Our Trip to BYU!

Some of the awesome BYU Football players giving Trey some gifts...like a Y flag that they each signed for Trey to take home.
Trey after he found out that his Make-A-Wish was granted. Happy boy. He is holding our itinerary for the weekend of our trip.
Group picture with family and friends and Coach Mendenhall!
Trey reading the proclamation about his wish. He couldn't stop smiling!
Family shot in front of the cougar. BYU were going to play against the UTES that weekend...thus the red feathers in the cougars mouth!
We were able to tour Coach Mendenhall's office. The kids loved sitting in his chair and seeing all his cool pictures.

We did have an amazing time and I am so thankful to the program Thursday's Heros. It is an experience our family will always cherish. Thank you BYU Football Team!

Thursday's Hero

We had an exciting time yesterday as Trey was invited to be BYU Football's "Thursday's Hero". Each week BYU Football team honors a person who has gone through a hardship. We had a tour of BYU's athletic facility and saw so many cool and fun memorabilia. We then were able to see Coach Mendenhall's office and the kids took turns sitting in his chair! Afterwards we went to the indoor practice field where the whole team was practicing for the upcoming game against the UTES. After their practice, the team grouped together and Trey was "honored" by the team. The team gave him a flag that they all signed and Trey also got to sign a flag with other signatures of Thursday's Heros that goes out with the team at each game they play.

Trey's wish was also granted during this time. He had no idea that his wish had been granted. I had to keep it a secret and it was hard to do! The link below shows a clip of this.

http://www.broncomendenhall.com/trey-larson

It was so amazing and fun for Trey and our family. I invited a some extended family and 3 buddies to come be apart of this special event. Space was limited so not everyone was able to come. I wish more could have been there with us.

A huge thank you to the BYU Football team and the wonderful program they offer! It has meant the world to Trey and our family! More pictures will follow. We took lots!

It was snowing when we got to the Make A Wish place...but I still wanted to get a picture of Trey in front of the sign!

When we first got to the Make-A-Wish foundation, there was this sign in the front entry that says: "Welcome to a Wishing Place Trey!" What a wonderful way to help make Trey feel special and to personalize the whole experience!

These stars represent other children who participated in a Make-A-Wish. Trey will also get his own star to have hung here. It is really quite pretty and magical.

Using his special key to the wishing room, Trey unlocks the door to declare his wish.

Inside the wishing room. The top of the cone is where he placed his wish, which goes to the "Wishing Wizard" to be granted. The room is beautiful with the lights changing color and the sound of beautiful music playing and the peaceful sound of water flowing from the waterfall pictured behind Trey.

Make-A-Wish A is truly a wonderful organization. They made us feel welcomed and personalized the whole experience. They took the time to help Trey decide on a wish. They also made our other children feel welcomed and important. They said Trey is welcomed to come visit the center anytime and he can use his special key anytime he wants to visit the wishing room.

Trey decided his wish would be to see the Minnesota Vikings play and to meet some of the players. The Vikings are his favorite NFL team. His wish granters are really wonderful and I know they are working hard to help make his wish possible. (He has a 2nd wish choice and a 3rd wish choice if the 1st one isn't possible) We are just waiting to hear back from them.

Trey had his spinal tap about 2 weeks ago. This time I remembered not to let him eat before the appointment. :) Once again Trey proved to be quite the character while he was under sedation. When the nurse had to step out for a moment he turned to her, holding two fingers in the peace sign and said "Peace out Yo". He always has a way of making us laugh...even while drugged up!

The doctor continues to be pleased with how things are going. Trey's medication was increased again. The first medication that was originally increased was increased some more. His ANC counts aren't where they want them. So once again on Monday he will have home health come and draw his blood for a CBC count.

Trey finished playing flag football and they won their last game! He had lots of fun playing the sport. He continues to do well in school despite having missed half of last year. He is really close to achieving his Bear rank in cub scouts and is very excited about that. We continue to feel the Lord's Hand in our lives and thank Him everyday for the amazing support of family and friends.

May God Bless you all.

Make-A-Wish

Trey had another appointment last Monday and all went well. He was suppose to have a lumbar puncture (spinal tap), but he ate something before hand (my fault) and they are doing it at the end of this month instead. His ANC counts are still too high, even with one of his medication increase. So they are increasing another medication. There are alot of questions running through my mind that I need to ask the doctor on the next appointment. Shane and I are getting concerned with all this medication increase. So far Trey seems like he is tolerating it okay. Still we worry.

When we first found out about Trey's diagnosis, we were told Trey would be able to do something with Make-A-Wish. We sent in a request form and they replied back and said Trey was approved. Today, Trey received a neat package from them. It included a cool paper castle with a special key inside. It also had an invitation. It reads:

"It is our deepest honor to invite you and your family to come visit A WISHING PLACE for the special occasion of making your wish. Please bring this key with you when you come, for it alone will open the WISHING ROOM at the top of the WISHING TOWER. We eagerly await your presence."

Trey has been assigned Wish Granters who will help Trey in his wish decision. When he decides on a wish, we go to this special WISHING ROOM and he declares his wish. He is sooo excited about it, but really doesn't know what to wish for yet. I think this will be an amazing experience. I've read about the Make-A-Wish Foundation online and it is such a wonderful organization. I'll keep posting updates as Trey decides on a wish.

Thank you again for the wonderful support and continued prayers for Trey. I am very grateful for them!

First day of school and more!

Picture below is Trey's first day of school. His hair is growing back so fast now! He was so glad that he'd have hair before going to school!

Wow, summer has come and gone all too fast! I'll update on some of the summer fun, but I'm waiting on some pictures.

School has started and Trey loves being back in school. He likes his teacher and loves being around his friends. Also he is playing flag football. I hope he doesn't get to tired, but the doctor said that it'd be okay for him to play. His first game is tomorrow and we are excited for him to play!

Monday he went in for his monthly chemo treatment. His ANC counts (the ones that fight infection) are apparently too high and because of this the leukemic cells could come back. So they have increased the dose of one of his pills. They hope this lowers his ANC but they don't want it to get to low because we don't want him to get sick either. To tell the truth, I am not sure I totally understand all this. In about another week, home health will come out to take his CBC and we should know how Trey is responding to the increased dose. I guess even in maintenance, we have to take things step by step and not get to comfortable with how things are going. Trey always keeps a positive outlook on life and we love his spontaneous spirit and humor!

ksl.com - Young patients help Hyundai mess up a car for charity

ksl.com - Young patients help Hyundai mess up a car for charity

A news clip that showed a picture of Trey. He was pretty excited to know that he made the news last night! :) (The picture is very similar to the one that I took of Trey and posted earlier)

Happy Day!

We are now officially at the maintenance part of the chemo treatments! Now we go once a month to the hospital...yeah! He will continue to get the Vincristine via his port at the hospital once a month. Trey will only get the LP (back poke) once every 3 months. Most of the chemo treatments will be given orally (pills) taken at home. He has four different types of pills to take and they are to be given different times throughout the month. Every 3 months marks a new round of chemo even though it should all be the same medications from here on out. His CBC counts should be good and remain in the normal range for him throughout. We look forward to Trey getting back to playing and being active once again.

While we were waiting for the medication to come for the sedation, Trey's doctor came in to visit with Trey. He is such an amazing person. He makes his patients feel like they are the most important person there. He jokes & laughs with them. He was asking what plans Trey had for the summer and Trey told him that he was going to WA to visit grandpa and grandma. The doctor said jokingly, "Watch out Seattle...here...comes...Treyouble!" Trey laughed so hard and replied back nodding his head up and down, "True!" Everyone in the room got a kick out of it!

While we were at the hospital, Trey was asked if he wanted to participate in putting a hand print on a car that would be traveling around the nation promoting cancer awareness and donating funds to research. He thought about that for a minute and then said something like, so you mean my hand will be going all over the country? I said yes and he smiled really big and said yeah he wanted to and then he asked right away if his hand print could be blue. Well he got to have a blue hand print with his name on the car. It's for Hyundai Hope On Wheels. The vehicle goes around the nation to different children's hospitals and donates money to help with research. Trey is pretty excited that his blue hand print with his name below it will be going all over the place. The above pictures are of him with the blue hand print.

We found out the date of his last chemo treatment....drum roll please.....March 11, 2013! We are looking forward to that date now. It's been a hard six months, but we have been blessed by many sweet angels along the way. Countless people have blessed our lives. Thank you so much. Our hearts will forever be filled with gratitude.