Five Days of Swimming

For the moment, the Francesca Swim Tour has ended, so we can reflect a bit. My reflection centers on the fact that trying to swim for two teams during the summer is CRAZY!!! Having said that though, I have a feeling I'll be doing it again next summer. Here's how we've spent the past five days....

Wednesday

Francesca competed at the Northern Virginia Swim League (summer league) All Star Relays in Alexandria. The 200m freestyle mixed age relay, consisting of one girl from each age group (10 & under, 11-12, 13-14, and 15-18), placed 10th and broke the team record. The rest of the team did great as well. This year, Mosby Woods sent 10 relays to All Stars - they had planned on sending 4!

Thursday

The Potomac Valley Swimming 14 and Under Long Course Championships began in Maryland. Due to mechanical problems with the pool, only the preliminary session was swum and finals was canceled for the day. Later that same day, they canceled all of the finals sessions and moved the entire meet to another pool in Virginia!! It was fine with us, the new location was A LOT closer to us and Francesca hadn't swum that day as well as she would have liked.

Friday

Francesca suffered a big disappointment in the 200m fly and lost 1st place by .02 of a second. 100m breast stroke did nothing to get her out of her slump either. Still two more days to go....this might be a REALLY long disappointing weekend.

Saturday

Francesca was back swimming with the summer swim team in a dual meet with another local team. Mosby Woods won by 50 points and Francesca easily won her two individual events. Could things be looking up???

Who is that headless butterflier? Francesca demos her LC Champs T-shirt.

Sunday

Francesca dropped 4 seconds in the 200m breast stroke to go from a 6th place seed to winning 4th overall. Best of all though was the 100m butterfly. Francesca won 1st place out of 70+ girls, winning against the same girl who beat her in the 200. The difference between 1st and 2nd? .05 of a second! CONGRATULATIONS!!!

And a note for future meets....you don't need to keep us waiting to score those 1st place points!

Love you Francesca!!! Your hard work this season finally paid off!

Oh, and sorry, no time to celebrate for too long. It is back to practice tomorrow at 7AM. The Eastern Zone Championships is two weeks away!!!!

-Mom and Dad

Bragging And Laughing

Paul finally edited some of the video from Saturday. Watch as Carson comes alive with laughter thanks to an in-home performance by Nancy Worcester and "Waco". Seriously, there were times when we thought he might crack a rib or something.

After going through so much, it's nice to see Carson having such a great time.

Brag Session

Well, it has been like a whole week since we've bragged on Francesca and her swimming, so we are overdue. If you don't want to hear us gushing with pride, well...here it comes anyway. :-)

Zones...Here We Come!

A week and half ago Francesca participated in the 14 & Under Junior Olympics in Maryland. Swimmers at this meet come from all over the Potomac Valley Swimming Association and have to make qualifying times in order to participate. It is a championship meet and there is a morning session (prelims) and a finals session.

It was a LONG three days, to say the least. Francesca swam 6 events and had to swim every event twice because she made either the A or B Final in all of her events. She also swam two relays- one of which got first place. It was a test of endurance and Francesca came through. She placed in the top 16 in all of her events, had many personal best times, as well as a few learning experiences. Her her best finishes were the 200 yard breast stroke where she finished 4th and the 200 yard butterfly where she also finished 4th.

Speaking of the 200 yard butterfly, Francesca's time in that event was fast enough to place her in the top three fastest times swum this year in all of PVS. This qualified her for the PVS Zone Team which will compete in Rochester, New York this Thursday-Saturday. The best from all Potomac Valley Swimming teams will now compete as one team against other Zone teams along the East Coast. It is another great opportunity for Francesca to experience tough competition and quite an honor to make the team.

Posing in her regional team warm-ups - check out those threads!

Way to Go Francesca! Swim fast this Weekend!

-Jennifer

Francesca Grows Gills

Well, as you might have guessed, Friday came and went and we are still not in the hospital. Carson's ANC was a hair below what was needed to start the next round of chemo.

Not to say we were terribly disappointed. Francesca was slated to race in the Tom Dolan Invitational Swim Meet, which is one of the biggest meets of the year for the swimmers in the area.

Watch as Francesca overcomes parental embarrassment and goes on to swim her best times ever!

Not having the hospital hanging over our heads, we were able to spend more time cheering Francesca on to seven - yes, SEVEN - new personal records. Way to go Francesca!!!!

As for Carson, we are heading back to the clinic on Monday morning and expect to be heading to the hospital for round 2 of HDMT immediately afterwards. Of course, we were thinking the same thing last Friday...and the Monday before that, too.

Whether we head back to the hospital tomorrow is really inconsequential. The HDMT will be waiting on us for whenever we show up. The important thing is Carson is feeling amazingly well. He is eating all the time...not as much as when he was on steroids, but a lot nonetheless. He is playing and talking nonstop. And even though that can be annoying, we love it.

Every day is a blessing.

Paul.

Birthday Wish

Surprise!

Francesca's actual birthday was on Wednesday, but we celebrated at home the Sunday before. It's hard to believe that she is 12 now! Does anyone else feel old at hearing this???

Twelve years ago, Francesca surprised us all by arriving in mid November instead of mid December. This year we managed to surprise her with something she's been wanting for quite a while......check out the video to see what she received.

Happy Birthday to You and the Big Birthday Gift

Swimming
And now it's time for a long overdue brag session about Francesca's swimming. Two weeks ago she swam at the National Age Group Championship, a meet she was specifically selected for by her coaches. She turned in another great performance, chopping 4 seconds off her 100 Breastroke, 5 seconds off her 500 Freestyle, 4 seconds off her 100 Fly and 2 seconds off her 200 Individual Medley. She finished in the top ten in all her events, swimming against the "best of the best" from teams in Maryland, Delaware and Virginia. Way to go F!

Shall We Stay Another Night?
Carson is still feeling pretty good after his Monday chemo, however; we'll be staying in the hospital at least until tomorrow. The level of methotrexate needs to be less than 0.1% before he's allowed to leave the hospital. Today it was 0.18%. Almost, but not quite good enough.
The next labs will be drawn at 3 AM. For those of you who read this tonight...let's pray the level has dropped.
-Jennifer

Last Week of Consolidation

Blood, Blood, Blood

The blood always determines how our week will progress. If you did indeed bet that Carson would need platelets on Tuesday, you were right!!

What else did the blood tell us? Carson's ANC has now plummeted to 70. So, we're sticking close to home - at least until Friday. On Friday we go back to the clinic because Carson's hemoglobin is on the low side. It is suspected he'll need a blood transfusion by then - so we can anticipate another highly energetic boy over the weekend!


And now another brag session on Francesca.....

Francesca continues to have a terrific start to her swim season. Last weekend she had another swim meet where she continued to drop time in nearly all of the 9 events she swam. Her swims qualified her for the Tom Dolan meet at George Mason University in December and the National Age Group Challenge Meet at the beginning of November.

The National Age Group Challenge is a select swim meet held in Maryland. Only about 35 people on the 400 person team were chosen for this meet. Francesca has been chosen two years in a row to represent the team. Way to Go! With everything else that's going on around here, Francesca continues to amaze us!

Francesca readies herself for a great race.
(She's on the second closest starting block)
This shot is from the Harvest Moon Invitational.

What's in Store.....

Now that we're done with Consolidation, it will soon be time to start Interim Maintenance and another round of anxiety. Please pray for Carson as he enters this phase. We will be dealing with several hospital stays, a new combination of drugs and preparation for radiation.

-Jennifer

Platelets plus more!

Day 95 of our war on leukemia.

Tuesday's Clinic Visit

We showed up at the clinic on Tuesday expecting a shorter day. After all, we were receiving an IV push and two shots, how long could that be? Oh yeah! Those darn platelets! They were low, so our day was extended by a few hours.

As it turned out, it is no big deal, at least for Carson. He has grown extremely comfortable with his visits to the clinic thanks to the great staff and Ms. Margy and Ms. Gretchen "the play ladies". There is almost always something going on and something fun to do.

Here's how Carson filled his time:

• Hand out candy to patients and nurses with Ms. Gretchen.
• Play the Wii, located in the teen lounge.
• Take a break, get platelets while watching E.T. and eating pizza, corn dogs and pretzels. Thanks for the pizza Margy!
• Wait an hour to see if there is a reaction. Watch E.T. some more and visit with Heather! She's home from the hospital and will now be getting her treatments at the clinic. We're looking forward to seeing more of her!
• Play the Wii some more. Watch Mom and Dad attempt to play Wii baseball.
• Take a break, do something not so fun.....get two intramuscular shots in the legs. That was tough, but Ms. Gretchen gave him a new Seek and Find book. The shots are quickly forgotten and the hour we wait to see if there is a reaction is filled with looking at the new book. Thanks Ms. Gretchen!
• Play Wii some more.
• Get an IV push (10 minutes max). Deaccess the port. Arrive home just before Francesca gets off the bus from school.

Despite the long hours yesterday, it was a great day. Carson had no reactions to the platelets or the shots. We got to see and visit with Heather & her mother. We are not scheduled to go back to the clinic until Tuesday of next week!

In other Happenings

This weekend, while also enjoying a visit from Grandpa and Grandma, Francesca won the overall 11 year old girls Half Moon Contest at the Harvest Moon Invitational in Herndon, Virginia. She swam 6 events over two days placing in the top 3 in all of them. This was enough to give her the fastest total time and the title of champion! Way to go Francesca!!!

Francesca proudly shows off her trophy kickboard