the Jones Family Blog: January 2009

Caught Up A Little

I've posted a couple pictures from the last couple months. My computer has been down so I have been unable to do any new posts until now.
Since Novemeber, we had a nice Christmas- Santa came and visited Blakey and brought him a lot of presents and Blakey got to meet some more of his Jones' side relatives. Also, he had several scans done in December which showed that the chemotherapy is working and has shrunken his tumors! At the end of December, we headed up to NYC and Blakey had the tumor steming from his left adrenal gland removed- as well as the left adrenal gland and several lymph nodes (and a liver biopsy... and another bone marrow biopsy). He also had his central line placed back in. He had a temporary one on the right side of his chest because the one on the left side had slipped out of place and an infection occurred righ before we had left for NYC.
He is recovering from his surgery well although it was rought at first. When they had first removed his breathing tube, he had quite a bit of trouble breathing on his own. So the doctors tried a medicine to open up his airways and he wore a mask for a few days. Eventually he was able to be taken off the mask and just had small tubes at his nose that just put out O2.
He's doing well now and at home playing with all the wonderful toys he got for Christmas and his Birthday (which was Jan 4th).

Also, I should mention- right around the beginning of December, Blakey took his first steps! However, since the surgery, he has not tried walking too much but I believe he will be getting back to it soon. :-)

Please take a look at the pictures I've posted. I'm sorry, they are probably out of order- I'm not that good with blogspot!

~Rachel

Sloan Kettering

I was taking a bath and I put bubbles on his head :-)

In the PICU, resting peacefully since the breathing tubes finally came out for good! He loves that little dog. It was give to him by a little boy from North Carolina who had gotten sick and was staying on the 8th floor at CHKD. (Actually his parents bought it from the gift shop downstairs) His name is "Dakota".

The only photo taken in Sloan Kettering (Memorial) Hospital- just before I noticed the sign stating that cameras weren't allowed... The clinic was really cool- they had a huge room with a great big sky light and just about every toy and game imaginable. They also had cookies, coffee, cereal and sometimes sandwhiches available to family who just came with their children for clinic visits. The hospital itself fed parents for free who were staying in the hospital rooms (called Room Service)- which was nice...