Sorry it’s been so long since I have updated. The only excuse I have is that Tanner and I have been pretty sick since we’ve been back from Arkansas with some kind of respiratory thing.

He’s doing really well, and actually is in Mineral Wells camping with some friends for a few days this Spring Break.

It’s pretty hard for me to let him go and do these things, what with him still being in a full leg cast and his bones still so fragile, but I figure I need to let go and let him be a 17 (soon to be 18) year old boy.

I just keep reiterating to him to be very careful and he keeps assuring me he will and so far things have been going well.

I mean the boy doesn’t let that cast slow him down much at all. When we were in Mexico, he was all over the resort on those crutches and even went swimming and snorkeling. I guess he can handle camping.

The agreement we have made is that he will text or call me three times a day while they are camping. So far, I haven’t heard from him today and it’s nearly noon. I’m sure he’s just busy and having fun, but I’m trying to keep my “mommy panic” at bay since I haven’t heard from him today.

His maintenance chemo is going well, he doesn’t seem to be having any side effects, and his hair is coming back in!

Since the orthopedic surgeon thinks that Tanner’s broken leg is going to heal sufficiently on its own and he won’t have to have surgery, they are going to go ahead and start him on some bone strengthening medicine. Dr. Naier said we should start seeing a more rapid improvement in the resolution of all the bone lesions once he starts on the bone strengthener.

Dr. Davis (the Oncologist here in Fort Worth) wants Tanner to see a dentist before this medicine is started because he can’t have any dental work done for a while once he starts the prescription so we’ve made that appointment for next Wednesday.

He said until these lesions start showing more improvement, we are going to have to keep doing the re-staging tests every three months to keep an eye on them.

We didn’t get to see Tom and Shirley when we were in Arkansas this last time because our schedules were so booked and because Shirley was pretty sick while we were there.

I’ve called our friends John and Lauren twice and left messages and haven’t heard back from them so I’m kind of worried about how John is doing. He was pretty sick with his drug reactions when we saw him last.

We also haven’t heard from Anastasia and Harris since they went back to Greece so I need to email and see how they are doing.

We made some wonderful friends while we were in Little Rock all those months and I need to check and make sure everyone is doing okay…

We didn’t get to leave from Arkansas this last time until 8:00 p.m. on Friday night and by the time I had driven a couple of hours, I was having to shake my head to try and keep awake. I asked Tanner if those energy drinks worked and decided to give one a try and boy, that thing had me awake and wired all the rest of the way home!

I wasn’t sleepy for hours after drinking that thing. I told Tanner I was going to have to be sure and have one of those before every trip!