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What a Difference a Year Makes! 3/20/2014

Posted by travisthewarrior on March 20, 2014 in Events

Thursday, 3/20/14, was the annual ECC Jog-A-Thon and we couldn’t help but think what a difference a year makes!  This time a year ago, we were just coming home from the hospital and recovering from Travis’ brain surgery.  We had friends stopping by to show their support in so many amazing ways.  One of these amazing acts of support last year was that all of the kids in Travis’ class decided to dedicate their laps to him.  They made a sign that said: “Run for Travis, Your Laps Will Help Him Fight.”  Sarah brought the sign and another one that said “Welcome Home Travis” and hung them on our front door.  Amazing!  This year was no different only we were able to witness everything first hand.

Travis’ teacher, Mrs. Mills, asked the class to all wear their Travis the Warrior t-shirts for the event.  Then, several of the other teachers decided that their kids could wear them too.  So, we show up to behold a sea of lime green showing their support for Travis.  Wow!  Standing there with goose bumps and trying to take it all in, it was easy to get a little choked up thinking about where we are now and the road we have traveled this last year to get here.

To start out, the kids do a little warm-up for a few minutes and then they are off and running.  Even though Travis doesn’t have his strength back yet and he still has some neuropathy in his feet, he does get these little bursts of energy and he takes off running for a little bit.  So, we were just hoping that he would be able to walk the track for the duration and maybe jog a little if he felt up to it.  Don’t you know, as soon as they started the run, he took off and ran the first half of a lap.  We were a little surprised and it was hard to keep up with him especially with all of the other kids running too.  Then we walked a couple of laps and ran a bit more.  One of the other fifth grade teachers, Mrs. D., had her dog, Lola, so she let Travis walk Lola around the track for a while.  That was perfect!  Once Lola had enough, we ran and walked a little bit more.  We are not sure how many laps we actually did (Travis says 10), but that doesn’t matter.  The thing that matters is that we were out there!  To finish things off, when they announced there was 30 seconds left, Travis decided he would run it out and finished on that strong note.  He is a Warrior!  Speaking of Warriors, there were even a few Marines out to support the event too.  Pretty cool!

The Jog-A-Thon is always a super fun event but it was even that much more special for us this year.  What a difference a year makes!

Thanks,

Tony and Lynne

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Congratulations Team Curiosity! 3/10/2014

Posted by travisthewarrior on March 10, 2014 in Events

On Saturday, Tyler’s robotics team had their final competition of the year held at Legoland again.  Even though the Robot Missions were new for this tournament, they had a similar format as previous events with judging in the Core Values, Robot Design/Programming and Robot Missions Competition.  But it was also slightly different from the other events in that they added an “On the Spot” mission given out by the judges where they only had 45 minutes to decide how to solve the challenge, design and program their robot to accomplish the mission and then test it out before competing with the other teams.  No pressure!

The boys, Blake, Blas, Klaus and Tyler, did an amazing job once again working as a team and they ended up placing 2nd out of 40 teams in the Robot Missions part of the competition with the second highest score and second highest average of their 3 runs.  Great job guys and way to finish out the season!  There are definitely some future engineers on this team.

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Thanks,

Tony and Lynne

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1 Year Anniversary of Travis’ Brain Surgery! 3/7/2014

Posted by travisthewarrior on March 7, 2014 in Events, Surgery

It was Thursday, March 7th, 2013 and Tyler woke up that morning and created a video for Travis so that he could see our dog Cisco, his room, all of his toys and the rest of our house.  It was really nice that Tyler did that and he kept telling Travis that everything was going to be OK.  Travis told Tyler that if he didn’t make it, Tyler could have all of his stuff.  That was pretty emotional to hear and think about but also pretty cool to witness that side of brotherly love!

We decided it was best for Tyler to go to school that day and Tony headed back down to the hospital with video in hand.  Travis liked seeing Cisco and all of his stuff at home before the surgeons came in and talked with us again and prepared us for what was about to take place.  Just when we were about to leave for surgery and Travis was getting a little nervous, we had a surprise dog visitor who made our day.  He jumped right up on the bed with Travis and you should have seen the smile on his face.  How does God know to send us the right thing at the most perfect time?  The nurses came in and hugged us since we would be returning to the surgical recovery floor downstairs later that day.  And we were off…

After we changed Travis into his gown and finished the surgical preparations, he walked down the hallway to surgery holding the nurse’s hand.  Whew…that was so hard to watch but we knew it was for the best!

We sat out in the waiting area and knew it was going to take some time.  We prayed, talked, made some phone calls and prayed some more.  Tony went and picked Tyler up after school to bring him to the hospital and made it back just in time to meet with our neuro-surgeon.  He explained that everything went very well and he was able to remove virtually 100% of the tumor.  In fact, he said that of all of the brain surgeries he does, this was one of the easier ones.  Who would have thought that brain surgery could be easy in any scenario?  Go figure!  But at least part of our prayers had been answered.

While Lynne was in the recovery area with Travis, Tony and Tyler were sitting in the waiting area finishing dinner and one of Tony’s buddies from work, Saul, comes walking in.  He said that he felt like he needed to be there for us which was very uplifting to see a familiar face.  How did he know to find us there and that the timing was perfect?  Divine intervention just when you need it!

So much has happened over this last year, it is incredible to look back at the road we have travelled and we wonder how in the world we made it to this point. The keys for us have been to have faith in God, trust in our doctors, take things one step at a time, set some goals to work towards, keep a positive attitude and rely on our support system.  It doesn’t seem possible to have any of these without the others, especially in the darkest of times.  But as Lynne says, let’s try to find the Silver Linings in every day.

We know we still have this recovery road ahead and we will continue to face things head on as they come. But at this point, we are 1 year Cancer Free and Travis is getting stronger every day.  Love it!  Thank God!

Thanks,

Tony and Lynne

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1 Year Anniversary of Travis’ Brain Tumor Diagnosis! 3/6/2014

Posted by travisthewarrior on March 6, 2014 in Events, Surgery

On Wednesday, March 6th, 2013, we woke up in the hospital and found out that the doctors wanted to do an additional MRI of Travis’ head and full spine.  They had done an MRI of his head on Tuesday and wanted to do a more detailed scan.  Tony remembered thinking that it didn’t sound good but the idea of a tumor never came up.  After coming back up to the room a couple of hours later, the Child Life Specialist asked if she could take Travis down to the play room so the doctors could talk to Tony.  When he walked back in the room, there was a team of about 8 doctors, nurses and a social worker.  It was such an ominous feeling it was hard to focus on what they were actually saying.  But, they did break the news that they had found a “mass” in Travis’ 4th brain ventricle and that they would be scheduling surgery for the very next day to remove it.  Wow, that was totally devastating news to hear!

Knowing nothing about the brain beyond common terms and hearing the term tumor, you assume the worst.  It was hard to hold things together when you are freaking out but Tony had to focus on Travis and work with the team to explain everything to him later in the day.  Another hard part was that Lynne had gone into work at preschool that morning and this was not the kind of news you share over the phone before driving down to the hospital.  So, Tony had to wait until she arrived to share the news.  That was devastating as parents to have that conversation!

We had a meeting later in the afternoon with our neuro-oncologist where he went through some more detail of their findings and discussed the surgery scheduled for the next day. This is the part where many of the specialists credit our pediatrician with having the experience to recommend checking into the hospital so quickly which allowed them to find things early.  That was one piece of encouraging news we heard in the midst of all of the chaos.

The next step was to work with the Child Life Specialist to explain everything to Travis. They are so good at what they do and really know how to put things in terms that kids can understand.  I think it even helped us to hear things in those terms after hearing the whole technical discussion.  Even though Travis was scared, he asked some really good questions and seemed to handle the news as well as can be expected.  Again, that was devastating as parents to have that conversation with your child!

It was hard to leave the hospital that night but Tony had to go home and explain everything to Tyler.  At this point, there was so much that was completely out of our control and no time to really digest what was going on.  We had to put our trust in our world class team of doctors and have faith in God that everything would turn out.  Needless to say, it was hard to sleep that night…

Thanks,

Tony and Lynne

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1 Year Anniversary of Travis’ Hospital Admittance! 3/4/2014

Posted by travisthewarrior on March 4, 2014 in Events

Since this is a very special time for us in terms of memorable 1 Year Anniversaries, we wanted to take a moment to highlight each one as they occurred.  On Monday, March 4th, 2013, Travis was admitted to Rady Children’s Hospital in the evening for some tests to be run.  He had a difficult weekend with the nausea and dizziness getting significantly worse and worse.  He woke up Monday morning and was feeling sick again but he said that he was ok to go to school anyways.  We let his teacher know that he was not feeling 100% and we knew she would keep a motherly watch over him.  Right after school, Lynne picked him and when she found out he had gotten sick a couple of times at school without telling anyone, she went straight to our pediatrician.  Luckily, our doctor agreed right away that the next step needed to be the hospital and he arranged for Travis to be admitted for further testing.

We drove down to check in after dinner when the room was ready instead of hanging around the waiting room for hours.  After we checked in, the doctors started with some routine examinations and proceeded to schedule some testing for the next day.  Their initial assessment was leaning towards migraines since they run in the family but the only way to diagnose migraines is to rule out everything else.  So we prepared for an MRI of his head and ultrasound of his stomach for Tuesday.  At that point, we were thinking they would run their testing for a couple of days, give us something to control migraines and nausea, and then we would be on our way.  Little did we know…

Thanks,

Tony and Lynne

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UCSD Men’s Soccer End of Season Party! 2/22/2014

Posted by travisthewarrior on February 22, 2014 in Events

Sorry!  It has been a while since our last post.  With getting back to somewhat of a normal routine, besides all the appointments, medications and lab work, it is easy to forget that it is important to slow down and write some things down.  In the midst of State Cup Soccer, Soccer Tryouts, School, Work, Shred-A-Thon, and everything else, one of the things we were able to do in the past few weeks was to attend the UCSD Men’s Soccer End of Season Party.  Here is the note we sent to Coach Jon after and hopefully it reflects how much we appreciate them and how special they made Travis feel.

Hey Jon,

We want to thank you so much for including us in the team’s party!  We know how special the end of season get together is and we are very thankful to have been a part of it.  We had a lot of fun hanging out with so many great people.  It was nice to meet Liza and Reagan too.  We vaguely remember the 6 month old stage but based on her energy, it looks like you have a future soccer star in the making. 

Please pass along our sincere appreciation to Steve, Brenda and Brett for opening their home and including us too.  They are very gracious hosts and we were in awe that they know how to cook for a small army and still make it taste like a gourmet meal.  That dinner was delicious!

Tell Ryan and Stacey that they did a great job on the video/slide show.  As our team’s manager, Lynne also is the official photographer and we put Tyler to work on video editing too.  So we can definitely relate to the amount of time and effort that goes into creating those types of special memories.  We will be sure to pass along any prospective wedding business their way.  Also, we may need to borrow a piece of the video so that we can put that fancy footwork into our goalkeeper training.  Those were some mad skills!

We had a chance to talk with Taylor and his parents after the awards and they are awesome people.  It turns out that Taylor went to high school at LCC which is right around the corner from our house in La Costa.  Talk about a small soccer community, back in early January, our club hosted a fundraising event for a former LCC and Carlsbad Lightning soccer/lacrosse player who was diagnosed with bacterial meningitis in November while he was a freshman at UCSB.  In order to save his life, the doctors at UCSD medical center had to remove both of his feet.  Taylor said that he went and played in the alumni game as part of the event.  What a great gesture for a fellow soccer player in need but that doesn’t surprise us based on all the quality young men you have on the team.  We are very honored you chose to present Travis with Taylor’s jersey.

Please tell all the guys that we really appreciate how they have been so welcoming to Travis.  It means the world to us and we look forward to seeing you all soon!

Thanks,

Tony, Lynne, Tyler and Travis

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This is What Getting Back to Normal is Like! 2/4/2014

Posted by travisthewarrior on February 4, 2014 in Events

Monday was a big day in our house and a big step towards getting back to a normal routine.   Over the last couple of weeks, Lynne and Travis had been going over to school for an hour or two each day, when they didn’t have appointments, to start preparing for Travis to go back to school.  Well, Monday, 2/3, was the day we picked for Travis to fly solo and while he was at it, Lynne would go ahead and go back to work at Preschool.  That all sounded good on paper and everything was fine right up until the morning of and then reality set in.  Travis was going back to school and Lynne was going back to work.  Wow!  But, despite everyone’s nervousness, Travis made it until about 12:30pm when Lynne picked him up after her work.  Everyone in the class was so happy to have Travis back in school.  They all volunteered to help him with anything he needed and Mrs. Mills took him in under her motherly wing.  Awesome!  Lynne was equally welcomed back with surprise birthday goodies from the class and the staff.  We are so lucky to be surrounded by such loving and supportive people.  First day back at school-Done!  First day back at work-Done!  It all gets easier from here, right?

Thanks,

Tony and Lynne

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UCSD Tritons Men’s Soccer Team Adopts Travis! 1/29/2014

Posted by travisthewarrior on January 29, 2014 in Events

UCSD Tritons with Travis IMG_3999_2On Tuesday, the UCSD Tritons Men’s Soccer Team “adopted” Travis through the Friends of Jaclyn Foundation (http://www.friendsofjaclyn.org/).  The FoJ Foundation works to pair kids fighting through pediatric brain tumors with college or high school sports teams as a way to share some love, support and friendship while they battle this disease.  Coach Jon Pascale, Coach Ryan Hernandez, Coach Seth Trembly and the Team invited Travis out to their practice and it was great to watch the guys working hard and having fun.  Everyone was so welcoming and really made Travis feel special.  We can’t wait to have some of Travis’ new extended family out to a practice or something to return the favor.  Thank you guys so much…Go Tritons!

Thanks,

Tony and Lynne

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State Cup Soccer Weekend! 1/27/2014

Posted by travisthewarrior on January 27, 2014 in Events, Road Trip

Carlsbad Wave BU11 Blue Team_2What an exciting weekend of soccer at State Cup!  After a disappointing 1-0 loss on Saturday against the TVSA Hawks, we weren’t sure how the boys would bounce back.  The important thing was that we played some good soccer even though we couldn’t get the goals to go and had 1 bad break that we did not clear.  But the boys came out crisp and sharp Sunday morning firing on all cylinders.  After being up 4-0 at half against Desert Elite, we changed things up and let the guys play in some different positions.  Even though we gave up 3 goals and scored 2 more in the second half, it was a good learning experience and we had 6 different players score our 6 goals in the game.  Then the boys were asking if Travis could go in the game during the last couple of minutes so we had to scramble to find him some shin-guards and soccer socks.  All of the boys were volunteering to let Travis use their gear.  Everyone cheered when he entered the game, even the other team which was a great show of sportsmanship.  It was very emotional for all of us and a perfect way to end the game!

IMG_3442_2Once we knew we were going to advance to the Round of 64 next weekend, we relaxed a little and went right after TFA Barcelona on Sunday afternoon.  They were a very good team but our boys played their hearts out.  TFA Barcelona is one of those teams who only lost two games in their regular season and scored 81 goals while only allowing 9.  So, once we got that first goal and then second goal and then third before half, we knew we could not let up.  They did score 1 goal before half and were threatening a lot of the time.  In the second half, we packed in the defense to keep them out and we ended up scoring 1 more goal to seal things off.  We knew the top 3 teams in our bracket were very competitive so when we made it home from Lancaster on Sunday night, we were surprised to see we had secured the top spot.  It goes to show that every time you take the field in soccer, you never know what can happen.  Good stuff and we are looking forward to the Round of 64 (yes, back in Lancaster)!

BTW, here is what made this weekend’s experience so emotional.  It was the State Cup weekend last year up in Lancaster when Travis’ early symptoms really started to get bad.  Over the previous couple of months, he had been having some occasional dizziness and nausea that the doctors were trying to figure out.  These early symptoms seemed to come and go but he would always bounce right back until that weekend.  We made it up to Lancaster on Friday night but when we arrived for the game on Saturday, he was feeling too sick to play.  He spent the rest of the day in the hotel and missed both games on Sunday too.  Luckily our team made it out of the bracket and to the Round of 64 in Coronado which ended up being the last game he played in with the team.  A few weeks after that and right after tryouts, Travis was diagnosed with a Brain Tumor in early March and had surgery the next day to remove it.  The good thing was that the doctors caught it early and the surgery was very successful.  The bad part was they determined it was Brain Cancer which meant follow-up Radiation and Chemotherapy were needed.  About a month after his brain surgery, we went to MD Anderson Cancer Center in Houston, TX for two months to have his proton radiation treatment done.  We returned home to Carlsbad over Memorial Day weekend and he was given 6 weeks off before starting his Chemotherapy treatment.  We started his 6 months of chemotherapy over the 4th of July weekend at Rady Children’s Hospital and finished the week before Christmas.

Travis Selinka-State Cup_2Through this whole last year Travis continued to battle and whenever he was feeling up to it, he insisted on being out with his team whether for practices, games, or tournaments and the boys love having him around.  Even though it has been a difficult and challenging year, Travis’ two main goals that kept him going have been to get back to school with his friends and to play soccer with his team.  We know he has a ways to go and a lot of hard work to gain his strength back but he was beaming after the game when he said “I got to play in the State Cup with my team.”  Travis is a Warrior!

Go Wave!

Tony and Lynne

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Counts, Weight, Appetite and Energy are on the Rise! 1/21/2014

Posted by travisthewarrior on January 21, 2014 in Chemotherapy

It is hard to believe that it has been almost 2 weeks since our last update but time has flown by for us.  Travis had lab work done yesterday and his counts are rising closer to the “Normal” range and moving up from the “Chemo” range.  Yeah!  We know it can take some time for the chemo effects to fully wear off but after holding steady the last two weeks, we are on the rise which is a good thing.

Travis had his port area check up with the surgeon today and everything is healing nicely so the surgeon doesn’t need to see him again.  What a relief!  He had his weight checked too which is up about a pound and a half now that he is getting more of his appetite back.  In fact, we had our first McFlurry in months yesterday. If you remember, Travis loved the McFlurries but pretty much lost the taste for them during Chemo.  But, it must be a good sign that he asked to go and that McFlurry didn’t stand a chance.  At this point, we kind of go where the cravings take us.  Whether it is corn dogs, pizza, pasta, ice cream, you name it and we’re all in.

Travis went over to school today for about an hour so that he could participate in rehearsals for his class play.  That was a big step and hopefully will be the start of many more visits to come.  As much as he misses his friends and teacher, it can be a little overwhelming after being out so long and still wearing a mask to be safe.  But, he woke up excited and went for it and everyone welcomed him back.  His teacher greeted him with a big hug and put him right to work in his group.  Good stuff!

We are still going to have his counts monitored each week for the next couple of weeks and hopefully we can start thinking about getting back to a school routine.  It is hard to believe and still hasn’t quite sunk in yet.  Maybe we can also start thinking about unpacking our “Go Bags” too?

Thanks,

Tony and Lynne

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