Nathan

Our little family would really like to thank everyone for their prayers, thoughts and offers of help. We really appreciate it! As I'm sure you can understand it is very hard to try to talk to everyone by phone or in person to keep everyone updated on Nathan's progress. So, Shelley and I (mostly me, I'm guessing) will try to keep everyone up to date through this blog. We will try out best to do it daily but we might not be able to.

The first update is that we still don't know everything! ;-) As some of you have heard me say (or type), I sure hope to know more tomorrow....

The official written diagnosis has not arrived yet, however the lab has phoned our doctor, Dr Kaiser Ali, to tell him that Nathan has Standard Risk B-precursor Acute Lymphoblastic Leukemia (ALL). ALL is a cancer of the blood cells. It develops in the bone marrow and is a cancer in which young abnormal infection-fighting white blood cells, called blasts, crowd out normal bone marrow cells and spread into the blood stream. Blasts can also spread to the brain, spinal cord, testicles and other organs.

Nathan had surgery this morning to insert a port (port-a-catheter) into his chest. It gives the doctors a simple way to deliver medications, fluids, and blood products into the bloodstream. It can also be used to obtain blood samples. We think this will be very helpful as Nathan is already very tired of needles.

Nathan also had his first chemotherapy injection at the same time as the port insertion. He had medicine inserted directly into his spinal fluid to prevent the leukemia from transferring there.

We are to meet with Dr Ali this afternoon to go through the protocol (treatment plan) for Nathan. The first phase of treatment is called Induction and it lasts 5-7 weeks. During this phase we hope that all or most of the cancerous cells will be eradicated and that Nathan will reach remission. I do not know how much longer we will be in the hospital for, it depends on when Nathan is stable. If you ask me, he already is a pretty stable boy!! He has retained his sense of humor and continues to be a good, albeit impatient, patient.

It is time for me to go as Nathan is waking up from his nap. Please continue to pray for us.

-Arron

Thanksgiving Weekend

Well we had a very nice weekend at the cabin even though that is not what we were planning. Dad, the boys and I decided to go check out the roads on Sunday and it was fine to drive in there using the stump ranch road. We had a very nice thanksgiving meal and some great visiting. We managed to get out on the river and had Dillon and Maureen with us and Dillon managed to catch a fish (right in front of Rod’s moose camp). A beaver also hung out on the bank as we drove by no more than 20 feet out on the river and watched us go by.

We also got to celebrate Nathan's birthday out at the cabin on Sunday. He got the bumps and his little brother "I too" couldn't be left out so Justin got some bumps as well. And if you did forget to wish Nathan happy birthday he reminded you fairly quickly... right Uncle Rodney? :-)

Monday morning we got up and got all of the kids out for a walk. We saw a bunch of grouse on that back trail (about 10). Then we spotted a porcupine up a tree. He got out on a pretty small limb pretty high up, hopefully he knew what he was doing. Then Shelley, Mom, Carter, Nathan and I set off to see the beaver dam that has the river blocked off. We parked on that little island and the boys had a great time finding clams. They couldn’t believe there were so many (and why were there so many?). We made a couple of passes through the fishing area and Carter, Shelley and I each caught 2 fish and we kept 3 total. I was very surprised to see that the two larger ones (not that big) were both right full of eggs. Why would they be full of eggs at this time of year? Grandma didn’t catch anything but a rock bass and Carter said that wasn’t surprising! ;-)

Then later when Dad and I were taking out the boat and dock I saw an animal on the same bank as us. He dipped into the water pretty quickly and you could see his bubbles going across the river. He came out on the far bank by the beaver dam carrying a fish carcass. Looked like a pretty big river otter (that was my guess). This thing was sleek, dark brown and bigger than Boze and hopped up the bank kind of like a weasel. If something is going to feed off those fish carcasses we are throwing an otter seems like a good thing to have… any downsides to them?

Lastly, when we were driving out around the field edge we spied some more grouse. Shelley got out to take a picture and she flushed them and there were 14-16 birds in that flock.

Great weekend. Pictures are up to go with the stories.

Fall is Upon Us

Well fall must be here! Arron went elk hunting for 3 days with his buddy Roger Bell, Papa Ray and Jim Kellett. We had LOTS of fun but no animals were harmed during the making of our adventure! We did have a great afternoon of fishing and Arron managed to pull a 7lb walleye out of the Carrot River. Freezer is going to feel empty without any elk meat in it - I guess I'll have to try for a couple of deer. :-)

Carter spent the last two weekends at Novice Levelling for hockey. He did quite well and we'll find out shortly what tier he is in. He was having fun and that was the main thing.

Shelley is off on a training course in Vancouver this week. Grandma and Grandpa Miller are coming in to make sure Shelley's boys don't blow up the house or hurt themselves.... we'll miss her!

-Arron

Happy Birthday Grandpa Ray!

Happy 70th birthday Grandpa Ray! We had a great long weekend out at the cabin celebrating Grandpa's birthday. The weather was good, the fishing was beautiful and the company was great as usual.

Check out the pics in the gallery, there are some nice fish there!

-Arron

Trombleys and the Ex!

On Wednesday Arron, Shelley and the boys took in the Saskatoon Exhibition. The kids had a great time eating junk food, going on rides, and playing games. They even took in the Franklin show. Some pics in the Summer Vacation gallery.

On Saturday we drove to David Laird park just outside of Battleford to visit with the Trombleys. Most of Mom's brothers and sisters were there and it was quite a nice time. A fair few of the nephews and nieces showed up as well. It was great visiting with everybody. Check out the Trombley gallery.

And last but not last the house is still chugging along. We are now at lock-in; the windows and doors are in and the shingles are on. Yay!

-Arron

High School Reunion

Arron, Shelley and family went back to Carrot River to take in Arron's 20year High School Reunion. We had a bonfire, toured the school, did some golfing had a supper and went to the bar where a classmate played with his band Zwicked.

It was a great weekend but no pictures from me....

Busy, busy, busy

Been a real busy summer so far. We've been on a few excursions and have been working hard at getting our new house decisions out of the way.

You can check out the galleries to look at Summer Vacation pics so far and to look at the progress of our house - framing has started!!

-Arron