Skip to main content

Thursday and Friday, August 16th and 17th

Hello all!

  Yesterday was an amazing day.  The Riverview Cinemas 8 in Southbury allowed us to come to the theater yesterday morning with a few friends to watch The Meg.  This is a movie that Otto has wanted to see since the trailer came out.  We were the only people in there.  Our neighbor, Kim, had arranged this and we were over the moon excited!  So, a special thank you to her!!


                                               

  Today, we came into Clinic and then quickly realized that we gave Otto breakfast.  That was a no-no, for he was to have a procedure done in the morning.  So, we were asked to wait until 1pm when he would be ready for sedation.  The procedure went fine and we are now inpatient waiting to start chemo tomorrow morning. 

  Tomorrow will be Day 1 of Round 3.  We are moving into the first of the last three rounds that will gradually get more intense as he moves through them.  Although the next three are going to be a test to Otto's body, the good thing is, if it works (which we are very optimistic), then he's done.  After Round 5, it's checkups from then on.  We just need to keep praying that Otto can make it through the next 3 rounds with no major hiccups.

  We'd really like to continue to thank all of you who have provided us with meals.  With everything going on, it is a wonderful feeling not to have to worry about planning out meals and cooking all the time.  We are very blessed in so many ways - and the blessings just keep coming.  More and more each day, we continue to see signs pop up telling us that everything is for a reason and that we are going to make it out of this.  The more people we meet, the more we talk to people, the more connections we realize are there.  When those connections present themselves, it solidifies that we are with the right people. 

  With gratitude and love,

Mark, Leigh, Otto, Tess and Lulu


Comments

Popular posts from this blog

Wednesday, Thursday and Friday, October 24th, 25th and 26th

So many things have been happening since we last posted.  There have been many meetings, discussions, and realizations we have had. A few days ago, Otto started showing signs of bleeding.  The doctors have decided it could be one of two things.  It could be related to his infection in his intestines or it could be a sign of the fungal infection spreading.  After reviewing scans and speaking to the surgical team, the team feels this is related to the fungal infection.   The fungal infection is one that is extremely rare.  It is also one that is very difficult to treat.  We were hopeful that with a building ANC alongside the three antifungals, that Otto's body would be able to contain the fungus.  Instead, his body is showing signs of it spreading.  The team will send him for another scan towards the end of next week to see if there are any differences in size of the three masses on his liver.   We have also researched and reached out to another hospital.  The particular

Wednesday and Thursday, November 28th and 29th

Otto has been fighting hard these last two days.  However, we are pleased to say that last night was a great one for him.  Otto was able to sleep pretty well with little coughing and no visible signs of bleeding from the lungs.  He is still dealing with the cutis spot that has been growing in his mouth, but can take meds in order to prevent it from bleeding.  Today was a great day.  Otto woke up, ready to go around 7am.  He wanted to take a shower, which he did, followed by taking a walk.  We all went out to the Healing Garden where we found it to be a little too windy.  Otto was convinced that he needed to go back in and quick! Our wonderful friend from Child Life at Yale stopped by with a special gift for our family.  She brought us a  6ft Christmas tree (artificial, of course).  We brought ornaments from home and had a decorating party.  Otto was really happy that we could all be together sprucing up the tree and playing Daddy's new favorite game, What's your Favorite? 

Monday thru Thursday December 3rd - 6th

Hello Everyone, Last chance to get an Otto Strong T-shirt if you haven't already. Here is the link: www.rsvpinvitations.net/shop. Order by Sunday. It has been a long difficult week. Otto's nights are still restless with bathroom trips, occasional coughing, nose bleeds, and nausea. We've peeled back some meds to help relieve some of these side effects making him more comfortable and we've increased his pain medication to alleviate his pain. His baby tooth bleeding has finally gotten under control after several days trying various techniques from some starch/potato powder, gauze with pressure, amicar(spelling), "magic mouthwash", gel gauze, to some surgical glue - sorry,  that was not too specific with the medical names, but rest assured it was a lot of attempts and failures, but finally not bleeding! Throughout it all we were down as low as a count of 2 for red blood cells and 8 for platelets. Otto received several bags for support.  Monday thru