Thursday, January 28, 2010

A REALLY HAPPY BIRTHDAY!!

Today is our son Reid's 34th birthday and we are excited about celebrating this milestone. We all have a tendency to take birthdays for granted...especially our children's birthdays. It's always assumed they'll outlive us. Most of us don't dare to think otherwise.


October 13, 2009 was a wake up call for us. One day Reid seemed perfectly healthy and the next day we learned that he had a large mass in his chest and a tumor in his spinal canal. Talk about scary!

After spinal surgery, and a week on pins and needles waiting for the pathology report, we learned that he had Hodgkin's Lymphoma. On January 8, 2010 we learned that he is in remission! He still has to finish out the six months of chemo, but things are really looking good right now. Yes, we'll still have to be concerned about the chemo side effects that might follow him for the rest of his life, but the cancer has been knocked on its "you know what." And although he still doesn't have all the feeling back from the chest down he is walking much better and has recently graduated from a walker to a cane.

We have so much to be thankful for this year.

We'll actually go out for dinner this weekend to celebrate. This isn't a good week for Reid. He had chemo on Saturday and will not feel much like eating until Friday or Saturday. That's OK, we'll wait.




Here are some pictures of Reid through the years.

September 1976

September 1977


March 1980


December 1982


3rd Grade Picture
(Can you guess what movie was popular?)


5th Grade Picture


High School Year Book Picture - 1994


2009 - You saw this picture at Christmas, but it's the most recent one I have of him. This is Keith (on the left) and Reid (on the right) making meatballs on Christmas Eve.
HAPPY BIRTHDAY REID!!!
MAY YOU HAVE MANY, MANY MORE!!!
(And I've never said that with more sincerity.)

8 comments:

  1. Congrats on the GREAT NEWS! Remission! Yea! Please extend my wishes for the happiest of birthdays to your son!

    ReplyDelete
  2. Happy Birthday, Reid! Hope you get over this bad week quickly.

    ReplyDelete
  3. Happy birthday to Reid!

    His story is inspirational and I'm so glad he is in remission. My prayers and best wishes for continued good health.

    ReplyDelete
  4. Happy Birthday Reid! And congrats on the great news of remission..

    ReplyDelete
  5. I expect Birthday is the best B word ever this year. I so glad your son is in remission! So Happy Birthday to him! Have a great time out together!

    ReplyDelete
  6. What a happy and inspirational post! I hope his birthday was enormously happy.

    I love your 1950's photo!

    Thanks for stopping by my place yesterday!

    ReplyDelete
  7. Hi Betty,

    Happy, happy birthday to Reid. As a mom myself I am can identify with feelings, my 7 year old son is going through testing for some medical issues he is having. I am very happy for your family and will keep your family in my prayers.Have a wonderful dinner with your son.
    Carey

    ReplyDelete
  8. Happy birthday, Reid. Sorry to be late. Glad things are looking good now. Thinking of you all.

    ReplyDelete

Thank you for taking the time to visit my little world and leave a comment. I appreciate hearing from you.

I do not receive all comments by E-mail and I'm not exactly sure why. I do try and remember to check the actual blog so I won't miss any of your comments.

I do not belong to Google+ and regret that I am unable to leave comments on Google+ blogs.

WORD VERIFICATION: I have NOT set up word verification for comments. However, every so often it appears on my blog even though I have chosen NO in the settings. Please let me know if you encounter word verification when leaving a comment so I can try and fix it. Thanks.