Spring rollercoaster

Oh, what a couple of weeks it's been! Nate was a champion after his dental surgery. He even played soccer 3 days after surgery. He healed up quite nicely and the dentist was pleased with him at his follow-up. So, hopefully, no need to see him until December.  Once the surgery was over, the countdown to Nate the Great day at his school was on! He was beyond excited for this celebration and couldn't stop telling everyone how many days were left when it was getting close. It was incredible that his teachers and fellow classmates were just as excited!

Nate the Great day was more than I could've ever expected. In a short time, his teachers pulled off a beautiful morning for all of the children of Nate's school. They sent home a notice with each child that had a brief explanation of Nate's diagnosis and of the fact that it was Brain Tumor Awareness month. Nate's class came into the gym first. A donation box was placed on one of the tables; Nate and Ben stood proudly by that box and thanked every single child that walked in and gave a donation. It was overwhelming to watch and priceless to have been part of this special day. I quickly realized that it doesn't take a lot to make a difference in this world, and damn, these boys are destined to do their part. As Nate high-fived the kids, Benjamin stood by him like his protector, thanking the kids too. It was beyond sweet. All of the classes continued in and in no time, they were running around, taking part in each of the fun activities that were spread around the gym. Most of the families don't know Nate, let alone any of us personally, and probably not even by face. But, on this day, that didn't matter. Love and support filled that gymnasium and gave us a feeling of accomplishment. These last 4 years have been difficult, to say the least. That day made such a difference in our lives; I will think about that day for a long time to come. There aren't enough words to express my gratitude to the teachers of the Seed Program in the Children's Center at BGC, the director of the Children's Center, the employees of BGC that took the time to stop in the gym in say hello, and every single one of the families that allowed their children to be a part of a morning that was so incredibly special to my little man and our family. Thank you, thank you, thank you!

 The overwhelming piece of that day was that between the teachers, the employees, the board of directors, and the children & their families, they raised almost $1500 for Team Nate the Great!!!! What an amazing feeling!

We all left the building on such a high! I was headed to Maryland right after for a bowling tournament and was looking forward to having a good weekend with my friends. The drive went well, thankfully. As I was getting ready to bowl on Saturday morning, I got the news that Nate had woken up and threw up. Not the best news to get while I'm away, but I was hoping he may have just gotten a stomach bug from being around all of the kids the day before and it would pass. He never threw up again that day, but was tired the rest of the day; pretty typical for having gotten sick in the morning. We felt comfortable in the thoughts of it being a bug. As I always say, Nate likes to keep all of us on our toes....he woke up on Sunday morning and threw up again. There I was, a 6 hour drive away, sitting in the parking lot of the bowling alley, contemplating not bowling and just driving home. Then, the thoughts pour in...is it his head? Do we call Boston now or wait? Is it just a bug? Ugh....it never ends. It took everything I had to walk into the alleys and bowl. Thankfully, I did. Somehow I pulled myself together and won the tournament. It was my 23rd win on the WNDA. It's difficult, sometimes, to express what bowling means to me, especially now, as I don't do it nearly as much as I would like to. I bowl in less than 10 tournaments a year now. I don't bowl in a league. I try to take advantage of every opportunity I get to step on the lanes to accomplish something great. Sometimes it happens, and sometimes, it doesn't.  I have never taken it for granted and every single win means something, especially that one.

It was time to go home and figure out what was going on with Nate. I was truly concerned. Sometimes, I get worried for a bit about one symptom or another and it usually passes. I was worried and just wanted to see him for myself. He was sleeping when I got home, but it was still nice to get my eyes on him while he slept. The more we thought about it, the closer we were getting comfortable enough thinking it was simply a bug that caused him to vomit. We were able to enjoy Memorial Day and he continued to do well through Tuesday as well, each day made us feel better. On Wednesday, I dropped him off at school. I picked him up and the teachers said he had a good day. He was quiet on our walk down to the car, but nothing too unusual. We started our drive home and he didn't say one word to me from school all the way home. If anyone is around Nate for any amount of time, they would know that this is abnormal! He and I arrived home, he sat on the couch, and fell asleep in less than a minute. Again, out of character for Nate these days. So, my mind goes into overdrive. Putting all of the weird symptoms together, I put in a call to his neurosurgeon in Boston to get her thoughts. We didn't think 100% it was his head, but it felt better to get her opinion. She asked us to bring him into his pediatrician to do an evaluation and then we would decided if she needed to see him. His pediatrician wasn't able to see him until Thursday, which was a little frustrating, but understandable based on the time table. On Thursday, it was decided that he had the start of an ear infection, but we would wait on antibiotics to see if any of his symptoms worsen. On Friday, he went off to school as normal and when I picked him up, I had a conversation with one of his teachers about concerns they had about Nate, some of which we had concerns about too. So, again, putting everything together, I decided to put another call in to his neurosurgeon to give her an update. They decided that doing a brain scan would be the best option to rule out potential tumor issues. Heartbroken.

I understand fully why they want a scan done, but in my gut, I feel like it's something else. I have calls into some of his other doctors on his team to get their thoughts on what's going on (i.e. the limited vomiting, ear infection, forgetfulness, confusion, memory issues). The scan has been scheduled for June 27 with a follow up with his neurosurgeon on June 28. Until then, we wait.