Photos from July..............

After we left Primary Children's..........

Were Hunter's name was..........

The day after............

July treatment done.............

 Every one is in bed for a little while and yes I need the rest, but if you know someone who has chemo they don't sleep. Up and down all night long. I have been dragging my feet to write about this months treatment. This July Hunter had a treatment on the 3rd and four weeks later on the 31st. This time it broke me, broke into pieces that I am still having a hard time trying to put back together. It is very hard to put my poker face on lately. As I carried Hunter out of same day surgery he was crying and I was crying hysterically down the hall to Rick. I was shouting to him," I am done.... I am so DONE.... I can not do this any more."  As I looked at Rick and our oldest son Triston walking toward them with this look of shock on their faces. They were both frozen staring at me. The day Hunter was diagnosed with Leukemia nurses have been holding him down for peg shots (this is chemo shots in both legs at the same time) or to get him accessed. Hunter was two years and four months old when we were told he had cancer. I have kept everything the same routine each time we have went to Primary Children's. Hunter only knows the routine just now almost five he has been able to say,"I don't want to be accessed." or " I don't want chemo." Routine is all he knows. I had a nurse ask me once," does he know what you are talking about?" I told her, "no but he knows what is going to happen to him because I am telling him and at that moment he will know. To have Hunter accessed I have trained him to keep his hands above his head keep his leg straight. Squeeze mommies hands and as I whisper in his ears It's OK I am right here. Your mommies is right here. Hold still keep your leg straight. They are almost done. I will repeat this to him over and over again. So Hunter will not have to be held down by three or four people. The reason we are at same day surgery is they did not have Hunter scheduled for R.T.U. this trip was two doses of chemo one through his port and the other through his spine. I had his appointment all made but some how it was not scheduled. We went to clinic and got his Vanchristien through his port. Things were fine we made our way down to same day surgery. Talked to the nurse told her that he will not keep his wrist band on and she said, "we can make a sticker to put on him." I told her OK put he is allergic to any adhesive on his skin. After Hunter is access they have to use a wound bandage to cover his port. I told her she could put it on his band aid over his port. she said,"OK" and made some notes on his chart. Then the anesthesiologist came in Hunter has had him before at R.T.U.  This was familiar to Hunter so we started on our way. Very nice man Hunter really liked him. They wheeled a bed right out the side of the doors. Before they wheeled Hunter back they were going to put him to sleep in the hall way with me holding him. The anesthesiologist lifted Hunter into the bed and went to give him the medicine to put him to sleep. When this happens right before Hunter is put to sleep he will grab hold of me so very tight until he is limp and as I lay him in the bed I will whisper in his ear," Mommy is right here Baby, I'll be right here." But this time as they were giving his medicine Hunter started screaming. When the anesthesiologist lifted Hunter in bed he had De accessed him. When they gave Hunter his medicine instead of going in his port it went just below the skin surface. I have been told this is very painful and this is not the first time this has happen.  Hunter is screaming out in the hall way and everyone is coming out of the wood work to see what is going on. Now another anesthesiologist has come out to help get Hunter accessed and he is so swollen and they can not get him accessed. They poked and prodded on him for about 10 minutes I was getting very angry at this point and time and told them to call up to clinic for someone to come down to get Hunter accessed. They took us out of the hall way and put us in a room. I got Hunter calmed down just in time for the nurse to come in and access him. While Hunter is getting accessed I found out that Hunter is getting his spinal done by a practitioner. The same gal that came in our room at the clinic and did not sanitise her hands ( I did not let her touch Hunter at clinic) Now she is going to do his spinal. I have reached the boiling point. I made it CRYSTAL clear to Dr.Lemons I do not want anyone practicing on Hunter. I do understand they all have to practices but not on our son. Our first two weeks to Primary Children we all most lost Hunter twice do to medical mistakes by practitioners practicing. I also made it clear to the fill in Doctor at clinic about not having a practitioner for his spinal. Obviously my voice was not heard. They do listen to me but do what they want. As they are wheeling him back and I am telling them to not put him back by any one who is sick because I know a lot of kids have died from germs. Now waiting for Hunter to get done as I go back and he is screaming for me as I try to calm him down Hunter and he is screaming "you leave me, you leave me !!" As I am trying to comfort him I notice he is still accessed asked why? As they started to take his band aid off  I noticed that as soon as they took Hunter back they took off his band aid covering his port and Terrie strip it down about six times. I all so noticed they put the sticker right above his port the same sticker I told them he is allergic to. As the Anesthesiologist is taking the Terrie strips off he DE accessed Hunter and then he remember he forgot to but in the heparin in. So now Hunter has to be accessed again. So they called the same girl down from clinic to re access him she brings another nurse with her. By this time Hunter is very swollen and three other nurses come in ready to jump on Hunter to hold him down. My tone is not the best by now so I am tell them all to back off and let me talk to Hunter. While they are poking on I am telling Hunter it's OK and they keep trying to access him but they can not. The other nurse steps in to try I asked her why, you have never access Hunter before? She told me she has and the first nurse said,"I don't want to poke him again." I told her NO. you have not she proceeded to argue with me I told her unless you work at Dixie Regional then you have never access him. She looks at me and said,"That right he is access in St.George." They used a 22 gage needle and now Hunter is to swollen they have to get a bigger needle. Finely after poking and prodding again for another 10 minutes Hunter is accessed by the first nurse. They give him his heparin and DE access him Hunter is crying uncontrollably by now. Then I tell them all in a not so nice tone I am not trying to be a Witch but you have tortured my son and I let you do this and it will never happen again. I picked Hunter up in my arms left. This show's you how very week I am. At first when Hunter was diagnosed I prayed that our father in heaven would take him so he would not have to suffer. Now his strength and courage keeps Hunter still fighting strong. I do know that wounds heel in time and time is all we have for now. I do believe things happen for a reason. Rick and I both believe that Hunter is here for a cure. We believe in miracle's........do you?
Thank you for keeping us in your thoughts and prayers. Love,The Laubs

Treatment for July.......

This trip we had to take Triston to the Doctor in Salt Lake City to see a pulmonary specialist. This all started with Triston and Hunter both having the croup from November 2009 to February 2010. This was every month or twice a month. February 19Th 2010 we had both of the boys tonsils taken out on the same day. This was to take care of the croup. But we still keep getting the croup. Both of our boys have been on steroids every month this last year. Let's talk about stress..... A normal immune system anything that goes around your kid would catch it with in three days. A child with no immune system catches things in a day. Triston would get the croup to the point of him shutting down his breathing and he is almost blue and he is ripping off his shirt to breath. After getting him back to breathing again later we wait for Hunter to start running a fever and pray that we can catch it in time so Hunter is not admitted in the hospital. But this would not happen. So I would be in a panic waiting for it to happen to Hunter and hold my breath for the next couple of days. Then I would let down my guard because Hunter would not get it. But some thing inside my heart would taunt me because Hunter should have got this virus.Why didn't get it? This has been bothering me for a year now. A little voice inside my head is tell me something was not right. Now that Triston is six years old and 4'3 his weight is double the size of what a six year old should be. Now

Hunter lost his first tooth !!!!

When Hunter was diagnosed with leukemia we would hear about others and how they didn't make it in this battle. I never thought that we would be able to see him grow up right before our eyes. He lost his very first tooth !!! And of corse this momma cryed. So very blessed we are. Thank you all for keeping us in your thoughs and prayers. Love the Laub's

Treatment for May.......

Found a new Friend on our way to R.T.U. his name is Reggie.

Oliver is still our favorite !!!

Just a little wet.

Making wishes and hoping they will come true.

It has been a long time sense I have been blogging. I need to keep up with this but our life is so busy. Looking at other blogs help me to understand what Hunter really go's through. This helps me be his voice to make things better for him. This trip was R.T.U. now Hunter is growing up and he knows what happens to him and he doesn't want any part of it. Before R.T.U. at the clinic we discovered that Hunter had a blood clot in the casing of his port. Normal would be to panic ( I was scared to death !!!) So down we went to R.T.U. I told them that he had a blood clot in his port so they would not be able to draw back on his port. After R.T.U. they started Hunter on tissue-type piasminogen activator ( T.P.A.) Every fifteen minutes they would come in and try to draw back for blood. An hour has passed now still no blood on the draw back our nurse has to go and talk to Dr. Lemons. Dr. Lemons wants to do a boluses This is one or two doses of T.P.A.in a 10,000 unit of urokinase for two hours. Now if this doesn't work then Hunter would be put under to see exactly where his blood clot is.Finally it all worked out their were able to draw back and get blood (Whoot Whoot).This trip I think I aged about ten years with the scare of a life time. We promised Hunter he would be able to go see the Stingrays at the living aquarium and it was well deserved he was a trooper with everything that happened to him.We would like to thank Cheri and Oliver for coming to see us. Oliver is Hunters favorite.... The fountain was finally running and we went to make wishes. Thank you so much for all of your thoughts and prayers. Love the Laub's

Happy Valentines Day......

We drove up Monday 13Th, that night to Salt Lake on our way up we get a call from Uncle Kevin he told us that on the news they were taking about a shortage of chemo and was wondering if this would effect Hunter? I had not heard about this shortage so I was not sure. Hunter was to have two doses of chemo this trip. I didn't think they would have to put him under for R.T.U. because Hunter got the croup Tuesday a week before. So we had him still fast to see what the Doctor had to say. We are at clinic and I had brought some Valentines for the other kids from Hunter (who doesn't like fun dip,right) While Hunter was making a Valentine we got called back fast, clinic was slow that day. Dr.Lemons came in the room and the first thing he talked about was the shortage. I know I was looking at him like a deer caught in the head lights. It's a feeling that hits you straight in your heart and your heart just sinks. I am overwhelm with fear and very scared. It's true and this is going to effect him how? We will not know how this will effect him until it happens. We have been told that if Hunter just stops his treatments today he would be fine for a while but he would relapse and not be so lucky as to have ALL leukemia. It would could back very aggressive into an other leukemia. He would have to have a bone marrow transplant too. I remember the first time we had went up to Primaries Children's and the nurse we had told us when we found out Hunter had ALL Leukemia he said,"this is the one you would hope for." A flood of memories just came rushing over me. Memories that have forever been burned into my sole. Just the right key of words can open my wall that I have built so strong and tall. Now we are back to picking up the pieces and hoping and praying that none of these kids have to go with out this poison that is keeping them all alive and here with us. Hunter did have chemo in his spine this trip but in three months when he is due for it again they are not for sure if it will be available. So a not so Happy Valentines Day but a unforgetable. But you all can help in our fight by send this letter and make those phone call's. Help all of us in our fights.Thank you all for keeping us in your thoughts and prayers.  Love The Laubs                                                                                                                                   CureSearch for Children's Cancer

YOU CAN HELP IN TWO WAYS

Contact the following pharmaceutical companies who produce methotrexate and ask them to:

1. Prioritize the production of the preservative-free form of methotrexate.
2. Consider working with the FDA to import preservative-free methotrexate if sources are available.

APP Customer Service	1-888-386-1300
Hospira, Inc. Customer Service	1-877-946-7747
Mylan Institutional	1-888-258-4199
Sandoz Customer Service	1-609-627-8500

Second, contact your Representatives and Senators on Capitol Hill and ask them to immediately send a letter to these same pharmaceutical companies requesting that they:

1. Prioritize the production of the preservative-free form of methotrexate.
2. Consider working with the FDA to import preservative-free methotrexate if sources are available.

To send a letter to your representative, click here.

Thank you for your support of this important issue!