Sorry it's been so long...

My apologies to all of you who have been wondering what the heck has been going on with us the last week or so. I decided that family is family and regardless of Forester's counts we would stay the week out at Seabrook Island with Mom & Dad, Paris & the kids. I took a mini vacation from life at home & the computer. It was a great week! We had to take a few 6 hour long trips to the hospital but Sam went with us which made it more fun for Forester. We had a wonderful time just being together.
Foresters counts bottomed out last Friday & he had to get a blood transfusion which was expected. His white blood cell count bounced back up from 40 to 24,000 on Monday. Thank you Neupogen shots! So we made it through round 2 without an additional hospital stay or fever. Forester seems to be doing pretty well except for the neuropathy in his hands and legs as a side effect from the Vincristine. He struggles to walk normally and has some pain. He is now on Neurontin 3 times a day to help with these side effects. So far, we haven't seen much change & it really ups his daily pill count! It also makes him very sleepy so he's taking more naps each day. We hope the benefits will kick in soon. Amazingly, his weight is up to 74 pounds so we were able to stop the Megace liquid (so nasty!) which is an appetite stimulant. Forester was very happy about that! Round 3 begins on August 10th.
Many of you have been asking about Pete. And once again I'm sorry I haven't updated you sooner. There really hasn't been much to tell until this week. We have no concrete conclusions but all tests have come back with good results. Including the sleep study. No sleep apnea. What has been discovered and confirmed 3 times now is that Pete does have an arrhythmia in his heart called ventricular bigeminy. It's a very consistent arrhythmia and doesn't seem to be cause for concern but he's going to follow up with a cardiologist in August. The last "non-breathing" episode happened almost a week ago & Pete seems to be feeling better with each passing day. It seems whatever was happening was related to some kind of virus that was in his chest & possibly in his heart. Don't know if we'll ever have an official diagnosis but the closest one we have is Myocarditis.
I know there is more to post but this is all I have the energy for today. I've been feeling pretty worn out emotionally...I'm not sleeping much these days as I tend to be so worried about my guys during the night. My brain is suffering the consequences!


*Still trying to work out details on the Braves game on Sept. 6th. More on that soon! Thanks as always for your love and prayers. ~ Whitney

*pictures from last week at Seabrook & the hospital.

Bald Stud

Micah - loving every moment! He's like this all the time. He loves life!

Maddie & Forester ....Forester could only get his feet wet which was sad & then I found out later we should avoid the ocean altogether for a while. Boo.

Sam & Forester at the hospital. Waiting for blood to arrive so the transfusion can start.



With a transfusion comes Benedryl so Forester sleeps through most of it.






A beautiful night at Seabrook Island's Pelican's Nest. I declared this day my birthday since it was so much better than my actual birthday.






Forester & Madison. Forester has a blue mouth from a blow pop.




Slade being adorable as always.



Having fun while waiting for the food to arrive.

Pete & Forester - always close together.

Me & Slade.

Pop & Slade

Pop showing the boys something cool on the computer.



Cousins! Baby Nicholas & Slade (she looks huge! sniff sniff)