Knock, Knock, its Abbie, Emily and Courtney (Debbie and Heather too)!  Apparently the girls decided they were going to do a cookie bake sale to help Travis with his travel to Houston or at least to help cover his McFlurries while we are there.  No, this is not an April Fool’s joke…this is real!  So, they baked and they sold, they baked and they sold, and they baked and they sold some more.  They sold to family, friends and neighbors.  Evidently the cookies were so good and their sales technique was so irresistible that they were able to raise a box of money.  Are you kidding me?  Literally a box of money called “Travis’ Travel Funds!”  This most generous gift will cover the cost of airfare for one us to travel back and forth to Houston every weekend we are there.  The word on the street is that those are some good cookies made by some special people.

Thank you to the bakers, Abbie, Emily, Courtney, Debbie, Heather and to all of your “customers” from the bottom of our hearts!  Yesterday, we were just saying how fortunate we are to be surrounded by so many positive people and we are truly blessed to have YOU in our lives!

Those must have been some good cookies!

And then if things couldn’t get any better, the Anderson family brought a great dinner for us.  It just so happens that they are also part of Brownie Troop 1851 who decided they would make some posters for Travis and each Brownie member donated the cost of a McFlurry so that Travis will not have to worry while we are in Houston.  They do have McDonalds in Houston, right?

Thank you all!

As we write this, we are so choked up and still in disbelief.  Words cannot express how grateful we are to have such wonderful friends who would go to these extremes for Travis (and us).  You all are such amazing and caring people.

Love,

Lynne and Tony

Sarah arranged to have a tree dedicated at school in honor of Travis.  The class also decided to plant some cantaloupe in the school garden for our little gardener.  All of the kids in Mrs. Roberts’ class created “Wish Sticks” where they made wishes for Travis and planted them in the garden too.  Wow!  Thanks Sarah, Kileen, Ellyse for all your stick painting and Mrs. Roberts’ class for your support of Travis.

Travis’ Aunt Karen arrived today and it is great to have her here!  She went straight from the airport to ECC for the garden planting. She said that even though she can’t be here all the time to help us out, she is glad to know that we have such a great support system.

Clarksville Academy Cougars!

Thanks,

Lynne and Tony

This morning we had our appointment to have Travis’ stiches removed and will be the last time we see the neuro-surgeons for several months.   Nothing personal Dr. Levy and Dr. Sack but that is a good thing!  Travis (and Lynne) went to school again today for more than 3 hours.  Lynne has been staying with Travis while he is in school so she has been getting a lot of classroom time.  It helps since she will be the one to be working with Travis on his schoolwork while they are in Houston.  Mrs. Roberts has been preparing packets of work for us to take so that Travis can stay up to speed.  It is not easy being a fourth grader!

Travis has been missing playing soccer lately and hadn’t seen his buddies in a while so he wanted to go to practice today to say hi to the guys.  When he got there, Christian’s parents, Juli and Kirk, had arranged to have the Camp Pendleton Men’s Soccer Team players and coaches sign a jersey and Juli presented it to him.  Very cool and positive messages from Travis’ fellow Warriors.  Also, KC and his family, Jennifer and Michael, gave Travis a thoughtful gift bag that will help him pass the time.  It looks like he will have some movie nights in his near future.  Thanks guys (including Matthew, Brad, Christy and Steve)!  Then to top things off, he was able to “carefully” kick the ball around for a while.  Don’t worry mom…more physical therapy!

When we arrived at home, we found a great meal prepared by the Young family.  Thank you so much!

We have been very blessed to have such great support from everyone.

Thanks,

Tony

Lynne helps with the Arts Attack program at school and Mrs. Roberts wanted to do a Fish Printing project with the class.  This was originally scheduled for a couple of weeks ago but was switched since we were in the hospital and Travis wanted to participate.  Basically this involves taking a real fish (not live, previously frozen and thawed), having the kids paint it with all different colors, then pressing paper over it which leaves a colorful print behind.  Lynne had some brave parent volunteers (Sarah, April, Liz, Dorothy, Debbie) come to help clean the paint off each fish in between each artist.  The kids had a blast and their artwork turned out very cool.  Everyone was amazed at how the fish left no smell behind in the room.  Since I knew about the project ahead of time, I came in after and I kind of got in trouble for joking with the class and asking why it smelled like fish in there.  It really did NOT smell like fish in the classroom!  Really!

Have we mentioned that Rady Children’s Hospital have things dialed in?  Sam (short for Samantha) is a Child Life Specialist (aka counselor) in the oncology clinic who supports us and helps translate all of the medical language into something Travis (and mom/dad) can understand.  When we met with her last week, she offered to come to Travis’ school and explain to his class what he has been through and will be going through in the future.  So today she came to ECC and talked to the class for about 30 minutes and answered their questions.  The kids had some good questions and Sam did a great job!

Thanks,

Tony

We wanted to let everyone know that we welcome and appreciate any and all forms of communication (phone calls, emails, texts, visits)!  We have heard from friends and family that they may not be sure what is the best way to reach out or when it would be the right time to contact us.  But what we want everyone to know is that you should feel free to contact us whenever and however works best for you.  If we can talk, email, text or answer the door at that time, great.  If we are not able to at that moment, we will do our best to get back in touch with you when we can.

If for some reason we do not find the time to get back to each and every email, text and voice mail, we want everyone to know that we truly appreciate them and we pass along all of the messages to Travis (and Tyler too)!

Thanks,

Tony and Lynne

We had our meeting today with our neuro-oncologist, Dr. Crawford, to discuss all of the test results and his proposed plan for treatment.  Based on the test results of the tumor pathology, spinal fluid and further evaluation of the spinal MRI, Dr. Crawford is proposing a more aggressive treatment plan that he will discuss with the doctors at MD Anderson.  Although the surgery was successful in removing the tumor, he wants to ensure we do the best job we can now in reducing the risk of anything growing back. The pathology and genetic results revealed that the majority of the tumor appears to be of the average risk for regrowth type but there are parts that appear to be more aggressive which pose a higher risk.  And even though the spinal fluid was negative for cancer cells, the Glucose level was lower than expected which could be an early warning sign for risk of regrowth.  Then combining all of this genetic testing with a very slight anomaly on the spinal MRI, he is characterizing the tumor as anaplastic (or aggressive) which would then warrant a more aggressive treatment.  The bottom line is that this helps to determine the radiation dosage they will use during treatment and he is recommending the higher dose of 36 Gy versus the average dose of 23.4 Gy.  His concern is that you don’t get a second chance to go back and just add 12 Gy more radiation so he doesn’t want to take any chances.

Our appointment ran longer than we thought and we ended up arriving home to a delicious meal waiting for us from the Blackburn family.  That was perfect!

We are still waiting on the insurance agreement to be finalized with MD Anderson so that we can get our schedule set.  There is an initial consultation visit where Travis will be fitted for an immobilization device and a simulation of the treatment will be performed.  From there, it would be 5 business days before the actual treatment is started.  We are planning to turn that time into a mini spring break vacation around the Houston area and visit some of the attractions (NASA Johnson Space Center, Galveston, Baseball game, etc).

Thanks,

Tony and Lynne