WE ARE TEAM TAYLOR!

RELAY FOR LIFE WALK, CLERMONT FLORIDA— A crowd of friends and family gathered at Tent #8 to cheer Taylor on as he and other cancer survivors made the first lap around the track. It sounds kind of weird saying that Taylor is a a cancer survivor, even though he's in the midst of his treatments, but he is a survivor! He has been through so much in the last seven months, and his attitude is fantastic. He was all smiles at the Walk and really enjoyed being out and mixing it up with his friends.

Melissa and Spencer stayed the night with the Relay for Life Team. Stay tuned for more pictures!

Easter Weekend with the Family!

Taylor and Melissa arrived home last Thursday just in time to spend the holiday weekend with family! The Thurstons made this cool welcome home banner for Taylor.

Taylor joined us at church on Sunday and then the whole family had a wonderful dinner together, prepared by Sam and Cheryl! Thanks Ya-Ya and Pop-Pop!

T got a little Basketball in.

 A family that prays together, stays together!

And finally, we celebrated cousin Kaylee's 9th birthday!

It was a very Happy Easter indeed!

Taylor went in for his 2-Day chemo session this week and was sent home because his white bood counts were low. Hopefully, they'll come up over the weeknd and he'll be able to get back on track on Monday.

What are low blood counts?

Many of the chemotherapy drugs temporarily stop cells from dividing, especially the cells that divide quickly. Blood cells; red blood cells, white blood cells and platelets are made by the bone marrow. These blood cells divide quickly. Chemotherapy may lead to low blood counts, causing the possibility of a variety of symptoms. like fever, fatigue, etc. 

Thanks for keeping Taylor in your prayers!

Proton Radiation Therapy Complete!

We're so glad to have accomplished this milestone! Six weeks in Jacksonville away from the rest of the family was tough, but we made it through! Just wanted to share some pictures of the actual Proton radiation therapy Taylor went through six days a week for 6 weeks.

Proton Therapy has been used as a form of Radiation since 1954. Since then more that 60,000 patients worldwide have received proton therapy. It is a form of radiation that uses protons which are easier to control instead of X-rays. The UF Institute is one of the busiest in the world. They have treated over 250 children within the past 3 years.

Taylor would lye in a customized body mold for each treatment. Lasers would align the beam so that proton therapy is delivered precisely to the tumor site each time. His daily treatment would take 45 minutes. Most of this time is spent replicating and verifying the correct body position for treatment. The average time to actually deliver proton therapy is only one to three minutes. During this Taylor did not feel or see the proton beam. 

Pretty amazing stuff!

An Update from Jacksonville!

17 Proton Beam Radiation sessions done only 11 to go! Dr. Danny Indelicato says he is thrilled with Taylor and how he is doing with the radiation. The UF Proton Institute is truly amazing and is helping so many people! 

The Jacksonville Ronald McDonald House has been so wonderful to us. Most nights the 30 room house is full. Many are like us traveling to Jacksonville to receive Proton therapy. There are quite a few families from Europe. The house is lucky...volunteers and businesses provide dinner each night. There is a playroom, playground, laundry room and community kitchen that is open 24hrs a day.  

Spencer, Sammy and Brad were here this weekend to visit! Spencer and Sammy made friends with a very special little boy named Bradlee. He is 3-1/2 and has a brain tumor, and he's here getting the Proton Radiation too. He wore out Spencer and Sammy with tricycle races, basketball and sliding down the playground slide!! (You can keep up with Bradlee and his story on Facebook at "Fighting for Bradlee".

We took the boys to Dave and Busters to watch the Gator Game on Saturday night. Most of the tables were a little too tall for Taylor!! I guess we could have just shoveled the food right in his mouth! 

The Jacksonville Zoo was a MUST for Sammy. If you did not already know....Sammy wants to "own his own Zoo someday". The Zoo was really fun.  Taylor decided to take Ya-Ya and Pop-Pop for the UF Proton Center tour and lunch...he is not much of a Zoo guy.

Hope everybody has a great weekend!

Jackson's Family Birthday Party!

Jackson, the youngest cousin in the family, has been Taylor's a shining star along his road to recovery. As I've mentioned in earlier posts, Jackson's way of showing his love and support for Taylor has been through constant gift giving. He has built Taylor a Lego church, a Legoman in a wheel chair (complete with a Lego knit cap just like Taylor's), and a picture of Jackson at Christmas with the Chick-fil-A Cow. He has drawn pictures and cards and Valentines and even gave him some Gator themed Duct tape for Christmas! Jackson knows Taylor is a huge Gator and Tebow fan, so he too has become one, dressing the part almost every day. So it didn't surprise us when Jackson decided he wanted to have a "Gator/Broncos" Birthday party at the Becorests for his 7th birthday. Everyone happily obliged (even me, the lone Seminole fan!).

The whole family helped decorate!

Everyone wore Orange and Blue.

 Jackson loved his Tim Tebow Jersey from Taylor, Spencer and Sammy.

 I bet Jackson wished for Taylor to get well!

 Taylor took a stroll!

Spencer built some Police legos for Jackson!

Ya-Ya read the boys one of their favorite books from when they were little.

Needless to say, Jackson had a fabulous birthday!

Taylor made a special trip home from Jacksonville to celebrate Jackson's birthday. He wasn't feeling all that great after his latest chemo treatment last week, but he was really looking forward to spending the weekend at home. Early Sunday morning Taylor started running a fever so Melissa and Brad took him to the ER. His blood counts were really low and he was admitted. He's staying over night or until they can get his fever down and his blood counts up again. They are due back to Jacksonville Monday to continue radiation. We'll keep you posted on when they are able to leave.

Feel better Taylor! We're all praying for ya!

Progress!

We travelled to Jacksonville a week and a half ago to get Taylor prepped for Proton radiation. We were hoping to start then, but we were sent home to wait because they weren't ready to begin yet. We are STILL at home, finished a short (3 day) Chemo at APH last week. Taylor finished his outpatient rehab this week and we finally got a confirmation from the UF Proton Institute that "Taylor's plan" for radiation is complete. We are scheduled to go back to Jacksonville on Monday (the 27th) for 6 weeks of radiation. We will continue chemo there are well. 

Thanks so much for your continued prayers!

Taylor's Super Bowl Sunday Bon Voyage Party Pics!

Thank you for stopping by to see us! We had a really nice time catching up. So many people came by. We're just sorry we didn't pull the camera out sooner:)

 Super Bowl Sunday Party

 Taylor's 94 year old Great Grandma "Mamaw" was able to join us!

Doesn't she look fabulous?

 The Bates Family

The Howells

 The Boyds

...and the Football Pool

At this point we are STILL in Clermont but, our bags are packed for Jacksonville and we expect to leave any minute! Taylor will start Photon Radiation therapy and continue Chemo treatments while in Jacksonville for 6 weeks. He will receive radiation 6 days a week. Many have asked why Jacksonville? It's because this is the location with the specific radiation technology Taylor's type of cancer requires. This type of radiation is so precise in its delivery that Taylor will be getting tattoos on his back at the site of radiation so that the equipment can be aligned each session down to the millimeter. 

Taylor is 10 weeks into Chemo treatments and this is typically the time when Ewing Sarcoma patients get surgery to remove the  tumor(s). However, Taylor had surgery in the beginning of his journey and Surgeons removed 99% of the mass that was pressing on his spine. He will continue receiving Chemo on the same aggressive 14 day schedule through July 2012.

Thanks again for all your prayers and support. We so appreciate it.

Love to All!