Hello All, I know it’s been quite sometime since our last update and a lot sure has happened since the summer. The girls are both in school now; Kelcie in first grade and Carly in Kindergarten and she absolutely loves it. She thinks she owns the place because her big sister is upstairs. Carly goes ½ day everyday and Kelcie is all day. Carly couldn’t wait to go to school and she never shed a tear on the first day. I barely got a wave for a goodbye and she had to be first in line, of course! She has lots of new friends; boys and girls. She takes two dance classes, ballet and tap, and she loves them. She’s a natural! Our little Kelcie isn’t enjoying school quite as much, but we’re working with her in a lot of areas and she’s feeling more comfortable everyday.

Carly had scans in September which all came back fine. We were a bit worried because over the summer she experienced a lot of leg pain to the point where Tylenol was not enough and she needed morphine. She would actually ask for the blue stuff. It’s pretty sad when your five year old can distinguish pain medications. She was also taking a lot of pepcid for her tummy on a regular basis. Because her pediatrician was away I called the clinic and they said to bring her right in. They checked her blood and ordered her scans and decided to have a Gastro/Intern doctor check her out which meant another visit to the pain clinic. The pain clinic upped her neurontin to 200mg AM & 300mg at night. It did seem to help a bit but she still has leg pain occasionally. They want to see her in January for a recheck. Then we went to Children’s Hospital to see the tummy doctor. They checked her all out and asked us to keep a journal of pain and told us to give her prilosec each day for her tummy. We’re back in January for a recheck. Her next set of scans are December 3rd and for the most part she’s doing ok; I still wait for the day she’s pain free.

On a sadder note, all of us in the Laverty family wish to extend condolences to the family of fellow Touch of Hope member David Kokjohn. David, a brave and valiant warrior, lost his battle with mesenchymal chondrosarcoma in October. David was a true example of facing everyday with hope.