May 2015

May is always an important month in the brain tumor world. It's Brain Tumor Awareness month, marking everything with the color grey and filling people's worlds with brain tumor facts and figures. Such a lovely thought! :)  Along with Nate's fundraising page (Team Nate the Great), we've also had grey bracelets on hand for anyone who wants one to support our cause. As of November 23, 2015, we've raised almost $37,000! A Kid's Brain Tumor Cure Foundation (http://akidsbraintumorcure.org/) has been instrumental in raising funds for research for a pediatric brain tumor cure. The funds go directly to doctors that are doing cutting-edge research in our kid's lives. It's an amazing organization that we are proud to be a part of.

May of 2015 was a busy month for the boys. Benjamin was pumped to start T-Ball. He had been waiting all year for this moment and he took advantage of every moment.


























We opened the pool which is always the boys' favorite day of the year. Despite the cold pool temperatures, they both jumped right in. Crazy. 

First time in the pool for Benjamin

First time in the pool for Nathan

At the end of the month, we were able to celebrate Nate's "graduation" from his 3 year old program at pre-school. Super cute! And, also, Benjamin "graduated" from the same pre-school. It was a bittersweet moment as he spent 3 years at this school and would be starting kindergarten in the fall. All very good things!

Ben at pre-school graduation

Nate dancing away

Ben & Nate before graduation

May was also the month for Nathan's next set of appointments. This was the longest stretch of time in between scans. To say that I was nervous was an understatement. It's never easy to go into "MRI" time, but I was just looking forward to getting it over with, regardless of the outcome. Nate's first appointment was on the 26th with his neuro-opthamologist to check his eyes and optic nerve. He and I made the trip to Boston alone. He was so proud to be able to sit in the chair all by himself. If you've been keeping up with his story, you know that's huge for Nate! I was so incredibly proud of him, as was the doctor. His eyes were perfect and his optic nerve remained unchanged. She was hoping that we would be able to switch to yearly appointments once we got past the next MRI.

sitting in the chair at the eye doctor all by himself

The MRI was on the 27th so we made the trip back into Boston the next day. He had to take the gas mask again for the MRI (some day we'll just do the IV...). The MRI went well and recovery was smooth. We always have some time in between the MRI and the brain tumor clinic at Dana Farber so it was such a sweet surprise whenever I opened my Facebook page to see all of the beautiful pictures of our friends rocking their grey T-Shirts, their Nate the Great bracelets, and reading all of the wonderful, supportive comments. I don't think anyone even realizes how those things get me through scan day. I would not do well without it.

Finally, it was time to head to the Jimmy Fund clinic and get Nate's results. If you are in the brain tumor world, you know how important it is to hear the word "stable." That's all we look forward to hearing. We know that it won't magically disappear one day (but damn, how nice would that be!) so all we look for is stable. And we got it! Tumor looked good, ventricles looked good, Nate looked good! No complaints here. Their recommendation would be to scan again in another 6 months and then hopefully, if all went well in November, we would go to yearly scans. Whoa!

Nate after recovery giving the thumbs up!

Stable!

Bring on summer!