A little catch up

As we begin a new year I wanted to take a few moments to update everyone on how Clara and The Boys are doing. What a difference a year makes. The first half of 2009 was hectic beyond belief, much of that time spent with Tighe at Lucile Packard Children’s Hospital. Thankfully, with the success of Tighe’s treatment, the second half of the year was much more calm, but it’s never really “calm” when you have four kids :-)
We’ve been a bit sparse on the updates in the last six months or so. To try to catch things up I’m going to give an individual update on each of the kids.

Tighe:
Let’s start with our little warrior. It’s just over twelve months now since Tighe was first diagnosed with Stage 3 Neuroblastoma. He was just four months old at the time. When he was diagnosed he had a tumor the size of a tennis ball growing in his lower pelvic region and into the lower part of his spinal column. He went through six rounds of chemotherapy, one every three weeks for the first few months of last year. The chemo was successful in reducing the tumor by 94%. He then underwent surgery where the doctors were able to remove the majority of the remaining tumor. Even after surgery though, there still remains a small piece of that tissue in his lower spinal column and lower pelvic area.
The prognosis however is very good. It is now 7 months since Tighe’s chemo and surgery were completed and the remaining tumor remains “stable”. Tighe has had three MRIs since his last treatment 7 months ago and the tumor is showing no sign of growing again. The results of the last MRI showed that, if anything, the remaining tumor in his lower pelvic region has shrunk ever so slightly, and the part in his lower spinal column has remained at the same size.
Apart from the MRI, other tests continue to look good. One test done during Tighe’s monthly check-up is a urine test. When neuroblastoma is active it is always accompanied by elevated levels of catecholamines in the urine. Tighe’s levels have been normal since his treatment finished 7 months back. In addition, Tighe underwent another MIBG scan in late November. This basically involves him being injected with a certain isotope which attaches itself to neurblastoma cells, then undergoing a Cat Scan to see if that isotope has attached itself to anything. The results of the recent scan showed no activity in the area where his cancer once resided.
We met with Dr. Twist and Dr. Tan in early December and both were very upbeat and positive. They both feel he is doing really well. At the time Tighe’s treatment stopped we were told that there was less than a 20% chance that he would relapse. And if Tighe can get to two years post treatment the chances of relapse were then miniscule. The doctors didn’t want to speculate (or didn’t have data) on what that 20% is now that we are 7-8 months post treatment, but they did say that most recurrences occur in the first six months.
Tighe will continue to have MRIs and other tests for the next 1.5 years. They will reduce in frequency as long as things continue to remain stable. So, all in all, from a health/medical perspective, things are looking very positive for Tighe. Yet, we take nothing for granted. We’ve heard some heartbreaking stories of other kids who had beaten cancer only to have it recur. We continue to take one day at a time and be thankful for each one.
From an overall development perspective, Tighe had lost a bit of ground on his two brothers while going through his treatment. He quickly made up for lost time however, and in early December was just over a pound in weight behind Michael and Cian (all in the 21-23lb range). These days he’s probably the best eater of the three, willing to try just about anything. Tighe’s two brothers got a slight head start on the walking, but he quickly caught up there again. Right now, when the three of them are together, I don’t think you’d be able to pick which one of them had been through what Tighe has been through.
So, that’s the update on Tighe’s medical stuff. Now an update on the little man himself. Tighe is one very happy and very tough little lad. His big love is any kind of ball. A few weeks back I lined the three boys up in front of the Arsenal game (football on TV) while they ate their breakfast. Tighe then spent the rest of the day dribbling a ball around the house, always keeping it close to his feet and not letting Michael or Cian anywhere near it. If you get down on the ground and throw a ball to him you’ll be an immediate friend.
As always, Tighe is quick with a smile. But don’t let that easy smile fool you, he’s as tough as nails and will always fight his corner when he needs to He’ll always push his way to the front of the line with his hands in the air to be picked up when I get home from work.

Michael:
Michael is our explorer. He gets into absolutely everything. He likes to wander around the house yapping away to anyone who’ll listen to him. If you make the mistake of not locking a cupboard or door Michael is guaranteed to be in there in a flash. If the boys are in the back yard, Tighe and Cian will generally play with whatever toys are on the lawn. Michael however will find deep dark corners that we didn’t even know existed.
Michael is also a very happy little kid. Always quick with a smile. He was the first of the three to walk and he also overtook Cian in the weight department at their check-up last month.

Cian:
Cian is a very fun loving little lad, laughing hard at any chance. He is very lovable and also very sensitive. Adopting a firm voice with him (e.g. Cian, no throwing your food on the floor) will generally result in a little sobbing. But a hug and a smile quickly turns him around, he can cry and then laugh hard all in the space of a few seconds. In their 17 months to date Cian has been the biggest of the three for all of that time until last month when Michael overtook him. Yet, as big as Cian is, Tighe can walk right up to him and take his toy away from him without any resistance. Cian would rather cry than fight for his toy. He’s our gentle, sensitive mini giant.

The Triplets overall:
Overall the boys are doing great.
They play wonderfully well together. One thing I’ve noticed is that they have a natural instinct to be gentle towards each other. This is something that really amazes me. For example, if one of them is pushing a cart around the house and another one of them gets in the way, they will be sure not to bump into each other or hurt each other (but if it’s me in the way they have no problem ramming me). They are gentle with each other in all aspects of play. They don’t seem at all interested in handing out some punishment to each other, whether that be pushing, pulling hair, throwing things etc. Maybe all that stuff comes later, but for now I really like the pacifism.
All three are eating really well. Cian is a little fussier than the other two. If Cian doesn’t like something his first instinct is to throw it on the floor. After being admonished for that, he then resorts to putting any unwanted food down his back. It’s rather comical, he seems to think it’s a good way of fooling his Daddy, making me think he has eaten it. When I find it, sometimes only after wrapping things up and lifting him from his high chair, he has this puzzled, surprised look on his face as if to say “gosh, I’ve no idea how that got there.”
When Clara was 17 months old she spoke like an esteemed Ivy League professor. The boys, well, they have their moments, but basically they are all incoherent babblers at this point. It seems they have decided that rather than learning that complicated English language, they’ll just develop a simpler form of communication between themselves. The only thing they need to communicate to grown ups at this point is their urge for a bottle from time to time, and this they have mastered.
They go to bed at 7pm and we generally don’t hear from them until 7am. When they do wake up they mostly stand in their cribs and have a chat with each other until one of us comes into the room.
BTW, if anyone knows of any nappy changing competitions, please let me know. I’ve been working on my technique and I believe I’ve become quite expert. I can change three nappies and put pajamas on in less than two minutes now.

Clara:
Our little princess just turned 5 years old on New Years Eve. What can I say, she’s my pride and joy and awesome in every way. There’s nothing I look forward to more than opening the garage door when I get home from work. Within seconds, before I can get out of my car, the kitchen door swings open and she runs out to give me a big hug and kiss. It’s priceless.
She has adapted wonderfully well to her new school and brought home an almost perfect report card before Christmas. As she develops I realize more and more that she got both her mommy’s brains and good looks, and for that I am very thankful.
She loves her little brothers. At times however she does seem to forget which of those little guys are brothers and which are dolls. It’s an understandable mistake, though it can sometimes be a painful one for the boys.
It can be tough at times to give Clara the attention she wants and to balance that with looking after triplets. If we err too much on the side of looking after the triplets she is quick to let us know about it. She continues to be a little shy with people she doesn’t see on a regular basis, which can be tough at times. She was very happy when her uncle James visited from Dublin just before Christmas though. She told him she loved him and she told me he was her favorite uncle. So if any of her other uncles are reading this, you’ve a bit of catching up to do :-)



2009 was a wonderful year in many ways. I’ve been reflecting on how lucky we’ve been and how thankful we are for all of our friends and family. I’ve no idea how we would have made it through the last year without all the help and support we’ve received. For this we remain eternally grateful. I’m not going to mention any names specifically because I would certainly miss people. Unfortunately one thing I am not good at is writing Thank You notes. Having said that, if I were to write Thank You notes for the gifts we’ve received and the help in many forms, my hand would certainly have fallen off by this point. Please know that we do recognize and greatly appreciate your help and support.

We’ll pull together some photos from Christmas and post them soon.