The weekend of July 11, we will celebrate Hayden’s 1 year Stem Cell transplant Anniversary. We look back and still can’t believe what he has been through and how great he is doing. He is down to only 1 medication, which is the Acyclovir for Anti-fungal and has not needed his inhalers for Asthma since the warm weather settled in Wisconsin.

Despite efforts to stop the IVIG, we decided it was in Hayden’s best interest to keep going with it. The antibodies act as vacinations giving him the antibodies to protect him from Chicken Pox,  Mumps and Measles.

Hayden has recently been re-evaluated for his milestones through Wisconsin’s “Birth to 3″ program and he is looking good in all areas but speech. So we will be working with him through exercises to help him along. His socialization was pretty normal considering we are just introducing him to things he hasn’t experienced before.

Next week he will start going to the daycare providers home to interact with kids his age which will help him overcome some of his attachments to mom and dad. It is common for his age to have some separation anxiety but he is always with someone, so playing alone, with someone out of the room, is foreign to him. Hayden also is showing signs of sensitivity to sounds, so we follow that as well. He is scheduled for a post-transplant hearing and eye test next week, so we will have to see if results come back normal.

For going through Chemo, these are very small issues we have to deal with, and they may not be issues at all, just delays which will come about in time!

Hayden is having a blast trying  garden foods, such as berries, watermellon, and veggies. He loves them and will keep eating them until we cut him off. He eats about 3 bananas a day and loves wheat thin crackers with cheese! Abby is learning to keep her toys close, as Hayden loves to play the destructo game with them just as she gets them all set up.

This week the kids are staying with Grandma and Grandpa in GB while our kitchen goes through a rennovation. They will have a busy week playing at the park, going to Bay Beach, and teasing Grandpa!

Next Tuesday is the next Day Treatment so we will have a full day of Dr. appointments. Hopefully we will find out the status of his T-cell growth at that time as well.

It really has been a long time since we wrote-we apologize. We have been enjoying our freedom bringing Hayden out to experience new places and practically living outside!

Since April, Hayden has been circumcized, been camping and got to swim for the first time!

We brought Hayden to St. Mary’s Outpatient Surgery Center to have the circumcision done the end of April. He was sedated at 8am and was back in our arms by 8:30am. He went through a few days of pain but really healed fast considering it is a sensitive area. If he didn’t know before he certainly found out after the proceedure where his peeper was. He was a trooper non-the-less.

For Mother’s Day we went up to Green Bay with plans to go to the NEW Zoo (Northeast WI) and celebrate Mother’s Day with my mom, but it turned out to be very cold and rainy so we just hung out and enjoyed Grandma’s toys. This was the first road trip up to Green Bay since Transplant isolation.

The last weekend in May we packed up the bikes, camper and dropped the dogs off at All 4’s Pet Camp and headed up to Horicon Marsh to bike and camp. Once again it was crappy weather but Hayden and Abby still had fun camping and playing in the camper. This is where Hayden got to swim for the first time. The pool was indoors so we suited up, bundled up and jumped into a warm pool to play. He was apprehensive at first but quickly became relaxed as we floated him around. It was a good depth that Abby could touch bottom and swim on her own with us.
We can’t wait to try the outdoor pool if it ever warms up!
On Sunday of our camping trip we loaded Hayden in the bike trailerbehind Rick as Abby rode on her tag-a-long bike behind me and set off on the Horicon Bike Trail. I quickly found out how out of shape I am but managed to last 2 hours-barely! It was still fun!

The auto-immune doctors have decided to keep the IVIG going on a monthly basis. they explained that it protects his system from viruses and has the antibodies that Immunizations have, so we got the OK to send him to daycare. Only problem is, Marci doesn’t have an opening for under 2yr of age. So we will continue to wait for his Birthday to send him. Abby will still be there until the end of August to help him adjust to the routine and other kids. The doctors feel his system is strong enough for this and think the socialization is most important at this age.

Hayden was assessed for Birth to Three again. His last assessment was before transplant. They tested him for both 20mths and 21 mths old and both results came back above average with verbal skills being right on the line. We will have a Speech Assessment done through play activities and that can better determine what exercises we might do to help him verbalize more. We aren’t real worried because he is still young, but anything we can do to help him along is a
good!
Other than that, there is no sign of side effects from the Chemo. and that can just be his normal developement with a big sister to talk for him and carry him around.

Hayden is really liking his bubble lawn mower (Abby’s old one) to the point that he brings it inside each night when it is time to come in. Abby just got a new pink one for her Birthday this week. They would fight over the old one so Grandma (spoiled Abby and) got her a new one!

He also is all about his trucks and tools lately, which is so cute until he starts to hit the woodwork with his hammer or truck! We haven’t been too successful in taking the pacifier away, but we have been taking it from him during the day and he gets it back at night. We have tracked down and bought a new cuddly online, but he looks at it and throws it aside if he knows where the old one is. But as a piece of mind, it is nice to know that if the old cuddly gets lost, we have a substitute!