Good results so far

Hello everyone!
Remi just finished his 5 day course of chemo this week. He is doing very well. He has had very few side effects. The only issue he has had is some nausea. It was pretty mild, but did keep him from sleeping the other night. Remington is not losing his hair as of right now. It actually looks a little strange seeing him with hair after all of this time.
We are scheduled to meet with the radiologist on the 25th of this month. We will have a much better idea of how much longer Remington's treatment is going to be. Our hope is to have him back on a regular schedule and in school by the new year. We will have to see what happens....
Only 2 more rounds of chemo to go!!! It is nice to finally see a light at the end of this very long dark tunnel.

Latest news

Remington is doing excellent! He is scheduled to start chemotherapy again on Monday the 17th. The good news is he will not have to spend any nights in the hospital as long as he has no reactions or problems.. the rest of his treatments will be outpatient treatments from the infusion lab. We have a meeting scheduled with the Huntsman Cancer Institute to meet with Dr. Million. She will let us know what the proposed radiation treatment is going to be.
Remi is healing so well that most people do not even know he had surgery less than a month ago. It is to the point that Remi forgets and tries to climb or pick something up and his body reminds him that he is still healing from surgery.
Last weekend we participated in an event called Survivors at the Summit. It was a fundraiser for the Cancer Wellness House here in Salt Lake City. Kim and Jon Paulding as well as Shilo and I hiked from the tram at Snowbird up to the summit. It was a climb of 3000 vertical feet over a 3 mile hike. We started at 8000 feet and completed the hike at 11000 feet. Remi and his friends rode the tram up and met us at the summit. They had prayer flags set up all over the top, musical groups performing and had several cancer survivors speak. It was beautiful and cold! Remington did need to wear oxygen while he was at the summit, but that was the only issue he had. We then rode the tram back down to the plaza. It was quite fun. It was nice to meet other families and friends of cancer survivors.

A new development

Remington came home last night!! This little event surprised everyone. The Oncology surgeon walked into the room yesterday afternoon and started talking about sending Remi home. They are very pleased and surprised by Remington's recovery. (They say he makes it look easy.) We are a good solid week ahead of what the doctors were anticipating for Remington's recovery period before coming home.
Remi still has a feeding tube and an oxygen hose connected, everything else has been removed. The doctors will remove his feeding tube as soon as he starts eating regularly and he mainly needs the oxygen at night when he is sleeping. Remi is still pretty sore and is having to use a walker to get around a majority of the time but, he is doing all of this moving by himself. Now his only requirements are to eat, breathe,walk and heal. The doctors will be meeting to determine the next steps in Remington's treatment. He will have 4 to 6 weeks to heal, then he will be completing Chemotherapy (about 4 more rounds we think). After that it is possibly Radiation therapy up at the Huntsman Cancer Center. Dr. Barnette wil be meeting with the Radiologist soon to obtain his opinion. Hopefully it will be very quiet and calm for the next little while around here. We will post any news we get. Thank you everyone. Take care and God bless you all.

Finally out of ICU

Good news! Remington has been moved out of ICU and is back up on the 4th floor. The central line and his IV lines have been removed along with the tube running up his nose and into his stomach. His mood is much improved and he is actually laughing at a funny movie. The doctors want to take another x-ray in the morning but, they are very pleased with Remi's progress today. Remington is adjusting his position in the bed by himself as well as drinking water. the doctors are going to try Remi on a clear liquid diet starting tomorrow. If he can eat and keep it down they will remove the feeding tube from his nose. The next goal will be to get Remington up on his feet and moving around. Thank you for all of your support through this time in Remington's life.

On Our Way to Recovery

Remington 's breathing tube was successfully removed today. He also had the two large chest tubes removed. He has been able to cough and clear his lungs and throat by himself. His chest X ray is showing that his lungs are clear. The doctors are impressed because he made everything look so easy. We suspect he will be moved to the fourth floor by tomorrow. Remington even smiled today. He is truly our hero and has made us very proud. We want to thank everyone for their positive thoughts and prayers.

Still in ICU

Right now Remington is doing very well. Not a lot has changed since our last post. Remi is no longer getting a continuous drip of pain medication. He has to push the button for his PCA pump to get his pain medication. The are trying to keep him as awake as possible so he can trigger the breathing instead of letting the machine do all of the work. It is a real balancing act. Keep the pain under control without putting him so deep that he forgets to breathe. The plan is changing on a daily basis, but right now they are planning on taking the tube out sometime tomorrow. This depends on how well he does this evening and the results of his chest swab. They took a sample of fluid from his lungs to check for infection this morning. Remi is resting as comfortably as he could be all things considered. We will post again when we have more news. Thank you.

The tumor is out

Remington is done with surgery. It took 8 hours , but he is finally done. They took 4 ribs as well as a part of his left lung where the tumor had grown into the lung lining. Remi now has a spot that is 8cm by 12cm that is missing the ribs and muscle. The mass they removed was roughly the size of a deck of cards. Right now he is still sedated and has tubes running out of him all over the place. (He has 2 IV lines, 2 drain tubes running from his chest cavity, 2 drain tubes running from his incision site, a breathing tube, as well as 2 tubes running up his nose and down into his stomach.) He actually looks a little like a Borg from Star Trek.
The doctors are going to keep him asleep tonight and slowly turn down the machine that is breathing for him. That way his body will take over breathing and they can remove the tube tomorrow sometime. He will then spend another day in ICU. After that it is back to the 4th floor as long as there are no complications and Remington cooperates with the therapists. We will post any news in the next day or so. Thank you.