Christmas break and a four day treatment week!

To start off I wanted to thank everyone who helped make our Christmas away from home a great time with memories to cherish, so thank you amber, and Nicole and everyone else who donated to make our weekend so special where we could get away from the Ronald McDonald house and enjoy ourselves! You all have been so supportive and great to us throughout this second battle, we couldn't be more appreciative and thankful. We love you all.
So we stayed at the Hampton inn on Saturday night (I picked the hotel, not knowing it wAs under renovation) and we arrived to a merry Christmas sign for cash and Colten on their hotel billboard! Colten thought that was pretty awesome! Our room was nicely decorated with a cute Xmas tree and stalkings, it was lovely. The boys finished decorating the tree. We went to dinner at outback steakhouse, and it was delicious! The boys got in the jacuzzi tub, Then we just kicked back for the night. Colten got a message from Santa (portable north pole, so funny---you can upload pictures and he Totally knows everything about him) and to his disappointment he made the naughty list, but he still had 24 hours to redeem himself, he was beside himself. Such better sleep then on these plastic mattresses at the Ronald!
Mike and Colten got up in the morning to take a swim, and since the hotel was under renovation the pool and hot tub were pretty dirty and not to mention there were two dead mice floating in the pool.
So we opted to switch hotels with a cleaner pool so Colten could swim, he was so excited to swim, that kid is like a fish.
We stayed at the Hilton garden inn for Christmas eve were we ordered room service for dinner. Colten got another message from Santa and after being good all day he made the nice list, he wAs so relieved. Colten set up the wii and played super Mario bros for awhile and they also went swimming at like ten pm. Cashy watched rio on his little DVD player. He likes the dog in the movie. He's always like, "that's funny", lol..he's so cute.
Sunday morning Santa clause had made it to the Hilton--colten got his iPod and Cashy got all the cars he could ever want. It was so fun seeing them open presents, Cashy loved it. Last year he wasn't feeling to great so this year I think he understood Santa and the whole present thing, so it was fun to see his bf brown eyes light up! We went to the Ronald McDonald house for Christmas dinner and it was delicious!!! We stuffed our faces and snuck back out to the hotel. So nice of those people to come and cook dinner for strangers on christmas, so kind.
Mike had a great Idea that next year we as the Cash Hyde foundation go and cook dinner on Christmas day for the parents and children and the Ronald McDonald house there in Missoula. it will be humbling.

So back to the Ronald McDonald house Monday night we geared up to start back at radiation. We went to a movie (which probably wasn't a great idea becUse it was so packed with people) we saw--we bought a zoo, so cute, a tear jerker though. This old cranky lady kept shhhsshhing Cashy, I shushed her back a couple times. Rude. Cashy wAs so funny cause he kept blabing and singing "water, water, water, water" and how could you tell you baby to shush when he was having such a good time?? Lol.

So yesterday Cashy went in Bright and early to get and iv placed, which the nurse couldnt get it on the first try so they opted to gas him to sleep then place a iv. Fine with me. Less torture for the poor guy. His veins are shot, he's been poked in every vein besides his head. Which a nurse warned me might come back with one in his head. He didn't.
His radiation treatment went well and he was transferred to internal radiology where they tried and tried and finially placed a picc line in his vein in his neck/shoulder area---it took them 3 hours!!! That's how shot his veins are from all the lines and ports he's had. Poor bugger.
So he wasn't feeling well from 5 hours of sedation, he threw up a few times and finally was able to keep some juice and his meds down around 6pm.
We Met with the radiation docs yesterday and they were kinda downers, even though I know they can't tell you yes his tumor is shrinking, at least they could be hopeful like we are. So this week sometime (still waiting on a actual day/time) they will do a MRI to see if tumor has shrunk. If it has shrunk they will modify beams so it's not damaging his optic nerves and they will do a full 30 treatments--she said from last scan she couldn't even see optic nerves that the tumor is so embedded in them. :(. She is amazed he can see. Believe me he sees great from what I can tell, I can barely pull anything over on him. Lol. If it hasn't shrunk then they will only do 28 treatments and reduce the risk of damage. So that was hard to hear but I have faith and hope that with the radiation and the oil, he CAN beat this and it WILL go away, that's all we can do is hope and pray that god will give Cashy another chance and let him grow up to be a amazing young man. And that's what we believe will happen. There is a reason for all of this right?? Somewhere deep down there is a reason why kids have to suffer and die from this horrible disease and we believe Cashy is here to change the way pediatric cancer can be treated. He is over halfway done with radiation and hasn't needed one dose of zofrAn, Ativan, benadryl, or phenegan for nausea or a single dose of pain medication either. He's my little super trooper and he is going to change the way nausea and pain Are treated during cancer treatment I just know it. If a three year old can go through full brain and spinal radiation without pain or nausea medication, how can that not set a precedence?? It's down right amazing, and I'm so proud of Cashy. I'm so proud of Mikey as well, for throwing it all out there and speaking and telling our story to the world, he's doing big things and soon someday everyone will be listening!

Cashys in radiation treatment number 18 right now, he was up feeling good this morning, his arms a tad sore from the picc line placement, but he was rocking out to music this am on the way to hospital. He also refused to change out of his cars jammies this am. Hes so funny about things. :)

Have a great day everybody!! Love you all and thank you all for your continued support and prayers, we read every comment you all post and it touches our hearts deeply, they give us hope and strength to keep going. Bless to all!