Team Max

I follow a young boy on facebook who has cancer. I wanted to blog about him to get his story out there and to show you what an amazing little boy he is! The rest of this blog is taken from his website and tells you about him.

-----THE WARRIORS ARE READY,THE BATTLE HAS BEGUN, WE ARE TAKING NO CANCER CELLS PRISONER.
Max has been diagnosed with a Primitive Neuroectodermal Tumor (PNET) of the Central Nervous System (CNS). In other words a malignant brain tumor which has metastasized to his spinal column. This type of cancer is a grade four which means that it is very aggressive and quick growing.

Max's father took Max to ER at MCMC on March 16, 2009 after he had complained of a headache and backache for most of the weekend. MCMC ran some preliminary tests and ruled to send him to DeVos Children's Hospital in Grand Rapids. Max at this point was suffering from brain swelling which impaired motor skills on the right side of his body along with losing his ability to speak. After four days of testing, the doctors told us that Max had cancer (March 19, 2009). They did not know at this time which kind but would continue to do further testing until they pinpointed the cancer so they could start the appropriate treatment.

After numerous tests and a brain biopsy the doctors have ruled that the cancer is the above mentioned.

The support from the school, the community, family and friends has been very welcomed during this time. I am amazed and truly grateful that we live in such a caring community. Every well wish and positive thought keeps us strong as Max fights this battle.

As for Max, he only can grasp as much as a six year old can understand. He knows he is sick and is very frustrated that he is unable to do what any typical six year old can do. He has his moments of sadness but for the most part we can arouse a smile or two out of him each day.

The most difficult part of this experience has been not having our family at home all together. We also have a nine year old daughter and are trying to keep things as "normal" as possible for her. She as an nine year old does not quite grasp the whole concept of Max's illness either.

Max started the first of his treatment on Tuesday (March 31) with treatment consisting of chemo, high dose chemo and stem cell rescue. If all goes as planned Max will be able to return to school full time by September of 2010. He is currently inpatient undergoing a bone marrow Transplant at Devos Childrens Hospital in Grand Rapids Michigan as of Mid December 2009.

Jodie Nunn and family---------

Please pray for Max and his family. If you would like to follow him, here is the link to his team page on facebook: http://www.facebook.com/home.php?#/group.php?gid=175899346667&ref=ts

Happy New Year

Welcome 2010! I have been waiting for this year to come since I figured out that it would be the year I graduated college. I now have less than 4 months till I graduate from college and besides being very excited for the event, I am also very nervous. I am not sure what I am doing post college but hopefully I will soon know.
I have been working on grad school applications for MSOT programs and I am extremely nervous. It has made me look back on my past regarding my education and whether or not I made the right decisions. Oh well, It is too late now and I can not let it bother me.

My break from school has been well needed and typically I like to get a lot accomplished with this break however, I have not done that. I like to read and clean (I did do some cleaning, but not everything) and I have not picked up a single book. All I have basically done is run, run, and run some more. I did go to the Library today though and got a James Patterson book that I will soon be reviewing on here so come back and check it out.

Our Christmas Tree is on its way out of the house and we celebrated New Year's fantastically! We had friends and family over to our house and played wii and card games all night! We toasted with champagne to the new year and stayed up way past all of our bed times!

Merry Christmas

For some reason this Christmas has seem to have flown by...I am not sure if it was my finals taking me all the way into the 19th of December or that time really is flying by as I get older, but I am going to miss Christmas when it is gone this year. I have really enjoyed preparing by purchasing gifts and attending church and spending time with my family. Typically I am not a winter holiday person because many people I know get to busy and try to do a lot. For some reason I feel like I have taken a step back to soak it all in, I have let a lot of things roll off my shoulder, even if it does not seem like it at the time. I also am enjoying and savoring the traditions that my parents and family have set forth for me and my siblings. We have so many holiday traditions that I hope to continue on with my kids. One tradition is Kris Kringle. My middle sister was born 12 days before Christmas so to do something special for us and my my sister's birth, my parents came up with Kris Kringle. Every night beginning on my sister's birthday up to Christmas Eve we receive tiny gifts from Santa. This could be anything from a chapstick to a small gift card. But there are specific things we also receive...the first night we always get our ornament. Mine is Mary's Angels by Hallmark and on Christmas Eve morning we receive pajamas that we wear that night to bed. After these small gifts Santa comes with the big gifts on Christmas.
The fourth tradition (ornaments are second, pj's are third) is Christmas morning breakfast. It used to be this huge feast my mom would start once all the presents were open. Now it is this delicious casserole that I absolutely cannot get enough of. It is so yummy and I love it with a big glass of orange juice! We also eat lasagna on Christmas instead of turkey or ham and I love that we incorporate our heritage into it. The fifth tradition is probably ever since 1995 (or when we got the CD) we have listened to Steven Curtis Chapman's Christmas CD while opening presents. His CD always puts me in the holiday spirit and I love to listen to it year round because of how great of a CD it is.
The sixth tradition is probably how we decorate. As a family we love to decorate for the holidays and typically decorating takes us two days. It's not that we have that much stuff it is just that we are so particular about how things go and where they are placed. For instance the mistletoe must be hung in the door frame (unfortunately ours has seen its last days so we need a new one), We also put a ceramic Santa that my dad received at the end of our hallway.
The seventh tradition is my mom's Christmas cookies. She spends so much time and energy on making delicious Christmas cookies that everyone gets to enjoy. My favorite are her fruit cake cookies. The eighth and I think final one is the pickle ornament. We do not do it the traditional way that the Germans do but my dad does hide the pickle ornament in the tree and we search for it. Typically whichever child finds it receives an extra present, but I think we would fight to much if that happened.
After going through these traditions it makes me excited to think that I will be able to pass these on to my kids one day. :)

100 posts later!

I am so proud of myself for keeping up with my blogging...and when I mean keeping it up I mean more than one every three months. I was unsure of blogging when I first began it but now it is sort of a release for me. I love it and even though no one probably reads my blogs for some reason it makes me feel good to write one. So here is a blog "toast" to my first 100 posts and to many more to come!!! :)

Geesh!

I am pretty sure that I have not blogged in so long that I actually forgot my username (for like 5 seconds). So much has happened and I cannot believe how busy these past two months have been for me. They have been such a blur and I just want to slow down so I can take it all in. Before long I will no longer be a college student but hopefully working at a job or working on another degree (fingers crossed!). Thanksgiving was a great time this year, I spent it with my mom's side of the family which is unusual for us considering we always go to my dad's side but since my grandfather is sick we decided to take the load off of my grandmother and host it at our house. We had such a great time, I got to meet my brother's girlfriend (huge deal!) and got to talk with my cousin who could not be with us this holiday.
I also got to take a week's break from school so that I could jump head into finals week. I am so proud of myself and the work that I have accomplished this semester. I think academically this has been one of the best semesters for me (work accomplished wise) and I hope that when grades come out they reflect that.
So Thanksgiving came and went and it is now Christmas Eve. What have I been doing that I have not been able to blog in forever? Let's see....I went to ZooLights twice, I have been working a lot, celebrated my friends 22nd birthday in Columbus, had finals week, have been volunteering for 2 Occupational Therapists, teaching Sunday School, and tutoring. I also went to see New Moon (twice and loved it both times) and now I am really trying to get into the Christmas Spirit. Yes, even now on Christmas Eve, I am still struggling. I think it is because school let out so late for me and I know the next few weeks are going to be rough for me money wise...oh well, it will be taken care of!
One exciting thing that I did get to do was go to the town where my dad works and check our their Christmas celebration. It was sooooo cool. They have Santa drive around their downtown square and all the buildings light up. Then they light the tree and fireworks go off. I really enjoyed this because all of my family (except my brother) and my niece go to be with me. This was the first time for her to watch fireworks and she thought they were so cool. I hope this year she is not sick on the 4th of July so I can take her then too.
I also bought our Christmas tree this year, it is something I am very proud of. Ever since we added onto our house we have celebrated Christmas in this room and only one time out of the roughly four years we have had it we have only had one big Christmas tree (14 ft.) So this year I decided I wanted another big one and we went out the day after Thanksgiving and found one. It is absolutely perfect and no ornament was left behind this year!
Well, I think that is all for now and I promise to start blogging more and more!
Merry Christmas everyone :)

Observations

For my practicum my fall semester of 2009, I have been observing two Occupational Therapists and I have learned so much from this experience. It is very interesting to see the two sides to the job. The first OT I have been observing works in a school three days a week and she works with high schoolers, jr. high schoolers, middle schoolers, and elementary schoolers. We mainly work on handwriting and fine motor with these kids but it is a fun time to get to know them and see how they are progressing.
The second OT I observe works in a clinic and it is very exciting to also see this aspect. She gets more time with each child and both OT's have different teaching approaches. Since the school OT must follow the IEP or 504, they do not have as much free reign where as the clinical OT can adjust her goals or the day as things progress while still following the IEP. I also like doing both because most of the children in the school do not have autism where as almost all the kids in the clinic are on the spectrum.

Happy Halloween!!!!!!!

My favorite holiday has come and gone but it is still not to late to write about it! Fall was a little short for mid-Ohio this year because of rain but it was still just as beautiful as last year and I made it to the pumpkin patch. I also got to carve my pumpkins this year :) The picture posted is of my two pumpkins, one is of a monster creeping through a window and the other is a Disney Princess glass slipper. This year I dressed up as two costumes instead of just one. The first was a black cat and the second was Theodore from Alvin and the Chipmunks, one of my roommates was Alvin and the other was Simon. On the Thursday before Halloween one of my roommates and I took the little girls I watch trick or treating and then we had a nice time with the family eating delicious pizza. The following day I had a Halloween party in my room and on Halloween we went and watched a band play at a local bar while hanging out with a ton of friends.