Peter’s Page

I hope that all of you enjoyed your Thanksgiving. We were lucky enough to spend time with both the Hanson’s and the Eigner’s during the weekend. We spent Thanksgiving with the Hanson’s at Erika’s Aunt Janie and Uncle Gary’s. This marked the first family function for Briley, the newest member of the clan. The kids all took turns holding baby Briley, with Ellie taking far and away the most turns! We then spent Sunday celebrating Gramma Mary’s 64th b-day with the Eigner clan at BUCA. Imagine a peaceful dinner with 9 kids under 10!

Erika and I also had attended two celebrations of life on Friday and Saturday. Donna Bzdok and Ella Hauschildt fought cancer with every ounce of energy and strength they had. Both of them have inspired many with their courage. Donna, a 44 year old wife and mother of two will be deeply missed by everyone in Brainerd. Ella who was 7, loved school and music and definately left her mark on many in her short time with us. Both the Bzdok’s and the Hauschildt’s are models of faith, strength and family. Please continue to keep them in your prayers as they deal with their terrible loss.

Finally, for the first time in 9 years the Eigner’s will be cheering for a hockey team not named the Warriors. We(The Eden Prairie Eagle’s) have our first game tonight and it has been very difficult trying get all three kids in jackets and hats that don’t say Warrior Hockey. We will keep you posted.

Enjoy the Winter,

Ty

While most of us are bustling about, planning our holidays and making/checking off our lists, 2 families we care so much about face the coming weeks bearing unimaginable pain & sadness. Please keep the Hauschildt’s in your prayers; little Ella is now an angel after battling DIPG (a rare brain tumor) for just about a year. She has left quite a mark on this world and we ask that you keep her Mom, Dad and little brother Caden in your prayers. They have been and continue to be a real inspiration through their faith and hope. And our friend Donna, who we’ve mentioned here before, also passed away over the weekend. She, too, fought valiantly against an aggressive cancer, with grace and a real sense of humor. We met Donna & Biz not too long after moving to Brainerd, when Ty joined the softball staff for a couple years, and after Donna’s diagnosis, we would see them at the U, as she and Peter were going through treatment simultaneously.
So we near Thanksgiving with much sadness for our friends, while continuing to feel so fortunate. Peter continues to do well. He seems very “normal” now, participating in hockey, swimming lessons and loving school. Each trip to NY & round of testing seems a little harder to handle, as we are sort of out of the “cancer routine” now. His HAMA level is coming down slowly so he will continue the antibody treatment when the numbers are low enough. We will go to NY sometime in January for testing.
In case you are in the area, the Rosemount Hockey program is having their annual “Skate with the Irish” event in honor of Peter for the 3rd straight year… wow. The proceeds of this event will go directly to the foundation we started last year, called CHECK (Coaches Helping Eliminate Cancer in Kids). We hope to spread some financial help and happiness to kids and their families who are battling cancer, and also to further the research of pediatric cancers, in search of a cure. The event will be held on Wednesday the 26th from 7-8:30pm at the Rosemount Civic Center. We’re excited to be able to attend this year, as we have been too far away and preoccupied with treatment the past couple of years!
Have a Happy Thanksgiving and thank you for checking in!

Peter and I returned from NY last night. It seemed like a pretty quick trip this time. We left the snow in MN and arrived late Sunday night, but not too late for Peter to want a little “before-bed snack” – if that’s what you call a caesar salad, bread and manicotti! That is one of the things we love about NYC – nothing closes, or at least not until really late! And while we try not to get too carried away, what Peter wants in New York, Peter gets in New York. When you see first-hand what these kids endure on a regular basis, it’s hard not to spoil them a little.
I should also mention, since many of you have asked, that Grandpa Brian’s surgery went well and they got all of the cancer, so no further treatment should be needed. In fact, Grandma & Grandpa took the girls north with them after Great-Grandma’s funeral, which I thought was rather brave, since Grandpa was still moving pretty slow! Anyway, they came back last night and were excited to show us the pumpkins they carved, all their paintings, etc. I’m really not sure what we would do without our entire family…thank you to all of you!!!
Peter had the routine testing this round, with1 addition. He had the physical exam, with blood work, urine analysis, etc. CT scan – head, neck, chest, abdomen, pelvis, MRI of the brain (addition), MIBG scan and bone marrow biopsies. The results of the ct’s, mri and mibg and are all clear…words we will NEVER get tired of hearing! We will find out bone marrow results and a few other things next week. They also tested him for HAMA while we were there & he’s still positive, so we’ll draw blood every 2 weeks to see when he becomes HAMA-negative, and then head back for 3F8 treatment.
Since the cold, rainy weather followed us east from MN, we didn’t get out too much this time, but we had fun in the Ronald McDonald House playroom and we attended a great Halloween party there on Tues night, complete with dinner, cupcakes & ice cream, games and trick-or-treating for the kids (NY style – indoors!) We’ve probably mentioned before that the playroom on the pediatric floor at Memorial Sloan Kettering is second to none, and someone had donated costumes for all the kids, so Peter chose a Superman one and now he has 2 for this year – Superman and Blue Ninja Warrior. He’s so excited for his school party tomorrow and then trick-or-treating with sisters, cousins and Grandpa Sig! (I’m excited that it’s going to be 65 degrees again tomorrow!) Ellie is going to be a kitty and Kate a bumble bee  HAPPY HALLOWEEN!!!
Hockey started last weekend so that’s the other major excitement here! Peter and Ellie will be on the same team along with our friend Jake, and the kids can’t wait for their first “real practice” on Saturday! They’re also fired up about Uncle Tito’s new rink and being able to log some extra hours there.
Last but not least, a great big “YES!” for the Warrior Princess (Mary) on her first clean bone marrow scans… this young lady is absolutely amazing, juggling a very demanding college schedule while on chemo. Mary and her family so deserve this wonderful news!
And please, please keep little Ella high on your prayer list…she needs a miracle! We are so sad about the road that she, John, Erika and Caden have to face.

Once again, it’s been awhile since our last post! Life definitely hasn’t slowed down, but as the saying goes, “no news is good news”! There have been lots of “big events” recently; i’ll try to recap here…
– First, congrats to Uncle Matt and Auntie G on the very early arrival of Briley Lawrence, our beautiful new 3-pound, 9-week early little neice/cousin! She’s doing great. We’re pretty sure we induced labor by living with them for so long (or at the very least, we prepared them for a more hectic schedule with kids?!) We’re very happy she’s doing so well and hopefully she’ll get to go home soon!
– Kate has decided that she doesn’t really want a birthday in November, because the “nuk fairy” is supposed to show up on her birthday to take her nukkies away. We NEVER thought Ellie would go for that when she turned 3, but she did great! Kate, however, was 9 months old when cancer took over our lives! While she has always been very well cared-for, she was just a baby, and she definitely gets the baby treatment in our family! The idea of the nuk fairy hasn’t gone over so well, until now. We may have struck a deal now that we told her, “maybe baby Briley will need a Nukie!” I think the birthday is back on…
– I will never forget just over a year ago, when Peter came off the ventilator in NY. Uncle Matt was with us in NY and it was such a production. There were still so many tubes, cords, lines; you could tell the doctors and nurses really prepared themselves for these things, we all had to leave the room as sometimes patients cannot make the switch to room air and need to be re-intubated. Peter did well, and we got a call moments later that my Grandpa Art had passed away in Mpls during an Angiogram. I think those 2 things happened simultaneously and Grandpa was giving Peter his last breath to help Pete breathe on his own again. This morning, just over 1 year later, Grandma Marie went to be with him. Auntie Meeses and I were able to spend yesterday with her and we are thankful for that.
– Peter is doing great. He did have the Rituxan / Cytoxan treatment a couple of weeks ago. He had 1 full day of Rituxan, then a repeat of that 2 weeks later, then Cytoxan the following day. He did great with the pokes, and then one of the nurses asked him if he wanted to play the “Wii” (sp?!), so he had a lot of fun with that while getting the infusions. Had a lot of nausea the day following the Cytoxan (chemo), but has felt great since. He didn’t lose his hair even though he told Uncle Troy that he lost some of it but it came back in overnight. That’s good because he was getting nervous about losing it. He asked me if he could just tell his class that he got a haircut if it started falling out!
– Last Thursday Ty took Peter to the U before school to check his counts, and also to draw blood for a HAMA test in NY. Unfortunately, we found out this week that he is still HAMA-positive. But it can take a couple of months for the HAMA to come down (after the above regimen to try and bring it down)
– Given that, Peter won’t be getting 3F8 treatment immediately, but he is due for scans/tests again so we’ll head east on Sunday the 26th. He doesn’t care that he has to get poked & prodded, sedated, etc as long as we’re back in time for Trick-or-Treating, which we will be!!!
– Other than that, we are settling in to life in Apple Valley!
– My Dad’s surgery is Monday, so we appreciate your thoughts/prayers for good news there!
– Thinking of all our friends fighting this dreadful disease…

We had a fun weekend. Friday night we had dinner with Uncle Matt/Auntie G (almost a nightly ritual!), watched the Twins game. Saturday we had some flag football activities, then went to cousins Macy & Brooks’ birthday party; and on Sunday Peter was able to go to the Twins game with Grandma & Grandpa Hanson and Uncle Matt. He didn’t catch any foul balls but it sounds like they had fun!
On Monday morning we made into the parking ramp at the U before getting a call that Peter’s treatment had to be postponed. It wasn’t a preventable situation; just a timing issue with the insurance and they believed it would be squared away by Thursday. We had his arms all numbed up, ready for the poke(s)! No matter – he was ecstatic to put this off for a few more days, and wanted to know if he could go to school! We were still able to meet with Dr. Weigel & Jody (our wonderful NP) and discuss the treatment & possible side effects. The Rituximab is a drug they administer a lot of; typically for lymphoma’s. This is a good thing – they are very familiar with it. The most common issue is immediate reactions to the drug, which can be severe, so they administer it very slowly and have an arsenal of drugs available in case they need them. He will get this infusion on Thursday and again in 2 weeks. It targets B cells so it will put him at a higher risk of infection (particularly viral) for awhile, but won’t lower his counts in a sense of making him neutropenic (like he would get each round of chemo, which targets T cells). The day after the 2nd Rituxan infusion he’ll get Cytoxan, and this is a chemo he has had. This dosage is just over half what he had before, and they anticipate some nausea and that he may be a bit wiped out for a couple of days, but that should be it. They do expect his hair to thin at the very least; maybe fall out since he’s had so much treatment. I told Peter and he said, “well I’ve been bald before!” I guess that didn’t bother him too much! I worried this might not go over so well now that he’s 6, in school, and is much more aware than he was at the age of 4. He said he told his class that he has cancer. I think it’s good because the more kids can understand his situation, the more normal he will feel, and that’s what he loves… to be normal and do normal kid things!
First flag football game tonight – he told me on the way home that his team lost 1-0. I’m not sure what kind of scoring system they use in Flag Football, but I agreed. Then he told me that he is slower than all the other kids, “but”, he said, “I probably practice my moves a lot more, so I am still really good!” … I love it. Always finding the silver lining.
Thanks for your ongoing prayers for Pete, and please pray for our friend Ella! (http://www.caringbridge.org/visit/ellahope)

I don’t want anyone to fall off their chair in disbelief, but our plans have changed! I know you’re not surprised; I wasn’t.
Peter tested HAMA-positive again. In the past we have just had to sit back and wait for his HAMA level to come down (it took almost a year this time), but ideally he would be getting the 3F8 treatments more frequently/consistently, and certainly we look forward to getting to a point where he done with his treatment, and just continues testing every few months! Well, they now have a treatment that lowers the HAMA level. It has only been used with a few kids but has relatively minimal side effects, has worked well to date, and he can do this part locally.
So this Monday, instead of being in NY, we’ll be at the U of M. First we will meet with his local oncologist, Dr. Weigel, who we haven’t seen in quite some time. We really admire her & miss seeing her and the rest of the staff at the U; they are outstanding at what they do & we respect their expertise & opinions. Then he will get a poke & start a 6-hour infusion of Rituxan, which is actually an antibody itself. 2 weeks later he will repeat this infusion, and the following day he will get a low dose infusion of Cytoxan (a chemo he’s had before in a much stronger, longer dose). They infuse slowly as kids can have reactions, etc. We hope for no issues!
We will then re-test his HAMA level and proceed accordingly (to NY if he’s negative, or another cycle of the Rituxan/Cytoxan if not).
To Peter’s delight, this means he misses less school (for now)! First week is going great, except he came home with almost his entire cold lunch, and quite a bit of work to do, and when we asked him why he said because he likes to talk and eat… and talk and do his schoolwork. Ok, so we might have to work on that a little, but at least we know he’s enjoying himself! We have early conferences tonight, then flag football. Ellie started gymnastics this morning and all 3 will start swim lessons soon, since we had to neglect those for a couple of years. Oh yes, hockey is right around the corner too. Life is busy, but great!
While we plow forward with life, we always remember our fellow NB / cancer friends; we’ve seen quite a few lose their battles lately and feel more blessed than ever to be where we are.

I apologize for not posting a “follow-up” to our last week in NY. We made it (well Peter did it! I should never give myself credit for what he has to go through). The girls came with Daddy to the airport to pick us up late Friday night, and Kate, who is a real momma’s girl, ran right past me into Peter’s arms! They love their big brother, that’s for sure.
We spent last weekend up in the Brainerd area for a Hanson family reunion, and had a great time with cousins, aunts, uncles, grandparents, lots of extended family; a big group had traveled all the way from Texas! Thanks for hosting Tom & Judy – we weren’t sure we’d ever get the kids out of the lake!
Ty, Peter & Ellie spent the last 2 weeks at MN Hockey Camps while Kate & I stayed put in the cities, and the kids loved it (so did Ty of course!) They thought it was great to tag along with Dad, stay in the cabin, do some of the dryland drills, see the guys at the rink, and of course spend some time in the pro shop… can you say treats?
I can’t believe summer is coming to an end. We hit the state fair today and have some very tired kids (they just asked what’s for dinner so apparently we didn’t eat enough there!) Peter is excited to start 1st grade next week at All Saints School and Ellie’s excited to be in preschool in the same school as him. I am glad to have them going to the same school since it’s a new place to them. Pete is starting Flag Football tomorrow. He’s counting on his buddies Tucker & Sammy to show him the ropes!
On the medical front Peter is doing well. He had blood drawn on Thursday and we will find out Wednesday what his HAMA level looks like. However, we just booked flights back to NY in 2 weeks because even if he is HAMA-positive, they are now able to administer a drug that wipes out the HAMA. This means he should be able to get 2 more rounds of the 3F8 every 4 weeks. He’ll be due for testing in NY in October too, but after that we should just be heading out there every 3 months for continued testing! Wow, could we possibly on a slow approach back to a more “normal” life?! Stay tuned…
And as usual, we cannot possibly begin to thank all of you enough for all you have done to help us throughout this journey.

3 down, 2 to go! This has been a tough week so far. The main side effect of antibody treatment is nerve pain, and Peter is experiencing his fair share. They pre-medicate him to avoid hives, nausea and help manage the pain, but it is still evident during and after the treatment; it wipes him out! We spend most of each day in clinic (8 to 2) and then we head back to the Ronald McDonald House. He has been sleeping the rest of the days/nights and is on his way to doing that again. He’s having a lot of residual pain in his feet (neuropathy) so they hurt no matter what position he is in; and walking is out of the question. The only remedies seem to be hot packs, me rubbing them until my hands are numb and the pain meds (and a little “Captain Underpants” reading in between!) You know he’s not feeling well when he’s not even thinking about the playroom downstairs. By morning, however, he is happy & ready to go again (albeit with a little more hesitation each day). It might seem a little harsh to subject our child to this, but we hope it is “training” his body to eliminate cancerous cells on its own. And, compared to the side effects of all the other treatment he has had, this is at least manageable and doesn’t carry any long-term issues. So we are taking each day as it comes & looking forward to coming home late Friday night! It’s hard to believe that it’s been 1 year since Peter’s lungs “shut down” and we were told he might not make it… he has come a long way! We do not take this for granted for 1 minute, and we never forget our other friends who are fighting hard or have fought the good fight. We would love it if you could add my Dad (aka “Grandpa Poopster”) to your prayers, as he has just been diagnosed with an early stage of prostate cancer.
Thanks for checking in!

Peter and Erika arrived safely in NYC yesterday. He is scheduled to begin the anti-body treatment this morning. He survived the first poke with no tears this morning, so he is off to a great start! Hopefully the rest of the treatment is as smooth. The girls are with Erika’s parents, and I am in St. Cloud coaching. The Eigner circus in a nutshell! Also, thank you all so much for your thoughts and prayers for our friend little Gus. He was a wonderful little boy, and his parents are incredible. The NB kids now have another Angel in Heaven fighting for them.

PLEASE say a prayer for our dear little friend Gustavo-Alexis (caringbridge.com/gustavoalexis). We met him, his little brother Miguel and their amazing parents Terri and Big Gus in NY. Little Gus is a beautiful boy and his parents have given everything of themselves to help him beat NB; they have airlifted him home and his family is surrounding him. This breaks our hearts beyond belief and we know the power of your support – you have pulled us through some awful times.
While we’re asking, our good friend Mary from the U is still waging war against NB and is undergoing a new chemo combination. We love this family and want Mary to beat this thing once and for all – she’s a warrior and we are praying for her tests this week to show improvement, or better yet, be totally clean!
Thank you – Ty and Erika

We recieved the results of Peter’s Bone Marrow and Urine tests, and they both came back clean! Thank you all so much for the prayers and positive energy! We are off to Peter’s last baseball game of the season, and then his team is having a pool party, it should be a lot of fun. Thanks again and have a great weekend.

We’re still waiting for the final test results, but I want to let you know about a Blogathon that will be starting this Saturday, the 26th. The owner of this site will be blogging for 24 hours straight in order to raise money for Band of Parents, a Neuroblastoma charity.

She will be featuring two children every half hour on her blog and Peter will be featured at 12:00 AM on the 27th. This is the second year she’s done this. Thanks, Nikki, and good luck!

Link to the Blog
http://bloggingforkids.shebecameabutterfly.net/

Link to Donate
http://www.change.org/myfundraising/BoPBlogathon