For those of you that haven’t seen the article today here is the link on the stuff website:
http://www.stuff.co.nz/4513458a11.html
He has starred in the Dominion Post and the Christchurch Press as well. Great articles, I am very impressed with how they have been written – just not too impressed about how big my nose looks!
We have an appointment to see Dr Charles Davis at Lower Hutt hospital on Friday morning to talk about the surgery and hopefully set the date.
Becs
x
What a beautiful day it is on the sunny Kapiti Coast today, you could almost be forgiven for thinking it was summer (apart from the fact it is freezing), lets hope for good weather like this for the rugby match on Saturday.
Liam had a good day at school yesterday, has just slotted back in no worries. Typical 7 year old boy style he twisted his ankle doing something or rather – not sure I wanted to know what – and is limping a bit, when he remembers to.
I sat down with him last night and told him that he wasn’t going to be having the chemotherapy and just surgery. I explained that the surgeons would have to go in through the side of his face which he is not in the least bit worried about. He said he would be asleep but asked would it hurt when he woke up. I told him he would be a bit sore like he was when he woke up from the last one, and then you could see it dawning – his biggest fear “Will I have a plaster on my face?” That was the only thing that brought him to tears over the last few weeks was the plasters being pulled off his skin! If that is his only worry its not too bad! He thinks its pretty cool too to be having a titanium plate in his face for the rest of his life, he was going to share that for news at school today.
We should be hearing from the surgical team at Lower Hutt sometime this week and will be able to sit down with them and know exactly what they will be getting up to, and how many surgeries he will have to have over the next few months/years. He may also need radiation afterwards, but haven’t had any confirmation regarding it, I don’t think they like me to get too far ahead of ourselves, but you know what I’m like I want to know everything now! It will be nice having a plan of attack and beginning the fight to get rid of this thing.
Must get back to the statistics assignment I am trying to work on (*yawn*)
Becs
Have just had a phone call from Dr Rob Corbett who is the paediatric oncologist we were seeing in Christchurch. The preliminary results from Australia have come back showing the tumour as being what is known as a myoepithelioma. This means that the tumour has originated from the salivary glands. It is extremely rare in adults and even rarer in children.
The treatment is therefore removal. On the aggressive side of things the pathologist believes at this stage that it is at the lower end, and reasonably slow growing, which is good news.
We will be staying in Wellington and he will be treated with surgery at Lower Hutt hospital. We will now wait for the formal results to come in and then the phone call from the surgeons in Lower Hutt.
It is nice to have a diagnosis finally, and we will look forward to when we can say “remember when”.
Becs
x
After settling back in on Friday it was very nice to sleep in our own beds again. We wandered down to Waikanae park early Saturday morning so that Liam could watch his team play rugby. He is still very gutted that he can’t play this season but understands why, and hopefully there won’t be too much to stop him playing in the future.
We have tried to take it pretty easy over the weekend, Helen and Gerard helped us out by delivering a few loads of firewood which Jasper had split a few weeks ago and we all stacked it out the back. It is certainly freezing up here, but looking at the weather on the rugby on Friday night it looks freezing down in CHCH too!
Kids are off to school tomorrow thank goodness, I think they are both looking foward to it, not sure how long Liam will be there, but even a couple of days will be good for him (and for my sanity of course)
Apart from spending a fortune on new winter clothes for the kids today we haven’t done much else. Hopefully I should have some news to report tomorrow and if not then hopefully on Tuesday.
Take care
Becs
BOWMAN TODD MEMORIAL – Fundraiser for the Mary Potter Hospice and Ronald McDonald House. On the 19th of May 2006 Matt Todd, a young Kapiti Coast father of two, lost his battle with a brain tumour. He was 34 years old. Five weeks later on the 25th of June, his friend Dave Bowman, also a young Kapiti Coast father of two, lost his battle with a brain tumour. He was 36 years old. They both fought long and hard against a debilitating and cruel illness. Both Dave and Matt were cared for in their final days by the wonderful staff at the Mary Potter Hospice in Wellington. The staff there treated them with dignity and respect. The Hospice staff are truly very remarkable people. The Hospice receives a mere two million dollars in Government funding per year to operate and relies heavily on donations. Tragically, on the 16th of April this year, Matthews 7 year old son, Liam was diagnosed with an aggressive malignant tumour located in his sinus cavity. He is being treated in Christchurch by a wonderful team of Doctors. Liam and his family have been staying at Ronald McDonald House. They describe it as a fantastic place to be during such a difficult time and would love for fundraising from this years event to benefit the organisation. On the 10th of May 2008, the BOWMAN TODD memorial rugby match is scheduled to be played at Waikanae Park at 1.15pm. This is an annual event in memory of Dave and Matt and all funds raised will be donated to the Mary Potter Hospice and, in light of Liam’s recent diagnosis, Ronald McDonald House. The game will involve a Police Invitational team, as Dave was a Policeman, versus a Waikanae invitational team, as Matt was heavily involved with the Waikanae Rugby Club. There will be an air castle, Police puppy display and the operational Police Dogs will be performing a chase and attack display at half time. A large Marquee will be on site in the event of poor weather and food and drink sales will benefit the charities. There will be some great prizes to be won too! The Waikanae Hotel are also supporting this event and have organised a night out not to be missed. A live band will be playing in the Murphy’s Law Bar and proceeds from certain drinks sales will benefit the charities. This will get under way from 7pm on the same Saturday, May 10. Public support will be crucial to make the day a success for the charities, the teams, the supporters and the families involved. We would love to see you at Waikanae Park and afterward at Murphys Law Bar for a fundraising event that will be a lot of fun and benefit a great cause. If you would like to support the event in any way then please contact Ty Davidson through the Kapiti Police Station on 04 2966800.
We arrived safely into Wellington Airport after a bit of a bumpy ride late last night. We decided to stay in town for the night instead of driving that extra hour to get home to the Kapiti Coast.
We are now home and I am procrastinating around the job of unpacking. Not entirely sure how we managed it but we went 60kgs over weight on the plane – Opps – cost us a pretty penny too I might add. When the plane tilted a bit to the side we thought it might be that our bags had slid to one side of the plane and it was struggling to straighten up!
It was nice to come home to russian fudge in the fridge, and the groceries stacked – Thanks Victoria!!
We discovered this morning that there are people in Scotland also reading this blog so we know that there are lots of thoughts and good vibes coming from around the world –
Japan, Ireland, Afganistan, London, Germany, Australia and now Scotland – how impressive is that! – not to mention from one end of New Zealand to the other.
Liam is doing well, still in good spirits and acting like any other normal 7 year old. I am sending him back to school on Monday, (not sure how impressed he is about that) – the doctor said there was no reason he shouldn’t go. It’s nice to have Ashleigh back with us too, and we can all sleep in our own beds tonight. It really is nice to be home, but it would be alot better if we were through the first portion of the treatment and not still waiting!
Not sure if we will have a lot to report over the next couple of days as we will be taking it pretty easy I think, but will still write just to let you all know we are still around!
Becs
x
Ps. Someone left a pair of really cute Dora the Explorer sneakers here on the Saturday before we left. Anyone want to claim them?
We are heading home to Wellington today. Although I dearly want to go, it means that we still do not have a definitive diagnosis. We met with the Doctors today who advised that the biopsy has now been sent to Australia for them to have a look at. They said all the pathologists here have had a look at it and know what it is not, but are still having trouble actually pinpointing exactly what it is. This is incredibly disappointing as we obviously would have liked to be well into the treatment this many days out from the original diagnosis.
There is a strong possibility that the tumour is non-responsive to chemotherapy which is not that great. This means that the only option will be surgery which is very invasive and will involve several surgeries as Liam gets older and his bones grow.
If the tumour is responsive to chemotherapy we will be back down here next week to begin treatment. Although this takes us away from home and chemo is not going to be that nice, it will shrink the tumour and the surgery will not be quite as traumatic.
Our flights are being booked for early this evening and Liam and I will head out the coast later tonight.
Becs
x
Thought you might like to see Liam in his Crusaders jersey.
No news today unfortunately. We will go visit the Doctors tomorrow afternoon and have a chat as it appears to me that the tumour is growing after staying pretty much the same over the last week. Although I would desperately love to go home to await any results, I don’t think that would actually be in Liam’s best interests.
We saw the girls off at the airport this afternoon, and they arrived safely at Wellington. Back here at Ronald McDonald things are a bit quiet without them as it is now just me, Jasper and Liam.
Liam is going to go to his cousin Jack M’s house for the day tomorrow so they can spend some time doing boy things.
Thats about all I have to report today, very quiet day, the weather has turned pretty sour-the southerly has come through and it is cold! I am glad now that I have brought the thermals. Yesterday it ws 23 degrees and today we would be lucky to hit double figures I reckon. bbrrggghhhh……
Becs, Jasper & Liam
x
Hi all,
The highlight of Liam’s day today has to be the gift of a Crusaders jersey with the following written on it:
“Liam, all the best with your fight”. It is signed by Richie McCaw, Robbie Deans, Greg Sommerville, Leon McDonald and a few others whose signatures we need to decipher. He is very very chuffed with it and we are going to get it framed for him and put it on the wall to give him courage.
Thank you so much Tusha for organising it, I wish you could have seen his face when it was delivered.
Jasper and the kids went to QEII pools today, they left at about 11.30 and got out of the pool at about 4.45! They had a fabulous time and Amelia even jumped off the 10 metre diving board. She certainly has more courage than me! From what I understand they spent a fair amount of time on the hydroslides.
I spent the day studying trying to keep my head above water so missed out on all the fun, but I got alot acheived.
Olivia, Jess and Meals are flying back to Wellington tomorrow afternoon, and hopefully we will get a better idea of what our plans are doing from the doctors.
Until tomorrow, hope everyone is well.
Becs
ps – Ran – a city with no people in it is – electricity!!