Dad and Gege got to celebreate Father's Day together with all their children.

Gege and Great Aunt Angela drove in on Saturday from Selkirk.  Grandma should be coming in on Tuesday.

Willem and Mom were released from the hospital today and made it home safe and sound.  With today being Father's Day it was a nice treat for Dad to bring his little baby boy home.

Thankfully we had Great Aunt Angela's car since the truck was ready on Thursday, but  had a releapse on Saturday.  Sigh.  Should be good now that they have ALL the parts correctly installed.

Both Willem and Mom already have appointments this week as well as all of Xander's radiation appointments.  It's going to be a busy week thank goodness for all the help.

We would like to thank all the friends who came to visit at the hospital, we hope you had as much fun as we did.

Today Xander went for his 17th radiation treatment with Dad and Baba.  Mom stayed home to get ready for a C-section later in the day. 

Xander's baby brother, Willem Gary Panasky arrived today at 6:43pm.  He weighed 8lbs 2oz and measured 20 inches.  He, and Mom are doing great.

Xander will visit tomorrow with Baba and Carol.

Xander had is fourteenth radiation treatment today which was a little out of the ordinary.

Everthing was going fine until the machine stopped working just after his first application.

That is one reason why they have a spare, but it took about an hour to get the second machine programmed and ready.  Then he received his second dose.  His sedation was maintiained throughout that time.

Xander was pretty cranky when he woke up, but was actually consolable.  Not too bad for someone who lost an hour more time, than they normally would, out of their day.

So this is the week Baby Panasky II will make an appearance.  The main focus of a number of things this week.

Dad thought he was starting the week out right.  Head out with the guys to climb Mt. Pilchuck, while he still had the time.  Then the whole family was off to Steve and Etel's for a wonderful dinner for Jason's birthday.  They also slipped in a little cake for Mom's birthday, which is later this week.

But then on the way home the transmission decided to go leaving the truck stranded on the side of 520.  A quick call to the insurance company and to Gennaro had help appear in minutes.  Gennaro took Xander, Mom & Baba home while Dad waited for the tow truck and delivered the vehicle to the garage.  Boy are we thankful Baba has her car out here, yet another one of the many ways she has been invaluable to us in during her stay.

The truck should be ready by the time the baby has to come home.

Xander is still cruising along, we were told he will have 28 radiation treatments all in all and will be done by the end of June.  We have not heard yet when he will start back in on chemotherapy.

Time is going by fast.  Xander is almost halfway through his radiation treatments.  Everything is going very smooth.

Xander is full swing into his routine now.  It will be hard to break him out after we're done.

He has been in an extremely helpful mood lately, and has been showing a lot of initiative.  For example the other day he picked up his Prevacid, which we keep in a syringe.  Dad was thinking Xander was going to squirt it out, but then Xander reversed it and drank it all by himself!  Just to think of all the times before he would fight not wanting to take it.  Plus when we flush his Hickman lines, after we're done steralising with an alcohol pad we put the syringe on the line and he pushes it in himself.  For bath time he puts his hickman line ends in a baggie and then we seal it , roll it up, and tape it down.  After we're done bathing, and have wetted the tape down suffiiciently, he takes the tape off himself.  Much better that way, if he hurts himself he doesn't care, if someone else does it - watch out.

We have had the NG tube off now for about a week.  His appetite is slowly returning but he is not maintaining his weight.  He lost a few ounces the last time we weighed him.

Lisa went in for her final OB appointment.  We have a schedules C-section next week. The baby went breach again and is no longer head down.  So it looks more and more like another C-section for sure.  No real way the baby can make an appearance on it's own in that position.

Xander went in for yet another radiation treatment.  He is quickly getting used to the routine.

Yesterday Xander, Mom & Baba arrived at UofW early.  They waited around and the doctor came out to say that it would be a few minutes.  Xander went up to him pulled out his Hickman line and waited.  But the doctor said he would be back and left.  Xander got upset and followed the doctor to the lab.  It is pretty interesting how children get used to their routines.

Lisa had another weekly OB appointment yesterday and everything is fine.  The baby's head is still down.  So if the baby wants to make an appearance before the scheduled C-section - no problem.  There is still no dialation so it shouldn't be this week.

Then late yesterday evening Xander's NG tube came out.  It was not quite taped all the way up to his nose and as he was going to bed it got pulled and came partially out.  Since we did not have the lead line to put back in the tube we could not push it back in since they are limp as noodles without the wire in them.  So, we pulled it the rest of the way out.  He wasn't too thrilled about that.  We were hoping UofW could put a new one in but they referred us back to Children's. 

However Xander did not wake up well this time around, today in the recovery room.  He was kicking and screaming like the first day, very odd.  So Mom & Baba went home and will try to get to Children's tomorrow.

We got some news on our friend whose mother has gum cancer.  She went through her surgery to remove the cancerous bone from her palate and got her palate reconstructed from bone in her leg.  She is at home recovering and visiting the doctors regularly.  She will be undergoing radiation, just like Xander, soon. It is challenging, but she is doing great.  It is amazing what caner patients have to go through in their course of treatment.

Then this afternoon we received some sad and shocking news that one of Lisa's uncles had died suddenly.  Again, we are saddened becuase we will be unable to lend our direct support to the family in this time of need.  We would just like to wish her aunt and her cousins all the best in this sad and confusing time.

That has been three trying events for our family this year; hopefully our quota is full.

Today Xander goes in a little later for his treatment since there is a simulation going on this morning.  Then tomorrow he starts going in 1/2 hour earlier due to one patient finishing his treatments.  So far so good for short term side effects although he should start feeling it more this week and next.

About the only thing that is being a bother is Xander's NG tube.  It is getting plugged more and more often.  He has had this tube for a few weeks and it may just be getting old.  You have to use a fair amount of pressure with the water flush to get through the blockages. We just hope we don't blow the tube in an inopportune spot.

Last Thursday Mom and Dad went to a Focus Group put on by a research company hired by Children's.  It involved three other families in the same post-diagnosis time period (5-6 months) that are being treated in oncology.  It was a chance for the families to share their experiences with Children's and let them know what works and what does not.  It was also a chance for the families to get to know each other and benefit for each other's experience.  All-in-all it was a very positive experience and we were glad to be a part of it.

Then Friday Lisa finally got in for her OB appointment.  The baby's head moved down just before the appointment (actually while Lisa was walking in).  So that is good news since the baby is no longer breach.  But,  just in case, a C-section has been scheduled for 6 days before the original due date.  Then the mania will truly begin.  Luckily we will have a hoard of helpers coming in from Selkirk and Saskatoon to help.

Memorial Day weekend was great. It is always nice to have a three day weekend.  Of course it ended too soon.  A BBQ over at Dave and Sandy's and some warm sunny weather yesterday was a great way to celebrate the holiday and finish off the weekend.  It was great to see Xander scooting around the back yard and playing with all the other kids.

Xander and family had another busy day starting with his second radiation treatment, then a visit to Children's and finally Lisa's OB appointment.

Xander, Mom and Baba went to UofW for his second Radiation Treatment today.  It was much easier then last time since we had hooked up a TV just before we left yesterday and put it into play today.  Xander was brought in as he was still sleeping and took about 15 minutes to wake up.  Mom and Baba had Jungle Book playing so he laid there for a bit and watched and laughed.  Then he was ready to go - much less stressful.

Dr. Reid came out with Xander's mask and demonstrated to Mom and Baba what they are trying to accomplish in Xander's radiation treatments.  There are usually three beams: one from the left, one from the right and one from the top.  Since Xander is so young they want to minimize the amount of radiation passing through the brain so they are doing two beams, one from the right and one from the front.  Thus they are trying to spare the untouched left part of the brain as much as possible.  We hopes this accomplishes both goals of irradicating the cancer and sparing his development.

Then Xander, Mom and Baba went over to Children's to see Dr. Avellino and go over the MRI results and any concerns.  Everyone who looked at the MRi said they saw no problem, however there was a white area at the bottom of the tumour site.  This was dark in the previous scans.  The staff seems to think it is either scar tissue or a blood vessel. They will keep watching it.  Dr. Avellino had no physical explanation for his 'stuttering' at the end of certain words and chalked it up to trying new words out.  He told us to let him know if it gets worse, same for the clumsiness.  There is nothing in the MRI to account for it, but to let him know if it gets any worse.  We're going to bring both up with Occupational Therapy and see if they can help us correct these behaviours.

Then Lisa and Dad went to Lisa's OB appointment, but it was doomed from the start.  Dr. Haines was behind the ball from the get go and we were coming in late in the afternoon.  Well, just after we got in he was called out to deliver so Lisa had to reschedule for Friday.

Lisa was also dropping Xander's records off at the new pediatricians today.