Thank you

I have been wanting to say a big thank you to everyone who has been supportive of us since Malcolm's leukemia diagnosis. We are now through a difficult period of our lives that was made much easier by many people. A few months ago, I posted an entry about some of the support we have received. I wanted to say how much we have appreciated several groups of people who have continued to show us support, with the caveat that I will likely forget to mention someone but that does not mean your thourghtfulness was not appreciated.

Different colleagues at Jan's work volunteered to make us supper every Wednesday night. We received homecooked meals every week until mid-December. They were real lifesavers whether we were in hospital or out. The warmth and encouragement Jan received at work was great and made a real difference.

Colleagues at my work were also supportive with food, visits and words of encouragement. I am looking forward to seeing everyone when I return to work in May.

St. John's United Church was supportive as well with food and well wishes. One of the most positive aspects of Malcolm's illness was getting to know a few other families better as they welcomed Donovan over for playdates with their kids. Also a very special thank you to Rev. Linda Yates whose visits I looked forward to and who has been an excellent person in whom to confide and receive comfort and advice.

Donovan's daycare, Allegro, was hugely supportive through their gifts, visits and well wishes for Malcolm, and also for the consistently loving care they provided for Donovan. Many of the parents at the daycare also supported us with food, gifts, playdates or asking after Malcolm.

There are a few friends in Halifax who were consistent visitors to me at the hospital and for that I am very thankful. It was always a bright spot in the week to have a visit from someone from the outside world. Thanks also to friends who offered playdates for Donovan so that it was easier for Jan and I to spend some time together at the hospital on weekends.

We also looked forward to visits from our Early Interventionist from the Progress Centre and were happy that we could keep a connection there and continue to focus on Malcolm's developmental needs and progress as he went through his treatment.

We thank all family that came out and visited, sent us letters, emails or comments on the blog, made phone calls, sent gifts and generally showed their care and concern for our whole family. Likewise friends from back home and afar who did the same. We also appreciate the prayer chains Malcolm joined and we thank everyone for the many prayers and well wishes for Malcolm's recovery and continued health.

Finally, the biggest thank you goes to two people who put their whole lives on hold as soon as they heard of Malcolm's illness. Jan's parents moved to Halifax so that they could be there on a day to day basis to help take care of Donovan, visit us in the hospital, make delicious meals and generally provide us with immense support and assistance as we navigated through treatment. It would have been a much more difficult time without their love, consideration and hard work. They continue to reside in Halifax and have been an immensely important part of our lives since Malcolm has finished his treatment. Both the boys have developed a close bond with them and e miss them while we are here in Ontario but look forward to seeing them when we return.

They say it takes a village to raise a child and we have certainly felt that over the last several months we would not have been able to have such happy, well-adjusted kids without contributions from so many different people. We hope you know that we have not taken a single thing for granted have appreciated every kind gesture. Thank you.

Mary Ellen

More good news

Malcolm had his one month post-treatment checkup at the hem/onc clinic today. Of course it has not been one month since he finished treatment but we had it a bit early since we are leaving Sunday for Ontario. He will have another checkup the week after we arrive home. All of his bloodwork was good today - hemoglobin was nice and high at 132, platelets were 247 and ANC was 1,500. So no concerns whatsoever.

They are very conscientious here and have made contact with one of the pediatric oncologists in London so in the highly unlikely event that we have any significant concerns while we're on our trip we know who to call and they know that we exist and what the circumstances are. On the one hand it is very unnerving to think that we are living with a disease that entails highly trained medical specialists in different cities making contact and talking about us just because we are making a simple trip to visit family, but on the other hand it is reassuring to know what to do if there is some emergency.

Malcolm is doing great. We had another speech therapy appointment this week. We are working on building his vocabulary of action words so this month are supposed to sign "give" and "bath" like crazy and also try to sign words like "come" and "go" more so that he will adopt these signs. He has started imitating them already so am hopeful he will start using them himself soon. We're also supposed to make sure we are modelling signs as much as possible when we are conversing with him, and repeat and stress simple sounds in hopes that he will imitate them verbally. He is starting to try to say a few more words verbally (for example, he sometimes says "duh" for down, "bup" for up) so it is great to see that starting to develop.

We had a huge snowstorm here and Donovan has had lots of fun shovelling. I also took him sledding again today which he loves. He is very excited to be turning 5 on Saturday and in fact has told me "Mommy, I'm so es-cited to have my birthday and be 5." We registered him for school this week and can hardly believe that he is old enough to start school next fall...

Mary Ellen