New Jokes!!

I have a bunch of jokes for you all tonight:

1. Where does a sailor go when his sail gets a hole in it?

To the Wholesale Store!

2. Why is a football stadium always cold?

Because it full of fans.

3. What helps ghosts win games?

Their team spirit.

4. How does an octopus go out onto the baseball diamond?

Well armed.

5. What happened when Santa took boxing lessons?

He decked the halls!


Okay now that you've had a good laugh -
NO MORE CHEMO - for now. Last night was the last dose for this round.

Have a good night!

Love ya,
Lil'Ben

AWESOME SAINTS GAME!!

They didn't win and Drew Brees didn't break the passing record but I thought it was totally awesome! Warm-ups and the coin toss was great. I'm sure most of you could not see me, I was a little short compared to the rest of the guys. But my buddy Drew Brees held my hand and introduced me to all the players out there. I got some autographs, and I picked out a play for Coach Sean Payton - I'm sure it was one of the ones that they scored off of! Everyone was soo awesome. I saw Cameron Alfred's Dad and he gave me a game ball from last week! Cameron - your dad has the COOLEST job!!! My brother Shaun had a great time too - he didn't get to go on the field, I think the football players were afraid of him.

Can't believe what a cool day this was, Thank you to all that made it possible. I love ya!

Lil'Ben

Great Christmas

I hope you all had a fabulous Christmas. I sure did. I got lots of great presents but most importantly I had a great day with my family. Shaun and I played for hours with all our new toys. And cruised the neighborhood looking for chicks. Do you like my new wheels?

Just a few more days of Chemo and radiation!

And guess what ... This Sunday I get to be a Junior Captain at the Saints game this Sunday!!! I get to hang out with the guys before the game while they warm up and then I get to go on the field with the players for the coin toss. My favorite player Drew Brees might even caring me out on to the field - how cool is that? When my mom first told me I was a little scared cause I thought I had to play in the game and they are a little bigger then me- but mom said I don't have to play unless ALOT of players get injured, like all of them. So be sure to watch the game and look for me during the coin toss! And if your at the game cheer loud I'll wave at you.

Have a great day

Lil'Ben

Merry Christmas Eve

Hello All

I quick note before I go to bed...Santa is coming soon! I went to mass tonight and then ate yummy food at my Aunt Steph and Uncle Henry's House. Had a close call, almost had to go to the hospital tonight. I had a fever 100.1 but luckily they give you until 100.5 before you have to go to get admitted. We talked to the doc and he said we could take a little Tylenol (usually a big nono!)

Mom was not excited about the possibility of Christmas in the hospital! She was worried Santa would not no where to take her presents!

Anyway better get to bed before the big guy passes me by. Remember I love you all. Have a great Christmas and remember to be nice to your loved ones even when they annoy you!

Love ya
Lil'Ben

Late Night Partying

Sorry no post yesterday I didn't get home till after 11pm. I was out late partying with my buddies at City Park Christmas in the Oaks. Lots of kids from my school met up for a pizza party and to ride the "party school bus" with Mr. Art to City Park. We rode trucks, airplanes, and the carousel; played on a battleship, pirate ship, and got swallowed by a whale. We stood in line for a while but the train broke down so my grandma says she is gonna take me and Shaun back to ride it another day.

Went to radiation today. Only 6 more days to go!

ben

Great Clinic Day!!

All your good wishes must have worked because I had a GREAT clinic day today. My blood counts were good today, so good in fact that I don't even have to go to clinic next week !!!!!!!! And then the next week I only need to get blood counts I don't need to see the doc -much faster those days. I did an antibiotic nebulizing treatment just as a precaution today so clinic took a while but it wasn't as long as some kids have to be their so i am lucky. I didn't cry at all for my blood draw today. My mom was super proud of me because usually I scream in her ear the whole time - but she doesn't mind.

My Aunt MegO left today so I am going to miss her a lot, but she said she had to go home to make sure that crazy Uncle Mikey wasn't growing his mustache back!!

Tomorrow I am going to see my cousin Olivia is a school program. I am very excited because I hear she is really good.

I am excited for Christmas, Santa sure is going to be busy this year because I know how good you all have been. I went to see him yesterday and told him how good you all have been to me so expect extra presents this year!!

Love you
Lil'Ben

A Harley for Christmas!!!

Wow it has been a couple of really busy days.

Check out the Harley that I got for Christmas. Not really, Mr. Wyatt just let me sit on his and offered to take me for a ride.

Thanks to all of my friends that came to the party at Mr. James' bar Saturday and my dad's hotel today. I love all of my new toys and I can't wait to start playing with them.

I am kind of sad tonight, I have to do blood work again at clinic tomorrow, I hate needles. I hope my blood is so good this week that I don't have to do it again next week.

Love you all
Lil'Ben

Busy Days

Well its been a busy couple of days. Yesterday I went to treatment and then spent the rest of the day at school. I had a great time there and got a huge surprise! My teachers gave me a very cool firetruck jungle gym! They are way to good to me. I love them lots and its not because they buy me cool stuff! And a special thanks to Mr T.J. and his buddy who lifted the 800lb "toy" over the fence because it was to big to fit through the gate, mommy, Mego, Ms. Kim and Mr. Tom helped too!

Then today my good friend Mr. James had a big party at his bar so everyone who hasn't seen me lately could come and say high, eat good food and hang out. Ms Kelly and all my friends at my mom's work did a great job organizing it and Pizza Joe & Mr. Ben (not my dad) worked the grill! It was so yummy and I saw a lot of great friends.

Thank you all, I love you!!
Lil' Ben

Snow Day

Here is the joke of the day:

Why does the potato chip talk?
Because it has a mouth

(That is a Ben original)

The snow was fun, I hope it snows again tomorrow. I went to school today and had a snowball fight with all my friends.

I went to daddy's work and had chocolate milk and chocolate chip cookies- they were yuuummmy!

ben

Beads of Courage

What a fun day today. Ben got his Beads of Courage. Its a program where they give kids a bead to represent each event they go through. The collection of their beads tells the story of their fight with cancer, each kids strand of beads is unique to them and there fight. Ben got his strand today that reflects all the things he has been through so far, he will continue to get beads to add to his necklace with each event. Each event has a different color bead. He gets blue beads for going to clinic, black beads are for needle sticks (blood draws, IVs, etc) he gets glowing the dark beads for radiation, yellow beads for nights spent in the hospital. Ben has over 50 beads now. Ben was very excited to get his beads today and loves telling people all about them. He took them to school today to show his class.



Ben's Joke of the Day:

Why did the alien forget his flying saucer?

Because he left it on Mars.

School Day

The radiation machine was broken today so I got to go to school all day today!! They got it fixed late in the afternoon so I still got my treatment, my puffy checks are going down so my mask wasn't so tight today, and I got in trouble for dancing again on the treatment table. Those ladies laugh at me all the time because they hear me singing and wiggling my feet to the great tunes I listen to during treatment..."Sweat home Alabama" and Kid Rock's "All summer long" usually!

Here are a few new pictures from my great party last week. My two special ladies...my girlfriend Brandy and my fabulous teacher Ms Jessica!

School was so great today. I did reading class with Ms Rita and it was great. I forgot how crazy Tanner is, he sure made my mom laugh today!!

I hope to be done with all my doctors appointments early tomorrow so I can go back to school again.

Hey guess what I am off more of my meds - all I take now is my chemo and my nausea meds before my chemo!!

Talk to you all later

Lil'Ben

Birthday Weekend!!

What a good birthday weekend we had here! Movie night with my cousins and my friend Patrick was great. And I ate a giant corn dog at the Orange Festival it was so awesome. Lots of fun games and rides.

We had our pizza eating contest!! And guess what - I won! Aunt Mego went down.

I miss all my friends at school, so I am going to try and go to school this week. Thank you for my messages. I have a few new jokes for you all I hope you like them...

So the harbor master says to the boy fishing on the peer, " There's no fishing allowed here" and the boy says, "I'm not fishing I'm teaching my pet worm to swim.

Why does the elephant where tennis shoes?
So he can play tennis.

Why does the golfer where 2 pairs of pants?
In case he gets a hole in 1.

love ya- B

BEN IS 5!!!!!

WOW!!!! What a party. A SWAT "tank", Fire Truck, Zoo Animals, great food, face painting, clowns, and best of all MY FRIENDS!!!!!!!!!! I can't believe what an awesome 5th Birthday I had. And guess what .......

I'm going to Disney World!!! I can't believe it. I wish all my buddies at my party today could go with me!

Thank You !!!!! Thank You !!!!!! Thank You!!!!!!

Okay my Mom wants to write stuff now - I Love you all

Lil' Ben

Hello All

What an amazing community we have been so blessed to become a part of. Not many people say Thank God for Katrina!! But I do. Because it brought us to Brighter Horizon's, Belle Chase, and a community of so many wonderful people who we love and who love us! I want to take a few minutes to say thank you to some very special people ....

Melanie, Jessica and ALL the amazing teachers at Brighter Horizon's. I can't begin to tell you how special you all are to my family. My boys have always loved coming to school, I always enjoy my afternoon chats with all the teachers when I come to pick them up. I don't think most parents "hang out" when they come to pick their kids up - but I do and I see a lot of other parents there too - and its not because we like getting mulch in shoes - its because you all are so awesome and we are privileged that you are our children's caretakers and our friends!

To the Brighter Horizon's Parents - some of you we know and some of you we just met today. We thank you for all your love, support, and prayers. I have been on several field trips with your kids and they are truly wonderful - partially because they go to Brighter Horizons and have awesome teachers, but mostly because you are awesome parents. Hug them everyday, laugh at their crazy antics and enjoy every minute. We want you to know that we will spend our lives trying to pay forward the generosity and love you have shown our family.

To our Marriott Family - Thank you for your support! The flexibility you have given to Ben has been amazing we are enjoying our family time everyday, and we know how many people are working so hard to make that happen.

To our Audubon Family - you all are so amazing. I know how hard you all work and I know how short staffed you are right now. I miss seeing you all everyday, I enjoy your visits, emails and phone calls more than you know. Thank you, Thank you, Thank you for all you do!

To our friends, and our friends friends, and the people we don't even know - thank you for the meals, the cards, and most of all your PRAYERS!

To our family - we may not say it enough but We Love You All!!! Thank you for your support, and your time. You made us who we are and you must have done a great job because we must have turned out pretty good to have this many people love us and our kids as much as they do.

I have always believed in the power of paying it forward. And you all have given us quite a challenge. We will not disappoint.

We love you all

Erin and Ben

Good check up

Clinic went well today it was quicker than last week and our blood work was so good we don't need to draw blood next week -YEAH!!!!!!! Ben has an infection in his mouth, expected with all the meds he is on, so he'll start antibiotics - yes more meds! Only three more days of steroids - which is good because our radiation mask barely fits over those puffy cheeks. But all in all good news today.

Here are the pictures from yesterday at school! Those are some of the best smiles we have seen in weeks. Big thank you to cousin Blake for freeing them from my email - can't wait to see you guys this weekend.


Ben is very excited about his birthday tomorrow. I'm sure we will have great pictures and maybe a video clip to share with you all tomorrow.

Love you all

Erin

Back to School

What a day we had today!!! Ben had planned on going into school for lunch and a movie - after all it was corn-dog day! But this morning when he woke up Ben said he wanted to go to school for the whole day. I explained he still had to go to treatment so we compromised - we went to school first thing and he had breakfast there then we went to radiation. I was sure after treatment he would want to go home and rest for a while but he said no - he wanted to go back to school. So I took him to school, I figured we would stay about 30 minutes and then he would need to go home. We arrived at 10 am and left today at 3:45 !! Yes he did a full day at school. I sat out front and rocked in the rocking chair and tried to stay out of the whirl wind of activity that surrounds Brighter Horizons - after all it was Sam's Club shopping day!!

Ben snacked with his class, did puzzle games with the class, colored with the class and played the freeze game with the class (he is really good at freezing), then of course he ate corn dogs with the class and then it was movie time. When it was time for the playground Ben went out and sat in the sun. Not a lot of running around for him today. But what a change - he has spent the last several days sleeping or laying down for roughly 90% of the day and today it was like he decided he was not going to be sick anymore - which is very cool with me!

We had a great day today, tomorrow is clinic so probably not going to be a great day but we have all kinds of toys and games packed for the very long expected clinic day.

We'll post some great pictures from today as soon as I can figure out how to get them out of my email -they are trapped!!

Love you all

Erin

Messages from the boys!

Hey Friends I'm feeling good today my mouth ulcers are clearing up. My radiation mask is getting a little tight because of my big puffy chipmunk cheeks. I'm really excited that my birthday is coming. Here's a picture with me and my puffy cheeks! My mom says I had puffy cheeks like this when I was a baby. Tomorrow I'm going to go to school for lunch and a movie - its corn dog day!!!!!!
Love you all thanks for all your great messages!

Lil'Ben



Shaun really wanted to type you all a message so here it is:

qqqqqqqqqqq ` g cvvvbdbbffn fcvnvfc c

Love Shaun

Missing Days

Hello All

Sorry for not keeping up. We have had spotty internet service for the last few days. Ben's doing okay, we've had a few rough nights. Ben is now starting to feel the effects - and side effects- off all the medications he is on. He has been waking up in the night with leg pain, and has trouble walking during the day because of the leg pain (chemo side effect). And yesterday morning we discovered he was getting mouth ulcers (radiation side effect). Ben is still in good spirits he is just really tired all the time (another radiation side effect).

Yesterday he went to his cousin Virginia's Birthday party. She is 2! He had a great time helping Virginia open her presents and Shaun had a great time playing with her presents!

Four days off from radiation has been great but its back to the hospitals tomorrow in the morning for radiation and in the afternoon we have to go to Children's for more testing!! We have gone to a pill form of the steroids now so less fights about the "yucky" medicine. And in three more days we lower the dose again. We are hoping to be off steroids by the end of the week. That may not be possible because the radiation causes swelling - but we want to try. The weight gain has been crazy and we have had a few episodes of "roid rage" so we would like to take him off them it just may not be possible.

We want to again thank everyone for their love, support and prayers. We are truly blessed to have such wonderful friends and family.

Please keep praying for our miracle!

Love you all
Erin

Pizza Lover

hi everyone-
so i've heard that lil benno has recently gotten back his appetite. now this is probably a good thing but from this picture i wonder just how much more he should be eating. he ate this whole pizza by himself 2 summers ago so any more might be a little much. oh well, boys will be boys. ok, so maybe he shared a slice of this pie with his aunt mego.
but hear this now, i am challenging lil ben to a pizza eating contest. ben, i will be in new orleans in a few days so save up your appetite and we'll eat pizza until we puke.
aunt mego
ps, only 5 more nights until you wake up 5 years old!!!!

THANKSGIVING!!!

Happy Thanksgiving Everyone - I had a great day. All of my family who lives in New Orleans was here including 8 of my cousins. We had a great time and ate lots of food! As you can see from the picture we crashed pretty hard after it was all over. Hope you all had as great a Thanksgiving as I did.

Love you all

Lil'Ben

Our first day at clinic

Well today was our first "clinic" day. Everyone warned me it was bad, and they were right. I had to get my blood drawn and I had to sit in the waiting room for 3+ hours. But Doc says I'm doing great, and I get to reduce my steroids again on Friday! Because I was so good my mom said I could pick where we went for lunch and I picked Burger King. It was soooo good.

Love lil' Ben

Shaun wants to say ---Go Alabama! and Phineas and Pherb is his favorite show.

We are looking forward to a great Thanksgiving, and wish you all a great Turkey Day!

Ben & Erin

Ben's Jokes

Okay no big news today, doing great with our meds. Steroids down to twice per day - we are very excited about this. Ben has gained 4 pounds in the last week, he is getting cute pudgy checks like when he was a baby. Ben has some jokes of his own he would like to share - unfortunately I don't think we can blame these on the meds I think we have to blame these on being 4! Here goes..

Q: Why did the rat live in the box?
A: Because if forgot to come out

Q: Why doe the singer sound like an animal?
A: Cause it ate to much breakfast

I'm sure you are laughing your heads off!

Love ya
Lil' Ben

Lazy Day

Lazy day today. We all went out to breakfast and then Ben went to radiation. I spent the rest of the day laying around watching the adults reorganize closets and getting my new playroom set up. Then I had a few visitors this evening and we had marshmallow gun wars. I fed my neighbor Ms Kim's fish and that about it for my day. Hope you all are good.

Love

Lil' Ben

Fun Day

Didn't have to go to the doctor today! I went to Jackson's birthday party - thanks for inviting me Jackson I had fun. I can't wait till you have a party again. I ate 3 pieces of pizza - and didn't have room for cake.

Thats all for today - written 100% by Ben

Love Ya
Lil' Ben

Mom, Dad & Grandma did lots of work today - we set up new beds for the boys. Moved closets, set up the guest room with a real bed and moved the office down to mom and dads room. Thanks for the help Mr Billy! All things look good today. Getting our meds schedule down and eating lots - we are all blaming it on the steroids but Ben is the only one taking steroids so I'm not sure why the rest of us are eating more than normal!

Thank you all for your kind emails and cards, please know we are greatful for all your good wishes and prayers!

Love you all
Erin

Special Visitors!!

Guess who came to see me today...The Imagination Movers!!!! It was sooo cool. My teacher Ms Jessica brought a few of my buddies over, and My Aunt Julie brought my cousin Olivia over. And then there was a knock at the door and I opened it and I couldn't believe my eyes. How did the Imagination Movers get out of the TV? I'm still trying to figure that one out. They brought us all posters and CDs and we sang a bunch of songs. I got a little tired during the middle of our show, but it was so awesome.

Tomorrow I get the day off no radiation. I'm going to my buddy Jackson's B-day party- very excited. I can't wait to eat Jackson's cake! My mom and dad are moving furniture around the house because my brother and I are getting to share a room now. And my old bedroom is going to be a special play room just for me - germ free when I need it.

I went to work with my mom for a few minutes today so she could get some work to do at home when I take my naps.

Its great being home!
Love ya
Lil' Ben

GOING HOME!!!

Best day yet, I got to go home!!!!!

I was giving my mom a lot of trouble last night taking my meds in applesauce, so she said I can try and swallow the pills - that worked great so I don't have to taste that "disgusting " applesauce anymore. In fact I will probable never eat applesauce again.

So it took two big Mayflower moving trucks to take all my stuff home - okay not really but I sure had a lot of new stuffed animals and cool toys from so many people who came to visit me.

I stopped by school this afternoon and said hi to all my buddies, and mom and dad let me order my favorite dinner for tonight. Pizza from the Pizza man (Okay so its Papa Johns but we call him Pizza man).

I sure do feel better being at home!

Love ya
Lil' Ben

Who gave the animals computers?

Okay my mom is thinking that they are having way too much fun at her work without her, because somehow the lion Jonny Dolar got ahold of a computer and sent me a message. She is not sure how that happened but it must mean Ms Carol is up to no good!

Ethan came to play today!

I had another great day. No anesthesia for radiation, and I took all my medicine by mouth nothing through the IV - that means they will take it out tomorrow and I get to go home!!!!! YEAH!!!! I also went to see the eye doctor this afternoon, "Lem" tried to come too but mom said he had to stay in the room and go to time out! It turns out I may not have had as many visitors as I thought - I have double vision in my left eye. The doctor says if I keep taking my medicine and doing my new eye exercises that when my "owwy" shrinks that should clear up. But most pirates only have one good eye anyway!

I have made lots of good friends on 4 west so I will miss them. This is a picture of my favorite day nurse Ms. Tina. She has taken care of me almost everyday I was here and yet somehow avoided giving me a shot or placing an IV. She is very sneaky that way.

Thanks to everyone at the Audubon Zoo who donated blood in my name today. I know how yucky needles are so that was really sweet of you, I hope I don't need it!!

Thanks for all your messages, I read them every morning before treatment and every evening after meds.

Love you all

Lil' Ben

2 days down 40 to go!!

Had a great day today - didn't need any sleepy meds (anesthesia) for radiation today. I laid in the radiation bed and didn't move all by myself for the whole 7 minute treatment and all the nurses and doctors were very impressed. My cousins came and visited me this afternoon, and Ms Jessica, my teacher brought my buddy Patrick to see me. I also got to meet some new friends. The physical therapist, the occupational therapist and the audiologist. I had fun with the PT and OT ladies but I wasn't very nice to Kristin the audiologist so I have to apologise to her tomorrow. She kept shoving things in my ears and I was tired so my evil twin "Lem" refused to take the tests and we failed - I think they will let me try again tomorrow.


I had no idea there were so many great jokes out there!

Love ya

Ben

Treatment Day 1

Big day today - I started radiation and tonight I try my new chemo drug (in applesauce!) Its going pretty good right now. I am walking great again and took an ambulance ride to get my radiation they even turned the sirens on. There are pretty cool things about being in the hospital...1 - you get to pick what to eat for each meal and you can eat it in bed watching TV if you want. 2- all the juice you can drink (any flavor) 3- lots of friends come to visit and play 4- STICKERS - lots and lots of stickers.


Excited about maybe going home on Thursday!!

Love you guys and thank you for all the funny pirate jokes -I love them!

Lil' Ben

A Pirate's Party

Hey Everyone!

I had quite a day today, one of my pirate buddies heard I was in the hospital and decided we needed a good old fashion pirate party!

His name is Pirate Papillion and we sang several pirate songs and danced pirate dances! It was awesome. If you want to check out the cool pirate who came to visit me you can go to www.kidpirates.com - He made me an official member of the Kid Pirate Crew!!

I had a lot of great friends with me for my pirate, and all my New Orleans cousins were here too! I start my new medicine tomorrow so we will let you know how that goes.

Love ya
arrrrrr
Lil' Ben

The Medical Story

As many of you know by now Lil' Ben was diagnosed Wednesday 11/12/08 with a large tumor on / in the brain stem. We first started noticing a problem in late September. Lil' Ben was much more tired than usual, moody at times and was loosing weight. I took him into the doctor and they ran blood and urine tests which all came back "normal". Not convinced everything was normal Big Ben and I kept a close eye on the little man and after another 10 days with no improvement in energy level we took him back in to the doctor. He told me he was fine and to come back for his 5 year old check up and shots in December. As you can imagine I got an appointment for a new pediatrician - I'm not one who takes kindly to being dismissed as an over reacting mother! So we had an appointment with a new pediatrician set up for Wednesday the 12th in the afternoon but Tuesday Lil' Ben woke up saying he didn't feel well and seemed off, so I took him to work with me to keep a closer eye on him.

He was a huge help, he helped give one of our sick goats her medicine, he helped move "Sammy" the clouded leopard to her new enclosure and he learned to speak clouded leopard, which he is quite fluent in now!! By 4pm he started holding his right arm against his side and limping / dragging his right leg a little. We called our current pediatricians office, since we had not seen the new one yet and they said to keep and eye on him and come in tomorrow if he was still doing it - well by 6pm Big Ben and I decided to take him to the ER at Children's Hospital. Lil' Ben and I went to Aunt Dr. Steph's house first to make sure mommy wasn't truly crazy with her assurance that no we weren't crazy we proceeded on to the ER. During our long ER visit Lil' Ben's symptoms began to worsen quickly. By the time we were admitted to neurology that night he could not walk with out falling and was talking like Elvis out of the corner of his mouth. We were scheduled for an MRI early Wednesday morning.

The MRI went well, our biggest obstacle was giving him the IV - Ben's not a fan of needles! But the test went off with out a problem and I was fully prepared for the Doctors to come tell us he had had a stroke. Not what I wanted to hear but hey that is manageable, rehab, meds etc.. not impossible. At 1pm the hospital social worker came in the room and told us the neurologist wanted to speak with Big Ben and I in the conference room - just for the record that is never a good sign. When we walked in there were about six doctors sitting around the table who looked like they were even terrified to be there. We sat down and the Neurologist just came out and said no easy way to say this "Ben has a large inoperable tumor on his brain stem".

Okay so NOT prepared for that one. Once the room stopped spinning she explained that these types of tumors did not have a good prognosis and that Ben would be transfer ed to the Oncology service because there was nothing surgically they could do. We went back to Ben's room shaking and feeling like we had been thrown into another dimension of the time space continuum. The grandparents and aunts and uncles were all called. 1pm Wednesday the 12th our lives changed forever.

After a few tears and several times asking"Am I awake or is this a dream" we started our quest for our miracle. We started calling around for second opinions (even before we had our official first opinion!), prayer chains started literally all over the world and in more religions than I knew existed! The official diagnosis is Difuse Pontine Glioma.

And then came the parade of doctors...

To confirm what our neurologist said, the Nero surgeon stopped by and said no surgery, no way , no how. Then we saw every level of the oncology department from the students to the interns to the fellow and finally late that evening we met with our Pediatric Neurooncologgist (Dr Valez) and she laid out our options for treatment. Thursday afternoon we met with our Radiation Oncologist (Dr Zacharus) from Touro hospital.

So Thursday evening Big Ben and I began the process of deciding how to treat him. We have had a consult from the doctors at the Barrows Neurological Institute in Phoenix - they agree with our doctors here in New Orleans. Just this morning we got our consult from St. Jude's hospital in Memphis, they too agree with our doctors hear in New Orleans and feel that we are in great hands and are receiving top notch care. So we will start treatment on Monday, he will receive 6 weeks of radiation (5 days per week) and an oral chemotherapy drug for 6 weeks as well.

So those are the annoying details. We wanted to lay it all out for everyone because we know how unbelievable this is. The rests of our posts and this web page will be dedicated to our pursuit of our miracle and our AMAZING SON BEN!!!


Keep us in your prayers!

Love Erin and Big Ben

Pirate Ben

Well here it is, Ben's first blog page.

He's a little boy with a lot going on so we thought this would be a good way to keep everyone in the know about him. Erin and Ben will be updating this as they can on any news and information about our little man. I will leave it to them to disclose details and updates, but for the rest of us I encourage you all to post messages to Ben and share fun stories to keep us all in good spirits.
We all love Ben so much and are praying hard for him. He is on the minds of everyone we know right now so let him know you are thinking of him as I'm sure he will get a kick out of getting mail from everyone. Send me any fun photos you have that you would like to share- there are plenty of him out there being the little rascal he is.
Thanks for all the support so far- we are all truly blessed to share in this community of family and friends.
That's it for now,
Aunt Mego
mego25@hotmail.com