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Things I should be posting on the blog, but haven't been

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For those of you who faithfully follow my blog, I am so sorry to have been deliquent lately. I wish I had a great excuse for my neglect, but I don't. On the days when I think to myself, I should update the blog --sometimes I can't even get through the thought without pushing it aside. For some reason, the blog just isn't calling out to me. I feel like I am just wanting to move on or something and the blog just reminds me of cancer. I am forcing myself to post today because I fear that some people take my absense to mean that something is wrong. I am happy to report that life is great. Steven is doing so well. This week he got his new leg and has been amazing us every day with his new physical feats. Yesterday he spent over an hour on his scooter. He had tried it once with his old leg and it didn't work--he just didn't have the strength. When he tried it yesterday, he was up and going--just like the old Steven. After scootering around, he went to a frie...

Hawaii, here we come!

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I've mentioned before that Steven has been waiting, maybe a bit impatiently, to hear from Make-a-Wish. He has expected them to show up at our door any night with information on his wish. Sometimes, he would even wait by the window, and watch for his wish granters. He would ask me constantly if they had called and when they were coming. I started answering that they would come when he least expected it. Well, I was right! They surprised him on Thursday at the Cub Scout Blue and Gold Banquet, which was already planned as a luau. Our wish granters had some Polynesian dancers from BYU come to entertain us. After their first number, a hula, they called Steven up on stage to tell him that his wish to Hawaii would be granted! I was amazed that he didn't figure it out before it happened--he told me that he didn't realize that it was Make-a-Wish until he got up on the stage and saw his wish granters. They went all out for him--there were several people there with gifts fo...

Lately

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Steven has been doing so well with his new leg. On Sunday he decided not to take his crutches to church and to keep his leg on all day. He wore his new leg all day yesterday and today and has had no problem with it. He tells me he isn't using crutches around the classroom either, but I am having him take them to recess. His walking isn't amazing, but it is pretty amazing that he can walk. Here is a picture of his leg--unfinished, remember: It may be hard to tell from the picture, but he can stand up straight when he wears his leg--it is really cool. The best of all is how much he loves having a leg. Today at school he found out that he made it into the state Geography Bee at the end of March. He was so excited--when I picked him up from school he said, "Mom, do you think we could get donuts today?" I asked him why we would get donuts and he said, "To celebrate!" He was smiling so big--he couldn't wait to tell me that he made it to state. Once w...

Leg #2

(Or #3, depending on how you are counting) Yesterday we had an appointment at Shriners with Scott, the prosthetist that is making Steven's leg. We had a lucky surprise--we got to take the unfinished leg home with us to try out for a few weeks before the finishing touches are made on it. I am too lazy to upload a picture right now, but it certainly looks different from the last one and it functions a bit differently too. Steven can stand up straight and is already doing very well with it--his physical therapist thinks he is already doing better than he ever did before. I must admit that I'm a little nervous about the leg in general--worried that Steven will break his leg again by falling in a weird way. He needs to break it in slowly and so I didn't let him take it to school today. He was so disppointed--he really loves wearing his leg. I guess I will let him take it tomorrow--I will just hope that he actually takes it off at some point. Last time around, Steven did...

Where were you one year ago today?

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One year ago today was the scariest day of my life. I know I've written some about the day Steven was diagnosed, so I apologize if I am being redundant, but now that I am a year away from it, I need to write it down. It is one of those days that totally changed my world and many of the details are etched in my mind. The night before, I finally actually saw Steven's swollen knee and knew that it was more than him faking a limp. (Yes, that was one of the explanations I had for his limping--I'm that cool.) I sent the boys off to school the next morning and started on my morning chores. I wasn't thinking much about his leg, but when I noticed that it was past 9:00 and the doctor's office would be open, I called and described his symptoms to the nurse. I felt sure she would tell me not to worry about it (and I wasn't really worried about it), but instead she said the doctor could see him that very morning. I headed up to the school to pick him up and took th...

Curly hair

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Here is a picture of Steven shortly after washing his hair--after it dries it gets wavy or crazy rather than curly. One of his nurses called it the $100,000 perm. That is so true, except the price is a little outdated . I still have only trimmed up the ends--it is just too much fun to see so much hair. Today Steven got his class picture back with pictures that were taken in October. He had just a bit of fuzz on his head at the time the picture was taken and he still had that chemo look to him--a bit tired and pale. He was so embarrassed by the picture that he didn't want to show it to us. (He forgot that we had all seen it months ago when it came home as his school picture--the class picture takes a lot longer to come out.) He said, "I want to tell other kids going through cancer that they should wear a hat in their school pictures." I thought it was pretty funny. I don't remember the day he had pictures taken or if we discussed a hat possibility. At the time, he w...

This week at Shriners

Steven had two appointments this week at Shriners--one with Sonya for physical therapy and the other with Scott, his prosthetist. Both appointments went really well--Dr. Jones even came down to meet with the prosthetist with us. Talk about going the extra mile! I am feeling really good about this new leg--that it will really get Steven walking. When Sonya first saw Steven and had him do some exercises, she was amazed at how good he looked. She felt like he was better off now than he was before his break, with maybe a few minor exceptions. She had him standing in his brace and he was holding himself up just fine. Scott was also impressed with how straight Steven can get his leg. Of course, this new position is going to require a new prosthesis, so we have now officially started that process. It will be almost four weeks until he gets his leg and get started walking with it. All in all, it was a hopeful feeling. When Steven first broke his leg, I never would have guessed that ...