High Five

Good news! The PET scan came back showing no signs of cancer. We are so happy. Even though they got all the cancer in the surgery they highly recommend chemotherapy. They said without chemo   the recurrence rate is very high. I guess 60-90% of people who choose not to do chemo will get it again. Because he is so young, he is at a greater chance of it coming back in his lifetime. So we are definitely doing chemo. He starts his treatments September the 9th. It will last for 6 months. He will be on chemo for 3 days every 2 weeks. So he will have 12 rounds of chemo. They will be inserting a port into his chest before he starts chemo that stays there for the 6 months and allow them to administer the drugs, without starting IV's each time. On day one, he will go to the hospital where they will attach a pump with the drugs to the port in his chest. He then can come home for 2 days and on day three he goes back in to get it taken off. This is great news. It will make life a lot less hectic and busy.

When the resident told Layne he had no other cancer, you could see him have immediate relief. He even cried a little. Unfortunately the resident was lets just say, very reserved and Layne took him by surprise when he jumped up to high five him. It was hysterical. A lot more funny than me telling it. The Dr. kinda karate chopped Layne's high five and then proceeded to continue telling us the side effects of all the drugs, without even cracking a smile. It has definitely brought some humour to our evening.

The drugs that they will be administering for chemo do have side affects. The most common side effects are mouth sores, hand and foot syndrome, thinning hair (not loss) and I guess he can't drink cold water or have anything freezing as it will really bother his esophagus. They said their goal is to have Layne not throw up once. So we are really positive going into this. Even though it will still be difficult going through this, we are really hoping these are the only side effects he will have. They even said a steroid he will be one will increase his appetite and he will be able to gain weight during the next six months.

Today was a good day. I think we will all sleep a bit better tonight. Layne is even having a little celebration with some of his favourite cousins tonight. The boys are in Edmonton with my parents for the week ( I worked all week). But we will definitely celebrate with them when they get home on Sunday.

Cousins Jordan, Layne and Kyle

The boys got to go to the West Edmonton Mall water park today...

and went to DQ for a treat after! Thanks Mom and Dad!

Montana/PET scan

The boys have been awesome through all of this. We love them so much. They bring so much happiness into our lives. They have been here, there and everywhere over the last 6 weeks and have been such troopers. The only time Blake has complained is one time when he told me he had "too many beds". But starting this weekend, things should slow down and he will have one bed for a while. It's crazy how only at the ages of 4 and 2 they have a pretty good idea of what is going on. They are very concerned for Layne. Blake is always so happy when Layne does something he couldn't do before. An example of this is when Layne came home he went down the stairs to the basement. Blake was so happy, he said "Dad, you walked down the stairs! Good Job!". Ty always makes sure Layne isn't back in the hospital again. He says "Daddy in hospital?". He is always relieved when I tell him no.

Having some good snuggles!

Having a good nap out on the deck.

On a walk with Ciana and Harper

Harper would go and walks everyday when he came home

Got sent this picture today of Layne's Uncle and cousin visiting from Idaho

We did have a little scare where Layne had to go back to the hospital. While the boys were down in Montana, Layne had an appointment with the surgeon to make sure his incision site was healing properly. We asked him if he thought it would be okay for Layne to go to Montana for the next week so we could be with the boys. He said everything looked awesome and he should be okay. We did have travel insurance for Layne until the end of August and we were only 3 hours from the closest Canadian hospital, so we decided to go down. We were able to spend a few days enjoying time with family at the cabin. Three days after being there Layne went on the boat with us for a few hours and played a little frisbee with us in the afternoon. Later that night while all the kids were back on the boat, I guess Layne started passing out and not being very coherent. It took a while but he started to feel a bit better so we decided to let him sleep the night and his mom would take him home in the morning. When the morning came he still was feeling pretty dizzy and not right so they left. They took him to the Cardston hospital where they did a whole bunch of tests and determined he was dehydrated. Layne has to be very careful that he drinks lots of water every day, the colon is what absorbs water into your body. Now that he has 90% of his colon removed he can become dehydrated easily.  Even though Layne has been very good about drinking 8-10 cups of water a day it seems if he gets out of sun and is active at all he gets dehydrated. So, of course, it happened while we were down in the states. After getting Layne on IV fluids he started to feel much better but unfortunately even after that, it took him a week to recover from it. It totally drained him. We will definitely be more careful in the future.

Waiting for the result of the tests at the Cardston hospital

Layne would have had to come home a few days early from the cabin anyways because he had to get his PET scan done in Calgary. Because I am pregnant I was not allowed to take him to the scan. Layne can not be around any children, pregnant women or immunocompromised individuals for a few hours after the test. Thankfully Layne's mom is awesome and she wanted to take him to the scan, even if that meant leaving all of her family early from the trip she took us on. I am so glad she is such a good mom. Nothing like a mother's love. It will definitely benefit our little family this year. Because I wasn't there, I am not sure how the day went but I know Layne was pretty nervous. From start (prepping him for the scan), to finish, it took him about an hour and forty-five minutes. His arms were pretty sore for a few days after because he had to hold still with his arms up for about 25 minutes. Jackie made sure she took lots of pictures. We are getting the results of the scan tomorrow afternoon.

Some lunch after the scan

Looking Handsome

Coming Home

The Saturday Layne came home was the same weekend as Magrath Days. In Layne's home town every summer they have a weekend of celebration. There is a parade and fire works and tons of activities. Layne's favourite thing of the weekend is the family softball tournament. All of his extended family was here and we made it to the softball finals this year. Layne was discharged from the hospital a few hours before the final game. His mom and Rusty came to pick him up while I spent some time with the boys and watched the parade with them.  He felt good enough to watch the game and we won this year. It was a great welcome home.

Cheering us on from the hospital

             

On his way home!

Watching the game

Softball champs!

It is nice to have Layne home. It was good to have all our family together. While he was in the hospital it was very difficult to manage my time. I felt like I needed to be with him but I also felt I needed to be a good mom and spend time with the boys. It was a relief to all be in the same house. It's now been a month since he got out of the hospital. He has his good days and his bad days but over all is getting better. He has a long road to recovery. Unfortunately he was supposed to start his last semester of school today but we are having to put that off for a year. The university is being very good about it and is letting him postpone his practicum. He also was taking a summer course at the time he was admitted to the hospital and even though he wasn't able to finish the class they passed him. It was definitely a relief as it was his very last university class before his practicum.

We own a house in Lethbridge but decided it was in our best interest to move into Layne's mom's house for the year. Funny thing is we have been wanting to move out here for a while and thought this would be the year we could move out here because Layne would be done in four months. We looked at houses to buy and houses that we could rent. I even signed Blake up for preschool because we were certain things would work out... but we never felt good about anything. We finally settled with the idea that we would wait until next summer to consider moving again. When all of this happened we realized why we weren't feeling good about anything. If we bought a house or rented out in Magrath we finically would not have been okay this year. Living with his mom we will be able to get the help we need this year. Especially with a baby on the way while Layne will be going through chemo. We were able to rent out our house to my brother and 5 other roommates. We are so grateful for all our family and everything they are doing for us. We were able to move out here a few weeks ago while the boy's were down in Montana with the rest of Layne's family. We are so grateful for everyone in Lethbridge and Magrath who helped with the move and getting our house ready for renters. We couldn't have done this all without you. It feels nice to be settled before Layne starts chemo. Two days until we find out his treatment plan!

I am just going to post a few more pictures that I was sent from his sister of him at the hospital...

Having a snooze with a dream catcher paige brought him to help him sleep better

Brock our nephew was very good at visiting the entire time Layne was there

The boys on an elevator ride

Looking at all the get well posters

Snuggling with their Aunt Tycee

After Surgery

Sorry this is a pretty long one with lots of pictures. Just trying to get caught up!

Layne was in the hospital for eight days after his surgery. Five of those eight days he was on an epidural for pain management. It took them a little while to figure out how much to give him so the morning after the surgery he was in a fair amount of pain until they were able to catch up with it.
After that the pain wasn't a big issue. It only hurt him to cough. Unfortunately he does it quite a bit with having broncho pulmonary dysplasia. Because of it he always has a little cough but after the surgery it got pretty bad. They were really concerned about him catching pneumonia and we had to be on top of him with breathing deep to expand his lungs. Thankfully we have avoided it so far but he has had to go on antibiotics a few times as he was coughing up green stuff.

Getting a shave the day after surgery.

Grandma Rice came for a visit.

The day after surgery Layne seemed to be doing pretty good. At around dinner time things seemed to change. He was getting nauseous and you could tell he was getting pretty anxious.  He started to throw up a lot. All bile and blood. At this point he hadn't eaten for 3 days. The nurse didn't seem to concerned about it and gave him some Zofran (Antinausea medication). That settled things down a bit but you could still tell he was anxious because he felt something was changing. At this point he asked for another blessing and his brother and one of his best friends was able to give it to him. It was really nice again and reassured us of things. Layne was able to fall asleep after that and I went home. His mom stayed the night with him and I am glad she did. He woke up and started vomiting again and says he felt like his esophagus was burning off. At this point they had already put in a page to the Dr. on call but he was not responding and from that time to the time he finally came up it was 4 hours. They were able to put an NG tube down his nose to suck out all the bile and blood which relieved his symptoms right away. Before that point he told me the next day, he thought he was going to die.  The NG tube stayed in for 2 more days until he started drinking liquids. The nurses were nice to Layne the first day and didn't make him get up because if he would move his head, he would throw up but after they placed the tube the next day he had to start moving and sitting up, Layne was even able to go for a short walk that night, with lots of help. He had lots of people to cheer him on.

Morning after NG tube was placed.

First time sitting up.

                                                

First time walking. He made it to the door and back.

The boys came to visit Layne for the first time. They were pretty nervous at first but would hold his hand by the time they were leaving. 

Layne's first meal. Veggie broth, and jello. Yummy!

Layne had gone about 6 days with no food or drink. By that point I was getting pretty anxious to get something into him. When he got home from the hospital he weighed a whooping 103 pounds. Thankfully he has been able to get up to 110 at this point and we are hoping to get a few more pounds on him before he starts chemo. He has always had a hard time putting on weight so it is a pretty big stress in out life giving him a high protein, high fat diet. It took a few days for him to tolerate the liquid diet and get his bowels working again. They were able to attach his small intestine to the 8 inches left of his large intestine. It was a very happy day for us when he was finally able to have a bowel movement. He was thinking things would never be the same down there but over time things seem to be regulating. He just has to eat smaller meals more frequently throughout the day or else his stomach can get pretty distended.

Each day in the hospital he seemed to get better. Slowly they were able to take out all of his IV's. The boys would come and visit and go on walks with him. We were able to have a movie date one night. The saturday he was able to go home all of his family was visiting from out of town... I will do a post about that and whats happened since he has been home, later.

Date night!

First real food. Beef on a bun!

Having fun with the boys!

You don't know what tomorrow will bring

It all started about 5 years ago. Layne started having stomach pain, occasional bleeding in his stool and diarreah. We started seeing dr.'s about it back when we lived in kingston and as the years went on the symptoms continued to get more severe. All tests came back negative. Unfortunately they attributed his symptoms to irritable bowel syndrome and we were never given a CT scan or colonoscopy.

Over the last 4 months the pain started to become unbearable. We were finally referred to a gastroenterologist to see about getting a colonoscopy. It took us 4 months to get in to see him. The day he was scheduled to see him all hell broke loose. Layne had been in and out of emerge for the last week because he could no longer have a bowel movement. They had given him pain medication and laxatives and told he most likely had chrone's. The laxatives did not work. The day of his appointment he woke up in the worst pain he had ever been in. He still ended up going to school that day because he knew he had the appointment in the afternoon. Unfortunately the pain got so bad he could hardly walk, talk or breath. His mom had to come and pick him up outside of the library where layne was laying on the cement waiting for her. They went early to his appointment and after seeing the Dr., were told he was constipated and that he would be sent home with a stronger laxative and pain killers and maybe do a colonoscopy. Thankfully Layne's mom was there with him and informed him they would not be leaving until something was done. So they called down a surgeon who told us Layne had kidney stones. They were again going to send him home. Thankfully she again would not take that for an answer and after a lot of persuasion they agreed to do a CT scan.

During all of this I was at work and didn't get off and over to the hospital until 10 minutes before the results of the CT came back. The surgeon came in and informed us that Layne had a naval orange sized mass in his transverse colon. They told us it could either be a abscess of infection from Chrone's disease or a tumour. They admitted layne to the hospital and scheduled him for a colonoscopy the next morning. I think they gave us the idea of an abscess of infection to lessen the blow of a tumour because the next morning they started calling it a tumour and cancer before they even did the colonoscopy. Layne was able to receive a priesthood blessing right after he was admitted to the hospital from Cole, Connor, Uncle Bob and Rusty. For those of you who don't know what that is, as member's of The Church Of Jesus Christ of Latter Day saints we believe in continuous revelation from God and through the priesthood and through the laying on of hands the sick can be blessed. It was a nervous time for everyone and after Cole had given the blessing there was a calmness and a reassurance, that no matter what happened we would be okay in the end.

Like, you already know after the colonoscopy they determined it was a tumour and sent away biopsy's to find out what kind. The tumour was so big it had completely blocked off his colon (that was why he could no longer poo). He was scheduled for emergency surgery that night to remove the tumour and 90% of his colon. They did this because he had other polyps in his colon and by removing 90% of his colon, he was at a 90% less risk of developing colon cancer again. They also removed 58 lymph nodes to test them for cancer. We did not get the results back until 5 days later. They determined he has stage 3 colon cancer and 5 of the 58 lymph nodes had tumours in them. He will not be seeing the oncologist until next week to determine a treatment plan. He went up to Calgary yesterday to have a PET scan. This scan will tell us where else the cancer spread but takes a week to get the results.

Back to the night of the surgery... is was a whirlwind of a day. I would have been around 16 weeks pregnant and still feeling pretty nauseous. I don't think I have shook so much in my life waiting for him to come out of that surgery. They were worried the tumour was attached to other organs (Spleen, Kidney and Pancreas). It looked really close on the CT scan. The surgery ended up taking about 3 hours. Originally they took him in at 6pm but he had to wait until about 7:15pm. They called me back in to wait with him until they could take him back. Thankfully they did. When the anesthesiologist came in to ask for a medical history, Layne was so high on morphine he would have said no to every question. When they got the question asking about lung or heart problems I was able to tell them layne was born at 26 weeks and has bronco pulmonary dysplasia and had open heart surgery as a baby. (he told them he had no problems haha). They took him very serious from that point on, started a central IV just incase problems arised in surgery and told me after, they were able to sit him up a few times during the surgery to clear his lungs. It was just shortly after 11 when the surgeon came out and told us every thing went as good as it could. The tumour was not attached to any other organs and they were every aggressive in removing most of his colon and surrounding lymph nodes. He seemed pleased with how the surgery went and said we would be able to see him in recovery in a bit. My parents were driving down from Edmonton while all of this was happening and were able to get there right before we were able to see Layne in recovery. Layne's dad also came back from Montana just before Layne went into surgery. It was good to see Layne after the surgery but it was scary as well. I don't like seeing people so doped up on drugs. He was able to talk to me and i was able to tell him how the boys were doing. We have the best family on both sides of the family. They have been awesome with watching the boys and taking care of us over the last month. I was finally able to go home and get some sleep after I saw Layne. Unfortunately as soon as I lay down I wasn't able to stop thinking about things and probably for about a week had a hard time sleeping.

I will write another post about post surgery in a bit but I just wanted to thank all those who came to visit Layne, sent cards, text messages and emails while he was in the hospital. Also thank you to everyone who brought meals and helped with the boys. We are truly blessed to have so many people willing to help us during this difficult time!

This is Layne the night he was admitted to the hospital before surgery. Thankfully they were able to get most of the pain under control and he was able to get some sleep!