treatments are all done on a outpatient basis.  He'll have another evaluation at the end of November and we pray that the results show he's still in remission.

Jayson continues to be in good spirit and is physically feeling better.  He doesn't have any of the common side effects any longer and his hair is growing back again.  In fact, his dad has already trimmed his hair.


Jayson is now a freshman in high school.  He still can't go to school yet, so I continue to home-school him.  We hope he'll be able to attend school in January 2013.  He's anxious to get back to his normal life and be with his friends and classmates.

Thank you all for your continued prayers.  We are forever grateful for all the prayers and support we continue to receive.  God bless you all.

Update on Jayson

Jayson has been doing well these last couple of months.  In April his chemo was done as an outpatient. At times, I brought him in once a week and then there were weeks when I brought him in every day for 5 days straight.  Despite the driving back and forth, he was happy about not having to stay at the hospital overnight. 

For the month of May he returned to the original chemo schedule.  The first week of May he was in the hospital for 6 days, then in the most recent chemo, he stayed for 3 days.  He was discharged just this past Sunday evening, May 21st.  He was scheduled to return this Friday for one dose of chemo as an outpatient.  However, he came down with a fever early this morning, so I brought him back to the hospital around 5:30 a.m.  Since a fever can be a sign of an infection, he was given antibiotics right away.  A blood culture is currently being done to check for bacterial growth. He's expected to be here for at least 2 days as they wait for the results of the blood culture.  In the meantime, they are monitoring him for any other signs of infection. 

So far he's doing well right now. His fever is gone and there are no other symptoms.  He's taking a lot of naps and I'm trying to get him to do some of his school assignments when he's up.  He has over 2 weeks of school left.  So, we're trying to make sure he gets his assignments completed.  His promotion exercise will be on June 7th and we're excited to see him go through the ceremony with his friends and classmates. 

Jayson's next scheduled round of chemo as an inpatient will be June 1-6.  Hopefully, his blood count on June 1st will be high enough so they can proceed with chemo.  If he doesn't meet the blood count, chemo would be postphoned for a few days.  If that's the case, his doctor assured us that she can release him for a few hours so that he can attend the promotion ceremony.  We look forward to celebrating this milestone and other future milestone that Jayson reaches.

It's been almost 6 months since Jayson was diagnosed.  He will be getting another evaluation at the end of June and we're hoping that the results will show an improvement once again.  Please continue to pray for Jayson's health and well-being.  Thank you always for your thoughts and prayers. God bless you all.

First Evaluation Results

            As I mentioned in our last blog, Jayson was going to be evaluated two weeks ago to determine if the treatment plan was working.  He had a bone marrow biopsy done on March 13^th and a PET scan done on March 14^th. We are so happy to share that the results were better than what we were expecting.  Although two of the bone marrow biopsy sample slides did indicate the presence of some cancer cells, there were other samples that didn’t have cancer cells.  As for the PET scan, any areas that had cancer would glow.  On Jayson’s results there were NO areas that glowed!  Based on this favorable PET scan result, Dr. McManaman did not feel it was necessary or beneficial to do the CT scan and therefore canceled Jayson’s appointment for it.  Even though he’s not in remission yet, we celebrate this blessing and he'll continue with his treatment plan as scheduled.  We are so thankful for Jayson’s improvement and are optimisitic about the next evaluation in June.

Soon after this first evaluation, Jayson began a new part of his treatment plan.  Jayson’s chemo is being done as an outpatient until the end of April.  He has chemo either once a week or 5 times a week.  Each chemo takes less than 2 hours to administer.  This part of his treatment includes a new chemo med which comes with its own set of common side effects.  Fortunately, the only side-effects that Jayson has experienced are jaw pains and diarrhea. These are both easily treated with Tylenol and Immodium. Other than these side-effects, Jayson has been doing well.

He is definitely happy about not having to stay in the hospital every two weeks.  His spirit is still good and he’s eating well.  He was able to enjoy our trips to Disneyland and Legoland this past week and is looking forward to spring break next week.  For now, he’s enjoying the company of our friends visiting from Colorado, the Howell family.  We met them while we were living in Hawaii and their youngest son, Phillip, was Jayson’s classmate in elementary.  We’ve been able to give them a tour around San Diego and fortunately Jayson only had to go to the hospital on Monday for chemo.

We continue to be  grateful for everyone’s prayers and support.  We see the powers of your prayers working in Jayson and in our family.  Thank you for keeping Jayson and our family in your thoughts.  As always, we will continue to keep you updated with Jayson’s condition. God bless you all.

First Evaluation Scheduled

Jayson will be going through a series of tests this week to find out if the chemo treatment has help reduce the cancer in his body. He is scheduled to have a bone marrow biopsy on Tuesday, March 13th, a PET scan on Wednesday, March 14th and a chest CT scan on Friday, March 16th.   As I mentioned in our last posting, the skin nodules on his back and chest are visibly gone and we are hopeful that the tests will confirm this.

As for now, Jayson is doing well.  He continues to have a good appetite. In fact, he's regained most of the weight he lost since December.

He completed his 6th round of chemo on Saturday, March 3rd, after being at the hospital for 6 days.  He was alot more tired during this last round of chemo and slept a minimum of 12 hours a day.  Thankfully, there were no other new or significant side effects this time around, just slight nausea.   After being discharged, his energy level was low.  So, the following Monday, I brought him in again to the hospital to get a blood transfusion.  Soon after that, his energy level increased and he had more color on his face.  In fact, he was able to play soccer with Keilani later that day.

This increase in his energy has help him to get back on track with school work. So far, he's doing fine.  He's been in the home school program since January and the Poway school district has provided a tutor for him.  He gets his weekly assignments from his teachers who have been very supportive.   We are encouraging him to get as much of his school work done so he walk with his class at their graduation ceremony this coming June.  Any words of encouragement you can send his way would be welcomed and greatly appreciated.

Thank you once again for all your prayers and support.  We may not be able to talk to each one of you on a regular basis, but we feel and see your prayers at work.  Our family is doing well and I know our strength is coming from God and your prayers. We will continue to keep you all updated with Jayson's condition.  Hopefully, we'll be sharing some good news once we receive the results of his tests.  God bless you all.   

Chemo Round #5 Completed!

            Jayson completed his 5^th round of chemo last Thursday, Feb. 16^th.  I brought him in the hospital on Monday morning, Feb. 13^th and were there for 3 days.

Jayson did better with the chemo this time around.  He didn’t feel as much nausea or body ache as in previous sessions.  He was just tired a lot and spent a lot of time sleeping.  He has a good appetite and has gained most of the weight he lost during the first month.  He’s back to 110 lbs and so we’re happy about that.  His spirit is still good and his positive attitude makes it easier for us to deal with his situation.

We have seen two main improvements in Jayson.  First of all, the skin nodules on his chest and back have almost disappeared completely.  When they were first noticed, there were about 10 lumps total on his chest and back that were easily visible.  Now, after about 2.5 months, Dr. McManaman can only find 1 on his back and 1 on his chest.  Neither of the 2 lumps can be seen.  In fact, Dr. McManaman has to use her fingertips to search for them.  Also, these 2 remaining lumps have shrunk from their original sizes.  Secondly, there‘s evidence that his bone marrow is producing more platelets on its own.  Dr. McManaman is excited to see what next month’s bone marrow biopsy and PET scan will show.  We’re hopeful that the chemo treatment is working.

 Jayson’s next chemo is scheduled for Feb. 27^th, unfortunately, he had to taken back to the hospital late last night because he had a fever of 101.3.  Both Keilani and I have been sick the past few days and even though we’ve kept our distance from Jayson as much as possible, he still got sick.  He was given an antibiotic injection and came home early this morning.  He’ll be returning to the hospital later this evening to get another antibiotic shot and undergo a blood transfusion to increase his red blood cells.  He’ll be staying at the hospital overnight and should be back home sometime tomorrow.

 Thank you once again for your support and prayers.  We ask that you continue to pray for Jayson and join us in giving thanks for the progress he's already made.    God bless you all.

Happy New Year!

I know it’s been 2 weeks since our last blog and I apologize for not being able to update you these past two weeks.  I know there are many people who check Jayson’s blog regularly to see how he's doing and we appreciate everyone’s concerns.  Unfortunately, the last 2 weeks have been very busy.

As mentioned in the last blog, Jayson was in in the middle of his 2^nd round of chemotherapy when we said “good-bye” to 2011 and “hello” to 2102.  Unfortunately, our family was not all together to welcome the new year.  Jayson welcomed 2012 quietly with his dad in the hospital, while the rest of the family was at home.  However, we did get together later that day.

Jayson was discharged from the hospital on the evening of January 2.  We then tried to get into some normal routine that week.  I tried to spend some time with our other kids, especially, our youngest, Keilani.  I accompanied her to her ballet/tap class, volunteered at her pre-school and took her several times to the library.  During this week, we also watched the “Mr. Bayanihan” male pageant hosted by Kristen’s high school Bayanihan club to help raise money for flood victims in the Philippines.   Kristen was one of the students in charge of the show and had been busy preparing for it since early December.  She was also one of the MC (Master of Ceremony) for the show and she did a great job. We are so proud of her for overcoming her nerves.  It was rewarding to see how her hard work and long hours paid off with a successful pageant.

The following week, Jayson was scheduled to begin his 3^rd round of chemo on January 11^th, but his platelet number was too low, so chemo was rescheduled for today, January 15^th.  The second week was spent taking care of our normal routines as well as planning and preparing for Jayson’s birthday party.  Due to the uncertainty of Jayson’s actual chemo treatment, planning for his birthday party was almost last minute.  Luckily, we had many family & friends who helped us with it. 

Jayson turned 14 yesterday, January 14^th. We celebrated with a party for him at Hilltop Community Park near our home.  It was a beautiful day and the view from the hilltop was amazing despite some overcast.  Jayson enjoyed his favorite salted pepper chicken wings, chocolate cake and fresh air, but more importantly, he had a great time just hanging out and laughing with family and friends.  We had many family members who traveled down from the L.A. area to join us.  It was great to be able to thank people in person for their prayers and support.  I wish we were able to invite more people and celebrate longer. However, Jayson had chemo scheduled the following morning and we didn’t want him to get too tired or overwhelmed by the attention.  For those who weren’t able to come, I’m sure there will be more opportunities to visit Jayson.  Jayson was tired when the party ended in the mid-afternoon, but the smile on his face and his gratitude told us he had a great day.  

Today, my dad and I brought Jayson in to NMCSD 8 in the morning.  His vitals were checked and blood was drawn. The results of the blood work indicated his body was ready for chemo.  He was given fluids through his IV for 6 hours to keep him hydrated. Right now, he will be given anti-nausea medications.  Once this is completed, they will begin his chemo medications.  He’s spent most of today resting or sleeping and I expect it to be a quiet day. We’ll be here 2-3 days and we hope that the common side effects of his chemo meds will continue to be mild.  

Thank you once again for your thoughts, prayers and warm wishes for Jayson and our family.  Not a day goes by that we aren’t grateful for all the support and blessings we receive.  Happy New Year to all!