Welcome Readers To Nicholas Modestin Blog!!!!
Nicholas@thelighthousecommunity.org
Tuesday, February 15, 2011
Dec 12th-14: Nicholas continued to work hard to get back the strength in his left leg. 12/15th: Nicholas had hisast spinal tap of his three year battle of leukemia cancer treatment. . The day was full of smiles and joy as Nicholas talked with the oncologist, nurses and child specialist. He got his spinal tap late in the afternoon at 230pm because of a full hose in PICU. He lost one pound and is at 76.5 pounds and is still at 49.5 height. After getting his spinal mommy had to give him his 40hrs pill at 230pm on Saturday and 60hrs pill on Sunday morning. His next appoinment is on Thursday January 12th in which he is scheduled just to get a dosage of vincristine. 12/16th-12/31st: After missing two days school due to his spinal tap, Nicholas was back in full force before Christmas Break. During the week he had his Christmas concert show in which one day the class sang for the parents and the other day for the students. The only bad thing during the week is that he fell during recess and bumped his head. Diony and Jen continue to make Nicholas stronger and having him understand on how to control his body. Christmas weekend was spent with his aunts, uncles and cousins in Newburgh. Santa treated Nicholas good. The Christmas Break started with two sessions with Shani with PT at the hospital, did his homework package for the holidays, went to a holiday basketball foundraiser " Swish For Kids" for kids fighting cancer and played with members of the St. Francis College Men's and Women's Basketball team. He got tips of playing the game and was pictured in the Home Reporter Newspaper throwing down a spectacular dunk. Thank you PS11, New York Yankees and all the foundations and great people for making the 4th annual Nicholas Modestin Toy Drive for the Brooklyn Hospital Center Pediatric Oncology Unit. Nicholas did not attend the party on the 17th since he was feeling bad with a tummy ache. Dec 1st-11th: Great News. Nicholas' white blood cell count numbers are back in the 5/6 range. Everybody is happy with the results. He went to the hospital four straight Tuesday's for blood test. The oncologist put him back on medications after taking hioom off one week when the wbc numbers went down to 1.4. Nicholas is now back in the groove with PT and OT. Shani saw once during the week and was happy with his productivity and will see him twice during the Christmas vacation. Diony and Jen put him to work hard since he missed a week of sessions. Diony continues to see more power and strength in his left and coordination and Jen has seen a big jump in motor skills. Ms. Kasimow is all smiles with Nicholas concentration and consitent work in the classroom. She has him reading a book a night for 30 minutes and write a small resport of how he saw the book after reading. The one big thing all the therapist are very happy about is that Nicholas is running a little more. He is controlling his body better. The toy drive and PS 11 keep delivering gifts. THANK YOU PS 11. Nov 23rd-Nov 30th: Nicholas went back to school the day before Thanksgiving and he was back in the groove of academics. Thanksgiving was a blessing for the family. The family ate dinner at Aunt Michele's house and the weekend Nicholas had his big surprise from Candlelighters. He went to see his favorite TV band "The Fresh Beat Band" down at the New York Stock Exchange. He went with mommy and his cousins from upstate.Mommy had fun watching Nicholas full of joy and happiness when The Fresh Beat came out to sign two songs. He was dancing and singing. Later on Dora showed up and brighten up his day. Fianlly Santa showed up and gave Nicholas a great gift that went straight to buying the whole collection of race cars from the movie Cars 2. The rest of the weekend he caught up on all the homework. Good news came after Nicholas took his blood test on the 29th. His white blood cells count went up to 4.0 from 1.6. Now mommy and daddy can go to sleep in peace till his next blood test on December 6th. The Nicholas Modestin Toy drive for the Brooklyn Hospital Pediatric Oncology Unit got a big boost today 11/30. First PS 11 sent a first batch of toys and the New York Yankess sent more toys and goodies. THANK YOU PS 11 and NEW YORK YANKEES. All the weight he lost he gained back, but looked strong during his return to Ot/PT with Jen and Diony. The four Tuesdays Nicholas has visited the hospital. He is scheduled for a spinal tap on Thursday 12/15. Nov 16th-22nd: With the low white blood cell count, Nicholas was home for five days. No school, no therapy and no playing. Daddy picked up the homework for the week from Ms. Kasimow. Nicholas missed out on the publishing story day in which he had to read in front of the class and parents. For the five days Nicholas got bored after doing his homework as he wanted to go to school and therapy. The oncologist stopped the medication. His appetite was up and down as he had mommy cooking everything. Nicholas went to the hospital for a check up. The weight he lost a week ago, he gained it back. The white blood cell was still low, but it went up a little. His protein was also low after the results. The oncologist gave the okay that he can go to school and be safe. No activities . Nov 15th: Nicholas had a long day. First he had a half day of school, then parent teacher conference and to finish off the day he had chemotherapy. Ms. Kasimow had good things to say about Nicholas work and class work. The one thing she focused on was teaching Nicholas to express himself a little more in his class work and in his writing. He is secure in most of the work in class and she wants to start pushing him in doing more addition and substraction. Overall she knows Nicholas is a good student and wants to push a little more to get the best out in him. The visit to get his monthly check up and dosage of vincristine went from good news to bad news. The good news that he lost 1.5 pounds and went from 78pds to 76 pds and is struck at 49.5 inches in height. Nicholas spent time chatting up with the doctors and nurses telling them about school and his student of the month award. The bad news came later when we got home from the hospital. With all what Nicholas went through last month with his fever and cold, along with the antibiotics he took, his white blood cell count dropped. So after hearing his low white blood count, mommy will keep Nicholas home from school for the next three days. For the For the next five days, no school, no therapy, just relaxing and get some rest.. Do homework until next Tuesday when he gets a new check up from his oncologist to see what his count looks like. Nov 1st-Nov 13th: Great News - Nicholas Modestin was awarded Studentt of The Month in Ms. Kasimow's kindergarten class at PS 11 for his outstanding work and achievement in class. He was so happy and he shared it with other classmates who got the same award. Next week is parent teacher conference as mom and dad sit down with his teacher. Nicholas watch partof the NYC marathon after going to mass as mommy showed him all therunners that were running for kids battling leukemia and childhood cancer. He cheered and waved to the runners. Wearing the foot brace to school went from three days to the whole week as his body got more adjusted of walking around in school for the whole day. The braces had to get adjusted wider as Nicholas feet got a little wide. With no school on Veterans Day, Nicholas spent most of the day in therapy. First he had Shani at the hospital for physical therapy. Shani worked him hard. She had him on the treadmills for 10 minutes, trampoline jumping to work on bending his knees, medicine ball catching/throwing and red light - green light. Next was Jen for OT for a make up class. For the last couple weeks Jen has worked with Nicholas putting on and taking off a pair of pants while continuing a combo of PT/OT exercise. She is happy with his continuation of getting stronger everyday. Diony is sure putting Nicholas to work hard as one day he was tired and stopped 30 minutes into his PT session. Nicholas got back his strength and finished classed. The week before Nicholas went down the zip line with Diony holding him, this week he went down alone and Diony was happy to see him jump into and walk out the pool of balls. His left leg is getting back the strength it lost slowly but surely. Nicholas went to visit his Aunt Dahlia and cousin Jasmine who he as not seen in awhile. The rest of the weekend he went to spend time with his grandmother who is leaving upstate NY next week for warmer weather and coming back in the spring. The Nicholas Modestin Christmas Toy Drive Box is up at PS 11 and it already has gifts inside. Oct 25th-Oct 31st: Ms. Kasimow continues to get the best out of Nicholas in class and everyday she sees a improvement. He now wearing the leg braces for a full week, you saw the difference in his legs and that his left leg wasn't dragging and saw him run a little with balance and coordination. Nicholas went on his first field with K-110 to Green Meadow Farm in Queens and the class, teacher and chaperon had a blast with the animals and pumpkin picking. Nicholas missed out on the Fun House at PS11, he had to physical therapy and after therapy his body was tired between a long day of school and therapy. Diony was happy with the productive work from Nicholas know what he is going through for a 5yrs old boy. School and then therapy three day a week. Diony say his endurance is getting stronger everyday and with Nicholas walking to school everyday is giving more confidence of knowing what is ahead of him. Jen is working more of teaching Nicholas how more to put on take off his clothes without all the extra hassle during his OT class along with the combo of hard work with the OT/PT exercise she gives him. Halloween weekend was good. Snow sneaked up on NYC all day Saturday, so Nicholas was stuck inside watching movies and finishing up his weekly homework. On Sunday he went to the dentist in the morning for a check up and cleaning and in the afternoon he was all excited getting invited by CandleLighters for a Halloween dinner for kids battling Cancer. Nicholas was dressed as Batman. Halloween was back to school and then PT/OT therapy after school. After OT you could see he was tired as soon as he went to sleep in the access ride car ride home. Oct 18th-Oct 24th: Nicholas was back in school with his classmates. The Monkey In His Chair took his seat during his absence.He was happy to back after spending couple days 13th-17th between his house andhospital fighting off a fever that went away with antibiotics and a cough that finally went away over the weekend. Daddy went to pick up the homework from Ms. Kasimow while Nicholas was out that he did while he was home. The focus and discipline that Mr. Stephens put into Nicholas during his 2.5 years of home school is showing in his class, homework and behavior. Thank you Mr. Stephens. Nicholas continues to wear his leg braces to school and Ms. Ross is seeing a difference when he walking. He has more balance and coordination. Once winter hits and snow starts falling, he will wear the orthopedic boots more to keep his foot warm. Nicholas was back to having PT/OT with Diony and Jen. Diony has seen and getting more energy out of Nicholas during the PT session. Right now Nicholas is at 70% of getting back full strength in both legs. The left leg is still a little weaker than the right leg. Diony continues his tough workouts that Nicholas' body is accepting the challenge and going the full distance without complain. Right before class is over, Nicholas and Diony fly down the zip line into a pool of balls. Jen is also happy with the progress of Nicholas' work. He has come a long way of getting stuff done by himself. His motor skills and independent skills continue to improve everyday. CONGRATULATIONS TO NICHOLAS!!! Ms. Kasimow gave Nicholas a WRITING AWARD - FOR A GREAT JOB WRITING!!!. The Nicholas Modestin Christmas Toy Drive just got some toys from Nicholas summer camp. Thanks Sunrise Day Camp. Oct 17th: Nicholas finally got his doasage of vincristine chemotherapy medication after fighting off a fever and cough that has been around for a week. He lost a couple pounds that had him at 74pds from the 76pds he weighed last month and he is tall at 49.5 inches. All the legal steriods going into his system helped him a alot. The oncologist and nurses were happy not to see a bacteria in his blood system after couple blood test. His blood and platelet counts came back good and strong. Nicholas left the hospital with his smiling attitute and was ready for school the next day. The Nicholas Modestin Toy Drive for The Brooklyn Hospital Center Pediatric Oncology and Hematology Unit Christmas Fiesta for the kids got a big contribution from a Leukemia Foundation of $500. Thank you for your gracious gift and bringing smiles of joy and happiness to the kids battling cancer and other deadly disease. Nicholas' battle and strength to conquer his cancer is what is keeping this family together and strong. Nicholas' next appointment is on Tuesday November 15th one day after mommy's bday. He is scheduled to get a dosage of vincristine chemotherapy medication after school. Oct 11th-Oct 16th: Nicholas and the Modestin Family had a rough week. First it was Nicholas battling a roll fever that finally took his toll on his body along wit his cough that came and went, but stayed around this time. Ms. Kasoimow and Ms. Ross knew something was wrong with home after class on Wednesday when he wasn't his happy go lucky self and upbeat. Even though he did his work in class, he looked down. He went to his OT/PT therapy and did a good job as Diony had a good things to say after class and about Nicholas wearing his braces to school now.. "That's good to know that he is getting used to the braces. He is really getting stronger and yesterday we did some running and soccer game and I was impressed on how quick he moved and run to kick the ball with better balance.Once Nicholas came home he got sick. The fever went up and down and around 4am mommy called the oncologist . Nicholas missed school the next two days. He also missed school pictures on Friday. They gave him antibiotics to clear his chest and it helped a little. The weekend he cough ed and coughed, but the fever went away. The oncologist gave him a pump to clean out his chest and it helped. Nicholas did his homework and got some rest. Monday morning he is headed back to the hospital and another day of missing school for his chemotherapy that cancelled on Friday.. First time since back in May 2009, they left the needle in his chest for the weekend. Sept 26th-Oct 10th: Nicholas had two tough weeks. The rash on his hand is gone, but Dr. Sedrak wants mommy and daddy to keep putting the cream until his chemotherapy on October 14th. He battled a cough for couple days that would not go away. It comes and goes. Just no fever which is good. During the Jewish holidayand no school he went to spend sometime with his grandmother and cousins. First he had PT with Jeanne and then a week later he had PT with his new therapist Shani. Jeanne worked Nicholas hard when she had him and got him a good working regimen that got him to use his body. Ms. Kasimow is happy with the productivity with Nicholas work in school and his discipline. He started wearing his braces to school and it was positive when he came home and felt no name and no bumps and lumps on his legs. Sept 19-Sept 25th: Quiet week for Nicholas. Ms. Kasimow is happy with Nicholas' productive work in writing and reading in class. Daddy finally got his RSA packet and he started his OT/PT therapy with Jen and Diony at Support By Design. The first day his body wasn't ready for therapy right after school, but on Friday he was good and ready for Diony in PT. Ms. Kasimow continues to give homework in which Nicholas is getting into of grove in doing as soon as he comes. First he eats, watches his Thomas and Friends and then homework. On therapy days is just eat and drive into the city for therapy and when he comes home daily homework, The weekend was relaxing and on Sunday he went to Sunrise Day Camp for his first Fun Sunday. Happy Birthday Nicholas!!! Even though your birthday is on March 7th, today's birthday September 22nd is a blessing and you have earned it. Today marks three big years for Nicholas Sebastian Modestin getting up every morning and seeing a beautiful light of being alive as he fights to conquer leukemia cancer. First I want to thank each and every one of you. Family, friends, kindergarten classmates and teacher Ms. Kasimow at Brooklyn’s PS 11,friends and counselors at Sunrise Day Camp, oncologist and nurses at The Brooklyn Hospital Pediatric Oncology Unit, PT and OT therapist, chemo angels and childhood cancer foundations for all your prayers, calls, emails, support, help and keeping his spirits up. The most important thank you goes to his mommy Adriana for all the hard work during the three years of struggles, staying strong and taking care of Nicholas. The battle has been tough, but the strongest survive. Since he was diagnosed with High Risk Acute Lymphoblastic Leukemia (ALL) at age 2 back in September 2008, along with getting hit hard with a rare complication of intrathecal chemotherapy Acute Leucoencephalapathy while in the hospital for a month, in which he developed lower extremity weakness and rigidity. This effect showed signs of muscle weakness in his legs that made him unable to stand up or walk on his own for several months. Even though he is not 100%, each day his dedication, determination and ambition is stronger into taking big steps and making progress of getting closer to be fully charged mentally and physically. Thank you Aly, Jen, Sapna and Diony at Support By Design for your intense "no excuses and you can do it Nicholas" attitude PT/OT workouts and Jeanne at The Brooklyn Hospital Center Rehab for your solid tough sessions that left Nicholas saying "I want to go home and rest". Most important the team work you guys put in got Nicholas to recover his balance, coordination and strength back into his legs. Today Nicholas is a bright fun loving 5yrs old kid enjoying life. This fall he walked into kindergarten and began his journey to a successful academic life. Life for a kid in school battling leukemia is out of the nomination for perfect attendance. One week into school he missed two days of class after having a spinal tap and a dosage of vincristine chemotherapy medication. In his absence"There was a monkey in my chair" took his place in Ms. Kasimow's class. The kids had a blast with the monkey and his stories. Each year since 2008, Nicholas' Pediatric Oncologist Dr. Sadanandan has fun talking and teasing him that brings out his beautiful smile. Today she calls Nicholas The Miracle Baby. His other oncologist Dr. Sedrak and nurses Lynda and Nelly continue to put in a solid job from day one of taking care of Nicholas and other children with love, comfort and support of families during treatment. This summer Nicholas had a trip that words can't explain the enjoyment and excitement he had. Thank you Make-A-Wish for the special gift of sending him to Disney World. Thank you Disney for the red carpet treatment and Give Kids The World Village for your hospitality and being a gracious host. A thanks goes out for Leukemia and Lymphoma Society and the New York Mets for "Kids Day at CitiField". Since his immune system got stronger to attend activities, I took him and his cousin to several Mets games this summer. Thanks Marci for the tickets. He started rooting the Mets while watching baseball at home with me. My father and I are Yankee fans, but just having Nicholas like the game of baseball is smiles of joy and happiness for a family who loves the game of baseball. Sunrise Day Camp you will always have a special place in Nicholas' heart. The only sad note this summer was that after 2 1/2 years his home school teacher Mr. Stephens came to an end. Mr. Stephens you put a strong work ethic that taught Nicholas to learn, listen, focus and overall enjoy what you're in doing class with discipline. In the last year Nicholas started realizing his sickness and getting a better explanation of his battle with cancer. He started asking mommy and me, Lynda and Nelly questions about his 2 or 3 injections during his hospital visits. 2 means - blood drawn and vincristine and 3 means - blood drawn, vincristine, white stuff to put him to sleep before spinal tap. His eyes light up when he sees the anesthesiologist. While at home he is like a news reporter just shooting questions right and left. Why the hospital check ups, why the medicina in the morning after eating breakfast, after dinner and the late night one. Why is mommy crushing pills, why is my appetite low, why the foot braces and why is it I can't walk or run at a fast pace like other kids. All answers were covered in a way that he could understand. Thank you our blessed father for looking over and taking good care of Nicholas. I realize with the sickness of Nicholas that nothing in the world is more important than life itself. Today the best lesson Nicholas has taught us is no matter how bad your day is going there is always better days ahead to smile and appreciate. Everyday is a challenge for him, but he has climbed over many obstacles and challenges during his fight. Three days during the week after school, he goes for his PT/OT therapy. His next appointment on October 14th in which he is scheduled for a dosage of vincristine chemotherapy medication. He has one more spinal tap in December and couple more dosage of vincristine and from there checks up and pray for the best that his cancer is gone for good. "DON'T GIVE UP & KEEP UP THE FIGHT & YOU WILL WIN YOUR BATTLE".  Nicholas walking to his first day of school on a wet morning Nicholas walking out of school. Nicholas with "The Monkey In My Chair" The monkey sat in while Nicholas was in chemotherapy and home for two days. Sept 12th-Sept 18th: Nicholas had a balanced week with class and a trip to the hospital for a spinal tap and a dosage of vincristine. After several days of going back and forth with the NYC Board of Education, Nicholas finally got his RSA packet to start OT/PT session next week. Since his school PS 11 has an OT on site, the BOE wants the kids to use there therapist, but with Nicholas having OT/PT session back-to-back at Support By Design, it was the right decision and better environment. During the week, a rash broke out on Nicholas hand in which his oncologist says it could have came from many things in his classroom, but it is curable and will go away. Everyday Nicholas is getting adjusted to his kindergarten class and his new classmates. Ms. Kasimow gave him homework for three days he was in class and a project over the weekend. Nicholas missed two days of class and in his absence "There was a monkey in my chair" Daddy took a break from job hunting and went with mommy to take Nicholas to the hospital. He walked into pediatric oncology unit early in the morning and jumped into the arms of Nelly. Nelly took care of Nicholas most of the day and Lynda helped out the doctor with the spinal tap. He was weighed first in which he lost 1/2 a pound that dropped from last 76 to 75.5 and went up a inch from 49 to 49.5 inches. Today was one of those days, Nicholas was just not himself since he knew he had spinal tap. Later on he clamed down while watching his new Thomas and Friends DVD and playing video games with a fellow patient. The hospital has a new procedure that now spinal tap are done on the 5th floor. Nicholas walked down with the doctor for his spinal tap and as soon as he saw the fifth floor he felt uncomfortable. He got calm and he got his spinal tap at 1:15pm. Now his 48hrs after spinal tap pill will be given at 1:15pm on Saturday and 1:15am on Sunday morning. With nothing in his tummy since, breakfast, everything he ate he vomited until he drank some juice to calm his tummy. For the rest of the weekend he will work on his homework projects.   Double take of Nicholas during class with Mr. Stephens. Nicholas walking across balance beam during obstacle couse in physical therapy with Aly. Sept 6th - Sept 11th: After the Labor Day weekend was over, Nicholas rested until his first day of school. Nicholas first day of school was great. He got happy in the morning and after eating breakfast he was ready for his first day of school. Ms Son his kindergarten teacher is out for a month with a knee surgery so Ms. Kasimow is taking over her class. Nicholas had a good first day of school. Even though he shaded a couple tears at first, but once he got into the groove of things, he was sharp in answering questions from reading a book and coloring. Nicholas got his first homework and he had to write about his summer vacation. He wrote about his trip to Disney World and his time at Sunrise Day Camp.  Nicholas press conference before Mets Kids Day at CitiField.Mets Kids at CitiField sponsored by the New York Mets and The Leukemia Lymphoma Society of NYC.  Nicholas Modestin name flashes bright on the CitiField scoreboard.  Nicholas running around bases after hitting HR.Nicholas taking pitching lessons from Mets relief pitcher Tim Byrdak and taking batting tips from Mets 3B coach Chip Hale.   Aug 29th-Sept 5th: The last week for Nicholas to enjoy his summer before school starts next week. The week was full of fun, therapy and rest. Monday was the only day he was home all day. Daddy took a break from job hunting and had Nicholas do some name writing and sentence writing. Tuesday he had a double session with Aly. Aly worked Nicholas hard. She played a game of baseball with Nicholas batting and running the bases to work on his speed, obstacle course, stretching and climbing exercise. Wednesday was fun day as the The Leukemia & Lymphoma Society of New York invites Nicholas to CitiField home of the New York Mets for kids’ day. Nicholas had a blast. First he spent time with the grounds crew getting the field ready for the game vs. the Florida Marlins. He first fixed home plate, then raked between SS and 3B. Nicholas took a break and sat in the dugout and drank water. Once he got his energy back he was back on the field to run the bases. Nicholas ran the bases at his pace. With everybody cheering him on and Mr. Met, Nicholas scored. Once he crossed HP, he jumped into mommy arms. The kids took a time out eating lunch and during lunch, Nicholas met Olivia from summer camp. After lunch, Nicholas did some throwing with Mets relief pitcher Tim Byrdak, 3B coach Chip Hale gave Nicholas batting tips off the batting tee. Nicholas had fun throwing the ball first and then hitting next. When the day was over Nicholas took a picture with Byrdak, Hale and Justin Turner. When the day was over, LLS gave Nicholas tickets for the game. Nicholas decided he wanted to go with his cousin Christiaan and then after the game sleep over. Daddy took them to the game at night vs. the Marlins. Nicholas was up cheering all game until the top 7th when he was dosed to sleep. The day finished off great as the Mets won the game. Thursday was back to Aly for PT double session. Christiaan, joined Nicholas during PT as they played basketball after Aly gave him an obstacle course to do, hill climbing and stretching. After PT they played with the Thomas and Friends trains and fought over trains and at the end of the day they always make truth and have fun. The weekend Nicholas spent time upstate with his cousins and his grandma.  Nicholas with teacher Ms. Goldie  Nicholas with teacher Mr. Stephens on last day of class after 2 1/2 years of home school. Aug 22nd-Aug 28th: This is the last week Nicholas will be working with Mr. Stephens after 2 1/2 years of taking Nicholas from scratch and making him into a solid student going into kindergarten. For the four straight days Nicholas will have class for three hours and after class he went to therapy for OT with Sapna and PT with Aly. Mr Stephens covered a lot of math so Nicholas will be ready, got the best out of him in clearing up his sentence writing and coloring. The one thing mommy and daddy are happy about is that Mr. Stephens left a strong educational foundation is Nicholas. The strength, ambition and focus of learning and listening has built Nicholas into a strong confident kid. The one thing was that for every game they played Nicholas came out winning. Nicholas finished up his book that he made. The family took Mr Stephens and his wife out for dinner and she had fun talking with Nicholas. The last was a fun day , but a sad day to see Mr. Stephens finish up with Nicholas. He will be missed and he will always part of the Modestin Family. Nicholas had a tough week of working out with Aly and Sapna. Sapna gave him some tough obstacle course that Nicholas said I can't but she rose him to the occasion and he did his exercise. He also had Jeanne during the week and she was happy with the productive work he did during his PT session with her. When he got to Aly for PT, she worked him hard with and without the braces. The best workout he got from Sapna who sure got the best out of him. Hurricane Irene came and went away as a tropical storm. Nicholas was suppose to go visit his cousins, but Irene washed that away. So the whole weekend Nicholas drove his mommy crazy as daddy went to work.   Nicholas with Sunrise Summer Camp Counselor Ally and Ariel who took care of him all summer.  Nicholas with Sunrise Summer Camp friends. Aug 15th-Aug 21st: Quiet week for Nicholas. On Monday he was suppose to have Mr. Stephens, but class was cancelled and not having no PT/OT for the week, Nicholas just wanted to be creative. Daddy was home and took a break from job hunting and took Nicholas to do some chores and show him around. Nicholas went to the bank, post office, hospital and on the way home got something to eat. Tuesday he went to camp and on Wednesday it was the last day of camp for Nicholas. He had a blast this summer and had a great time with Arial. Thursday he was in the hospital early for a check up and a dosage of vincristine. Nelly did all the checking up with Dr. Sadnandan and Dr. Sedrak. Everyday the doctor is happy and positive with Nicholas' strength and growth. Today he did not gain a pound and even though last week he went in for his tummy ache, the summer camp and moving around with his PT/OT classes, has kept Nicholas balance oh his weight. He is at 76pds and he did not grow a inch and is tall at 49 inches. The next appointment for Nicholas is on September 15th in which he is scheduled for a spinal tap and dosage of vincristine. After his appt he had class class with Mr. Stephens for three hours. You think Nicholas would be a little tired from his checkup, he was strong and had a very productive class. Friday was another day of class, but this time in the morning. Mr. Stephens changed things up with work, play, work and then writing and math and English. Another productive class that Nicholas delivered for his teacher. Later on at night Nicholas, mommy, daddy and his cousin Christiaan went to a baseball game at CitiField to watch the Mets vs Brewers. During batting practice, Christiaan got a ball from one of the Brewer player and he was all happy. Later on in Nicholas got a ball thrown to him and in a second though he was playing catch with one of the Brewer player and threw the ball back into the field. Nicholas had mommy and daddy laughing and the players laughing, but once he got the ball back, he held it till he showed it to mommy. The rain came and stayed and after watching couple innings, the family went home. Nicholas was happy to watch part of game after the rain delay. He ate his fries, popcorn with mommy and Christiaan and drank daddy's juice.   Nicholas first baseball game at CitiField. Mets vs Brewers. Nicholas and his cousin Christiaan catching batting practice. Nicholas and Christiaan each caught a foul ball during Brewers batting pratice. Aug 8th-Aug14th: Tough week for Nicholas. Monday Aly gave him a hard working obstacle course in which he had to do a lot step up and climbing. To finish off class she did stretching and throwing balls skills. Next up Jen had him doing independent motor skills and decision skills. . Mr Stephens focused more on math and sentence writing. After doing reading with questions and answers, the played a game teh first time in couple weeks. Tuesday he got up with tummy ache. Mommy waited a couple hours to see if the ache will got away. When the ache did not go away she took Nicholas to the hospital. The oncologist took some blood test and gave him a full checkup. When the test came back, his blood was clean and his plate late count was good. Wednesday he was back at summer camp playing baseball and swimming. Thursday he was back therapy and class with Mr. Stephens. Friday back to summer camp.   Nicholas posing before walking into Magic Kingdom. Nicholas all smiling getting for takeoff for Disney World. Nicholas, Mickey and Minnie at Give Kids The World. Nicholas, mommy and Pluto after eating with Mickey and Friends. Aug 1st-Aug7th: Nicholas started out the week working hard as Aly had him doing steep climbing by himself without her help. At first he kept falling down, but after, he got his balance and coordination straight and walked twice by himself. Next she had him do leg us and step up over bars. Jen continued her solid work on OT and everybody improving Nicholas independent skills. After therapy, Nicholas went to get measured for his new shoes for the school year. Later on he had class with Mr. Stephens who spent most of class with adding and subtraction to get Nicholas ready for schools. The one subject that NYC school need to put more focus on is math for the young kids and mommy and daddy are happy that Mr. Stephens the math teacher that he is, is taking his time and getting the best out of Nicholas. Tuesday was a beautiful day for Nicholas. After spending time with Aly for PT and Sapna for OT and Jen for a makeup OT class, he was tired, but he knew that in the afternoon was a field trip with Mr. Stephens. This time the trip was to the movies to see Winnie The Pooh. First he had Ms. Goldie for the last time. She spent most of her class doing arts and crafts. They did a art work of a aquarium. The one thing Ms. Goldie did was bring out the best in Nicholas in doing arts and crafts projects. He improved his coloring, cutting, drawing, slicing and overall did a good job with Nicholas. She will be missed. Wednesday he was back at camp. The swimming at camp has loosen up his joints and has his body more flexible. Thursday was back with Jen and Aly and they got his to work hard and got his full attention that they were happy with his productivity. Once he got home it was time for class with Mr. Stephens. Most of the class was based on math addition and subtraction. The rest of class was on reading with questions and answers, writing, sentence writing and coloring. Friday he was back and camp and he come with paint all over his body as the camp had paint wars. The weekend was relaxing as he read books in Spanish with h mommy.   Nicholas, Curious George and Man in Yello Hat. Nicholas holding Simba. July 25th-July31st: Nicholas was all rested and ready for another tough hard working week. On Monday he went to therapy with mommy instead of daddy. Aly started off Nicholas working out with his braces for the first 20 minutes of class. She worked on balance and standing on a mat while shifting his body of avoiding a tether ball. Once he took the braces off, he did some speed skills and leg exercises. Next up was Jen in which Nicholas started off the class by not listening for the first several minutes. Once Jen got his attention to start OT, they had a productive class. After leaving Support By Design, Nicholas got a hour rest and headed with daddy to the hospital for PT with Jeanne. When Jeanne was done with Nicholas he was sweating and took two water breaks during his hour session. First she had walk up and down a set of steps 15 times, walk on a treadmills as it moved uphill for a set of 8 minutes, jumping up and down on trampoline, broad jumping for distance of two feet, medince ball catching/chasing and finished off class with kicking and stopping medicine ball all with his left leg. Nicholas was tired that he just wanted to rest and watch his Thomas & Friends show before having class with Mr. Stephens. Once Mr. Stephens walked in the door, Nicholas was ready to start class. They worked on name writing, sentence writing in everyday Nicholas is improving on structure and clarity, math subtraction and addition, reading with questions and answers and conversation. When they day was over, mommy was happy to see how Nicholas performed on a long day. Tuesday was going to be a long day for Nicholas, but Mr. Stephens only gave him a two hour class instead of three hours. First up was Aly who again had him on a mat with braces to work on balance, but had to hit a tennis ball from a loose string, obstacle course, speed drills and coordination hand skills. Next up was Sapna and a makeup with Jen in OT. Sapna was happy with his work habits and his improvement and Jen was smiling with his attention, focus and hard work during the session. With no rush to go home and get ready for Mr. Stephens. Another productive day with Mr. Stephens. Wednesday Nicholas went to summer camp and came home smiling as he told daddy right off the bus that he went swimming, learned to play tennis, did some drawing and coloring and played in the playground.   Nicholas with Dora and Diego. Nicholas all alone at EPCOT. July 21st-July 24th: Thursday was a trip to the hospital to get a dosage of vincristine. Nicholas was greeted by nurse Nelly in which she took care of him. Before starting Nicholas gave Nelly her gift from his trip to Disney. He moved a 1/2 pound to 76 pounds from 75.5 and did not grow a inch this time around and is still at 49 inches. After getting checked out by Dr. Sedrak, Nelly gave him his dosage of vincristine and he was ready to go home. With the printer down, we couldn't get his blood results, so we left. The next appointment for Nicholas is on August 18th in which he is scheduled to get a dosage of vincristine. The Pediatric Oncology Unit is getting a beautiful face lift from the $100,000 they got from Hyundai on Wheels in which Nicholas was a part of. The coloring and new look brings a new and future change of the department. With no class with Mr. Stephens, Nicholas just rested and read a couple books. Friday he was back to summer camp. Mommy told the camp to keep him out the swimming pool after getting chemo, but with a heat wave, Nicholas went out and played around in the sprinkler that sprayed water while playing in the playground. Saturday and Sunday he rested and did some name writing, sentence writing and Spanish speaking and reading.   Nicholas walking underfall at Krazy Kat. Nicholas hanging with Barney all wet after water slide. July 18th-July 20th: After have a tough week in which he lost his trains, trucks, television time and play time, Nicholas started off on a good note. Everyday he accomplished of getting a train that he was up to 14 trains from his Thomas & Friends Collection. Funny how he picked out the originals first. Monday Nicholas missed his PT with Aly as the taxi service was late and then dropped off other passengers first and finally got to Support By Design late, but just in time for him to start OT class with Jen. Jen worked on independent skills and hand coordinating skills. Later on Mr. Stephens had a very productive three hour class with Nicholas in which they covered everything in which included math addition without using blocks, he got 97/100 site words, did some reading with question and answers and finished off with writing and sentence writing. Tuesday was a fun filling day. First up was Aly in which she made him do a obstacle course first with his braces and then leg ups, bending down by waist and up by knees without help. Aly was happy with his productivity and the strength that he getting back into his legs. Next up was Sapna who focused on body movements and and movement. After Sapna, Nicholas had to be home to get ready for Ms. Goldie who he hasn't seen since early June, before leaving to Disney on his Make-A-Wish trip. Ms. Goldie spent her class time with Nicholas making a art project of describing his summer. Nicholas made a beautiful poster of the things he is doing this summer in words and in pictures ranging from OT/PT therapy, class with Mr. Stephens and summer camp. When class was over, Nicholas had a field trip to the New York Aquarium in which he wanted to take the train. Even though his oncologist wants Nicholas to enjoy life, she also wants to keep him away from crowds, luckily with no school the train ride to Coney Island on the F train was empty and fast. Once we got to the Aquarium, Mr. Stephens showed Nicholas the aquarium and also gave him some questions and answers while looking at the animals. After a long day on Tuesday, Nicholas went to camp on Wednesday.   Nicholas with Ginger Cookie during Winter Wonderland Nicholas' Star at Give Kids The World Village. festivities at Give Kids The World Village. .  Nicholas hanging out at Give Kids The World Village. Juy 11th-July 17th: Nicholas started off his week on a bad note as he wanted to do things his own way and with not listening to mommy, all his Thomas trains were taken away along with his movies. He knew right away what he did wrong and he knew the only way to earn it back was hard work during therapy and class. Daddy told Nicholas that every good deed that everyday he will get one train back, but no more my way and he will lose a train that he earned. After leaving the house with daddy to start off the week with Aly with PT, Nicholas was ready and upbeat. Aly sure put Nicholas through a tough workout. First she gave him a obstacle course with every other step had him stepping over a bar and every other bar was high, then after ups and downs bending exercises with and without his leg braces. Also she worked on stamina using the braces. After Aly he had Jen who started out with independent skills during OT and went right to his mid section of his body to increase his muscle strength. For the rest of the Aly tackled his legs and upper body to get the best of Nicholas and to get him more confidence of walking straight and not side to side. Jen and Sapna continued to worked on basics OT skills to get him ready for kindergarten and to improve on his motor skills. Mr. Stephens spent time this week with Nicholas working on listening and copying sentences in which everyday Nicholas is improving. For a 5yrs old, his teacher is happy with his productivity. They also covered math in both adding and subtraction. He was doing adding without using blocks. For the three days everyday Nicholas increased his number of site words and did some reading with questions and answers to finish off class. Summer camp was a blast until Friday in which he lost one of his bottom tooth and got introduced to the tooth fairy. He came off the camp bus smiling and telling everybody what happen and that he lost his tooth. When the week was over, Nicholas earned eight trains after working hard with muvh focus and listening during his class and therapy. The weekend was a relaxing weekend as Nicholas did some leg exercise, name writing, math and site words during his down time. he was still talking about the tooth that dropped out his mouth while playing around in camp on Friday.  Christmas in June at Give Kids The World Village Winter Wonderland festivities. Nicholas with Santa. July 5th-July 10th: After the 4th weekend, Nicholas was ready to head back into his busy schedule. The morning of the 5th he went to get his new foot braces with hinges at the bottom of his foot to get better support and later on in the afternoon he went to get the results from his brain MRI from his neurologist. The MRI found that the brain is clean and they ground with the swelling of the brain combined with chemo and the medication, the nerve of the legs got affected. Mommy and daddy were happy to see the brain was clean and now with intense therapy and workout, Nicholas will get back 100%. The next day Wednesday the 6th was the first day of camp. Nicholas had a great first day at camp and went swimming in which he enjoyed and had a blast. Nicholas was all happy to sit in the bus with his friend Andres who got diagnosed with leukemia a week after Nicholas back in September 2008. The two had stayed friends and are always happy to see each other. Nicholas will be going to Sunrise Day on Wednesday's and Friday's only and the other days therapy and class. When Nicholas came off the camp bus, he was beat and just wanted to eat dinner and go to sleep. Thursday was the start of his therapy session, but it was cancelled. Aly was out battling a cold and wanted to play it safe around Nicholas and Jen was out. No therapy during the day and class in the afternoon. Nicholas hasn't seen Mr. Stephens in couple weeks, so class started off a little bad as Nicholas wanted things his ways. After couple minutes, Mr. Stephens got him to settle down and class started and the day went great. Friday he was back at camp and had another great day and came home with The Most Huggable Kid of The Day which mommy and daddy were all happy. The weekend was relxing with a mixture of doing some site words and writing after the playing around.  Nicholas getting ready for his swimming classes. June 28th-July 4th: After getting his spinal tap and a dosage of vincristine, Nicholas rested for couple days. On Thursday he had Jeanne for PT at the hospital in which he was introduced of walking on a treadmill in which he did good of balancing himself. Next they did eye coordination skills of throwing the ball around and had Nicholas use his body of throwing in a circle first and then have one in front and one in the back to make sure to use and turn his body, running and hoping and finished off with walking and lifting legs over blocks in even bars. Friday was a off day as Mr. Stephens was sick and was not feeling good and gave Nicholas a free day to play and have fun after getting a hair cut. The weekend the family headed upstate for mommy's cousin Jasmine's wedding in which Nicholas had a blast. On Sunday daddy took Nicholas and couple of his cousins to watch the movie Cars2 in which he was wide awake and after drinking his ICE hies eyes were supper wide open for the movie he wanted to watch. After the movie the family headed back to the and on the way stopped in NJ and saw some fireworks. Happy Independence Day USA!!! Nicholas had a playful fun day and a restful day getting for a week ahead of therapy and summer camp. Later on at night he sat back and watch the fireworks.  Nicholas getting his foot measured for his new braces. June 27th: After spending a day of rest on Sunday, Nicholas was in the hospital to get a spinal tap and dosage of vincristine. Nicholas was all smiles when he walked into the room and hug Lynda as she took care of him today. Nelly was out. After giving out his gifts to Lynda and the doctors, Nicholas went to do some painting and coloring as a art teacher was in the house. The art teacher drew a Thomas train fro Nicholas to color and later he played with clay until the anesthesiologist came to give him the spinal tap. Nicholas lost two pounds that dropped him from 76 pounds to 74 and grew a 1/2 inch from 48.5 to 49 inches.  Nicholas working out with his PT therapist Jeanne at The Brooklyn Hospital Center Rehab. June 19th-June 26th: Nicholas goes away to Disney World on his Make-A-Wish Foundation trip. The flight was early and the limo pick up the family at 530am for the 7am flight. Nicholas was all full of joy and happiness flying in a plane that he was awake looking over NYC, but after not seeing no city, he went to sleep. Once we arrived in Orlando the family was greeted by Give Kids The World lady that had a big sign Nicholas Modestin waiting. The family jumped into the rented car and was off to GKTW Village. Once we got to the village we had a orientation and went to our little apartment. Sunday night daddy gave Nicholas gigt of having dinner with Mickey and friends and he enjoyed all of Mickey and his friends. Minnie, Donald, Pluto and Goofy. The next day Nicholas had a blast at Disney Hollywood Studios as he saw Disney Junior show, stunt show in which he loved the cars crashing and the explosion that he felt that fire in his skin. For the next several days Nicholas was happy with all the magical moments he had a Epcot, Magic Kingdom, Universal Studios, Universal Island Adventure and Sea World. He eyes lit up when he went down the water slides as he got wet with daddy twice and mommy once, he took the camera away to take pictures of animals at Animal Kingdom. Back at GKTW Nicholas was in heaven when he saw a big train set that he made daddy take him everyday to play with. One night during the week after time at the parks, GKTW gave mommy and daddy and other parents a break and took care of the kids for the night. The one special night for the kids was Thursday night as it was Christmas in June with snow and Santa. Nicholas was all smiles with Santa as he got a toy and then played in the snow with his friends. Before leaving GKTW, Nicholas got to see his star in the Castle of Miracles that it honors a star for every kid that visited GKTW. Overall the trip was special and for all the people at Make A Wish Foundation, GKTW Village, Theme Parks we say THANK YOU FOR EVERYTHING. Pictures of the trip will come later once daddy and mommy download the six rolls of film.  2011 TEAM NICHOLAS. Nicholas 2nd from left 1st row. June 6th-June 18th: These couple weeks Nicholas was working hard knowing he had a big trip coming up later on this month. He gave his physical therapist Aly and Diony so much energy that they were surprise to see Nicholas full of spirit like always, but a little extra touch of energy. Aly and Diony worked on building up more strength in his legs by doing a lot of hill and strair climbing by himself without any assistance. Jen and Sapna put a lot of focus on independent skills and motor skills. Mr. Stephens introduced Nicholas on how to write heading in which now that every time he does a assignment, he will be writing a heading with name, date and school to get ready for kindergarten. Nicholas improved his math skills and got introduced to new site words.  TEAM NICHOLAS. NICHOLAS HOLDING BANNER AT START OF 2011 SUNRISE DAY CAMP WALKATHON. May 16th-June 5th: Nicholas gained about a 1.5 pounds going up to 74 pds to 76.5 and grew 1/2 inch from 48 to 48.5 in height right now after having chemotherapy on May 19th. Good news came to mommy and daddy on May 26th as the orthopedic gave us news that the bone structure around Nicholas' pelvis is good and with continuing his PT, he should getting closer to be back 100% and strong. Couple days later Nicholas went to get his foot measured for news braces in which his PT therapist Aly says will give him more mobility and flexibility in his foot. The next day after getting fit for his braces. Nicholas has a MRI on his brain in which he will get the results next month July 5th. The Neurologist just wants to see the brain since the last MRI when he got diagnosed with ALL leukemia. Nicholas had a couple rough days as he battle a cold and cough in which later turned into a ear infection. Once mommy saw him sticking his fingers in his ears sh took him to the hospital to a check up and his oncologist was happy to see mommy get Nicholas to the hospital and not wait another day. Nicholas got some penicillin to clear up his ears and to get back strong and get ready for his trip.The ear infection kept Nicholas out of the water for couple weeks and he has to make up the classes he missed. Jen and Diony continue to work hard on Nicholas during PT that has given more strength and endurance in the bottom part of his body that he lost so much mobility when he couldn't walk for several months. Jen and Diony have put such a solid discipline into Nicholas that he loves to go school as he says it to work with Aly and Diony who are all business once Nicholas enters the doors at Support By Design. Jen and Sapna has increase Nicholas ability to be more independent during his OT classes and now it is up to Nicholas to have no fear during his battle and continue working hard. Jeanne at the hospital PT, she is mostly building up his leg in which his left side has made a big improvement. Mr. Stephens has cut down lines in writing sentnces going to one line and working on Nicholas clarity, structure and writing skills. Math is coming along good with the reading comprehension, reading skills, ELA work and Ms. Goldie for improving his arts and crafts skills. The Sunrise Day Camp Walkathon was a big draw for Team Nicholas. Every year we go up in memebers and once we get the final tally on how much we raised, we will see if you got close to our goal of $5000 or surpassed it. This year Nicholas walked with his new members of his team. His god parents,cousins from upstate New York, neighbors of a friend, two members from the 2009 team and the majority of the 17 members from last year. This year the team went up to 30 members. |
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May 2nd-May 15th: Nicholas continues to get stronger and more flexible in his body movements as he continues to improve work hard during his PT and OT sessions. His PT therapist Aly told mommy and daddy that Nicholas has to change his AFO brace from a planted one that got his foot straighten and his coordination better to a more flexible one to help strengthen up his ankles and give him more of a flexibility and movement of bending in his legs. Thank god for the insurance companies to let mommy and daddy get another AFO brace because it was a different one. Nicholas goes to see the orthopedic specialist and then a week later at the end of the month he goes to get his foot measured for his brace. Nicholas and mommy went to visit grandma for mother's day. Nicholas was full of joy and happiness playing with his cousins and spending time with his grandma who made him his special yellow rice with hot dogs. Ms. Goldie continues to bring out the creative side of Nicholas. She had make a magnet, cut out objects and paint through a magnified glass, reading and writing. During his PT sessions Diony has made Nicholas leg lifts improve in a way that now his actually walking more with a stride instead of dragging his left while walking. The obstacle courses by Diony has also improved his endurance along with Aly's progress of getting Nicholas' leg stronger in way that he is using his whole body on exercises. In OT Jen and Sapna are making Nicholas more focus of working independently and giving him more answers of questions of how to use his body and mind during motor skills. One day Jen had Nicholas workout with other kids for encouragement and to see how he reacts with kids looking on and cheering him. After the session Jen was happy with the productive work of Nicholas and his work with other kids. Nicholas started swimming and Mother's Day weekend and he was happy to be back in the water. He has a new teacher this year and you could see his transition was good and got adjusted right away in class. His legs are kicking better under water and his body is more controlling in the water. When Nicholas went to visit Jeanne at the hospital for PT, he took his tricycle in which we got bad news. With all the steroids and medications Nicholas is taking, he is growing that he out grew his tricycle and he needs a new one. Once Jeanne got Nicholas off the bike, she worked and she worked him. He walked up and down the stairs about 20 times, walked the even bars with blocks in the inside about 20 times, balanced by himself on a rubber ball for about 15 seconds before holding grabbing on Jeanne's shirt, played toss the ball around in a circle with Jeanne and Tasha and to finish off class he did some bowling. When class was over, Nicholas was sweating and just wanted to go home and rest. Mr. Stephens continues to do a solid job on getting productivity and productive work out of Nicholas. His math has improved, letter writing is getting more better along with his sentence writing that he is doing daily to improve his writing and eye coordination, reading comprehension and reading longer books, a new set of site words and his improvement with WH and TH words, skip counting by 5 and 10, got introduced to community helpers outside of policeman and firemen and everyday Nicholas' focus and accomplishments is making mommy and daddy smile. Couple days Mr. Stephens was out sick, but he left homework for Nicholas to and mommy was the teacher and she was a strict and discipline as Mr. Stephens. For the next couple weeks, Nicholas has a visit to get a dosage of vincristine during his chemotherapy, gets a MRI on his brain to see how it has developed since the swelling went down, foot brace and orthopedic. |
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April 25th-May 1st: Nicholas was back in full swing with a daily dosage of having either therapy or class or both during the week. The week started off with make up class for occupational therapy with Jen on Monday who had for a full hour and gave Nicholas a intense workout that had a mixture of PT & OT together. She worked on building up his left side, balancing and motor skills, independent exercise to see how much he can work by himself, a tube exercise that had him inside the tube and rolling inside of the tube. Once he was finished with Jen he had the rest of the day for fun activities. Tuesday he had Jeanne for PT at the hospital in which he worked on building ups legs and ankles by using weights on his ankles while getting adjusted of wearing sneakers. After Jeanne, he had Mr. Stephens. After a week off from teaching, Mr. Stephens was happy with the productive work he got from Nicholas. The writing and sentence writing was good and the math fact families he improved. Wednesday he had Diony in PT and Jen in OT. Both therapist got the best out of Nicholas and could see he is more relaxed and flexible during the workouts. After leaving Support By Design, Mr. Stephens took over for academics. The class was covered with Nicholas doing both math and literacy and was introduced more to higher number of fact families. His name writing is getting better and his sentence writing is getting clear and structured. Ms. Goldie came on Thursday to make up a class and Nicholas had fun doing lots of arts and crafts. He made a pillow for his mommy for Mother's day with lots of cutting and drawing shapes to decorate the pillow and finished off class reading and writing. Later on in the day with no class with Mr. Stephens, Nicholas enjoyed playing with his trains and watching some television. Friday Nicholas was back at Support By Design to have therapy with Diony and Sapna. Diony spent most of the session working of body control and working on his left side and Sapna worked on motor and independent skills. Later in the afternoon Mr. Stephens gave Nicholas a hour class and worked on writing, math and reading comprehension. The weekend was relaxing for Nicholas and the family. Saturday was the first day in months that Nicholas actually woke up past 7am in which he usually gets up around 6am-630am since he has a busy schedule during the week. Next week Saturday May 7th, Nicholas goes back into the water to start swimming classes/aquatic therapy in which has done a lot to get his legs and lower body more flexible. Sunday the family went to mass and Nicholas spent the day driving mommy up the wall as daddy went to work.  Nicholas posing before walking into to get chemotherapy. April 17th-April 24th: Holy Week. Mr. Stephens was off on vacation, but left some homework for Nicholas to do. Mommy and daddy took turns during the week working with Nicholas. This week was trips to the hospital and get him registered for swimming classes. Monday he had make up session with Aly and Sapna. Sapna was first with a hour of occupational therapy. Sapna did a lot of up and down exercise to work on his waist, independent work, balance and mobility. Once he was done with Sapna, Aly took over for a hour a half and she made him do a obstacle course, played tennis to work on eye and hand coordination, bowling, climbing up and down a hill with no side bars and finished off the class working with his AFO braces. Aly spoke to daddy and she wanted to add a another foot support to his ankle so he will would a little more firm. With no class, Nicholas rested. Tuesday Nicholas went to visit the neurologist and the he had a good visit. The neurologist was happy to see the recovery of Nicholas, especially from the brain swelling and lost of muscle mobility from waist down. He scheduled Nicholas to get a MRI and saw how his brain and body is from the last MRI he took when he got diagnosed two years ago. After leaving the hospital, Nicholas did some homework left by Mr. Stephens and read some books. Wednesday Nicholas went to visit the orthopedic in which the appointment was rescheduled, because the doctor had a emergency surgery and will send Nicholas to see a specialist on May 26th. After leaving the hospital, Nicholas went to sign up for aquatic therapy swimming class in which his oncologist and therapist want him to do. Aquatic therapy is loosen up the and stretching out the tight points in Nicholas and giving more of a flexibility in his body. This time around Nicholas got into a Saturday morning class instead of a class during the week. Thursday was visit to the oncologist in which he was only scheduled to get a dosage of vincristine and a check up. Nurse Lynda took care of him today and she did a great job and relaxing Nicholas to get his mediport in since the needle is a little longer now. She weighed him in which he went up a pound and half from 72.5 to 74 and no rise in height and still at 48 inches. Doctor Sedrak checked on him today and saw good things in his vital signs and his legs. After taking his blood for to get his counts and to see how his white cells are, Lynda gave him a dosage of vincristine and Nicholas was done. The next visit to his oncologist is on May 19th in which he is scheduled to get a dosage of vincristine. Once he got home, he did some Thomas & Friends puzzles that he got for his birthday and rested for the weekend. Good Friday was rest day for Nicholas, but during the day he got bored and wanted to do stuff. While mommy went to the Good Friday procession, daddy stayed home and did some homework with Nicholas left by Mr. Stephens. Since it was raining a little and yesterday he had a chemo, Nicholas knew he was going to stay indoors. Daddy worked with Nicholas in which they covered sight words, math, name, sentence, letter and number writing, coloring, read several books and finished off working on some puzzles and building blocks. Saturday and Easter Sunday, Nicholas went upstate to spend time with his grandmother and cousins.  Nicholas enjoying a Sunday Fun Day at Sunrise Day Camp relaxing in the log house. March 28th-April 16th: Nicholas has been busy that we had to slow him down between his physical and occupational therapy, home schooling, visiting schools to get him ready next fall for kindergarten and his trips to see his oncologist. Nicholas week started out with a visit to Jeanne at the hospital for physical therapy. One thing about Jeanne is that when she is done working out with Nicholas, his body feels good in a way that he feels tired, but the body feels good after the way she works on all the tight points of his body. After Jeanne he was home for academics with Mr. Stephens. Mr. Stephens continues to get the best out of Nicholas and he has improved in different areas of academics. His writing is getting better and he doing more sentence writing, working more in reading comprehension, fact math numbers, focusing more on addition and subtraction, getting adjusted of writing upper and lower case letters and going through the whole alphabet, his sight words has increased to a 100 words, working on social studies and science. During classes with Ms. Goldie, he made a kite, made a hand puppet, worked on motor skills and read a lot of books as she finishes her class every time reading a book. When he was not around studying with Mr. Stephens, Nicholas is back working out at Support By Design Rehab Center. His physical therapist team of Aly and Diony has given Nicholas a whole new view of life as his endurance, stamina has grown and he has made a big progress his his body mobility. Before Nicholas could only walk a one city block, but now he can walk at least 4-5 blocks before taking a break. He is able to move his ankle around and is able to move side to side better by playing tennis and going through the obstacle course. Jen and Sapna work on Nicholas motor skills and occupational therapy. Jen and Sapna are giving back to Nicholas what he lost of the basic things he needs to do for a kid his age. Sometimes when he is with Jen, she mixes up PT/OT together to get a body workout, but to see Nicholas reaction working alone on independent skills. Th elementary school that mommy and daddy wanted Nicholas to go, he didn't get in by the lottery and now is on the waiting list. The other good school in the neighborhood, Nicholas went for a visit met the principal and took a little tour. He has to visit another school after spring break that focus on arts and letters in which Nicholas likes to draw and color and be creative building his blocks and legos. Saturday's and Sunday's are the two days that Nicholas gets his rest, but once he starts swimming classes to give his body more flexibility his Saturday's are gone also.  Thomas & Friends Live Show. A birthday gift that brought out joy and smiles for Nicholas.  March 14th-March 27th: After a weekend of having fun with family and friends, Nicholas was back to his routine of class and therapy. Mr. Stephens would cancel class Monday and Tuesday, so Nicholas' afternoon was open for fun and games. Daddy did some work of literacy and math. Aly and Jen gave him a good workout for PT and OT to start off the week. Ms. Goldie came on Tuesday and she dedicated her class to arts and crafts . Nicholas made a hand puppet, did some drawing, coloring and cutting and pasting. Mr. Stephens was back on Wednesday and Thursday in which he did literacy and math. Nicholas was introduced to math fact family, did turn around facts, letter writing of letters F,G, did reading with questions and answers, did a St. Patrick's Day drawing and is improving in reading comprehension and addition. There was no Diony and Jen on Wednesday because of the rain. Friday he only had Diony for PT as OT was cancelled. Diony gave Nicholas a tough workout that his legs had a intense workout with and without the braces. Class on Friday was Nicholas' trurn 5 meeting with the district 13 social worker in which after the meeting she concluded that Nicholas belongs in general education classes with relative services in PT and OT. The weekend was relaxing for the family. Monday was a good day for Nicholas. First up was Aly and Jen gave Nicholas a solid workout. Aly did ups and downs, worked with the braces on for 10 minutes and finished off with light running. Next was Jen in which Nicholas started off by not listening for the first couple minutes. When he finally started to listen, Jen did some motor skills, independent skills and a light PT session to call it the day. Later on Mr. Stephens couldn't make it so class was cancelled. Tuesday and Wednesday Nicholas was going to have lomng days, because on Thursday 3/24 he was scheduled for a dosage of vincristine and a spinal tap. Ms. Goldie came and she focused on hand exercise and concentration skills to work on his motor skills and did some computer work to get Nicholas adjusted to using a computer. Mr. Stephens caught up for the days hie missed. They went over reading books, reading comprehension, name and sentence writing, sequence from first to last, science movement, math fact families, letters G and H and I, rhyming matching words and conversation to start off every class. With no PT on Friday, Diony set up a obstacle course first using mostly his hands to climb up and the end part all legs with hands to use his whole body and no threapist help. Everyday Nicholas is getting better of improving his body of controlling himself without help of the therapist. Thursday was a visit to ARRIBA for his oncologist. Today Nelly and Lynda took turns taking care of Nicholas. He was in good hands. His weight went up 1.5 from 70pds to 72.pds and was still at 48 inches. The only bad thing today was that he got his spinal tap at 2pm. The reason was that there was a emergency downstairs in pediatric unit. So that meant he will get his 48hrs after spinal tap pill at 2pm Saturday and his 60hrs pill at 2am.Nichyolas left happy and wanted to go home and rest. Once he got home he watched some televison, took the medications he had to take and went to sleep. The next time Nicholas goes back to his oncologist is on Holy Thursday 4/21 to get a dosage of vincristine chemotherapy medication in which is also his Aunt Michele's Bday. That same week of Holy week, he goes to get a full examination from the nuerologist and orthapedic that his only day off of resting is Good Friday. The weekend was relaxing and making sure he took his pills on Saturday and Sunday.  Nicholas had two cakes made for him by his Aunt Michele for his 5th birthday. The first cake was celebrated with his cousin Christiaan. The second cake was celebrated with his cousins (l-r) Karina, Manuel and Rachel. March 8th-March 13th: Double class for Nicholas today as Ms. Goldie came in the morning and later in the afternoon he had Mr. Stephens. Ms. Goldie focused on Nicholas getting to know his food groups and matching foods to the groups, weekly reader, read a couple books and writing. After Goldie, Nicholas rested and got ready for Mr. Stephens. The majority of the class after the daily writing and sentence writing was based on math in which Mr. Stephens covered basic math skills for Nicholas. When class was over, Nicholas was full of energy and just played with his new car and trains, took his chemotherapy medication and went to bed. Ash Wednesday. After missing OT/PT on Monday Nicholas was back at Support By Design with Diony for PT and Jen for OT. Diony had him first and gave him a strong minded workout session. Nicholas had a tough obstacle course in which he had to use a lot of legs for climbing up and down by himself as Diony stood to side to see how Nicholas works alone and contains his balance. Once Nicholas was done with Diony he worked with Jen he started working on table skills, food groups and motor skills exercise. Daddy was off today from substituting, so he took Nicholas to class and saw much improvement in Nicholas. Once Nicholas got home he had about a hour to eat and get ready for class with Mr. Stephens. Today the teacher mixed of class with literacy and math and continued to work on Nicholas writing skills with one line and sentence writing which featured date, month and weather. After class the family went to mass to celebrate Ash Wednesday. When Nicholas got up in the morning he was a little tired, but was ready to head to the hospital for PT with Jeanne. Jeanne set up everything for Nicholas to do from step climbing, throwing and catching a medicine ball, walking and climbing over blocks in the even bars, played red light green light a little running, played a game of bowling and jumped up and down off the trampoline. Also during the session Nicholas ran into his old PT therapist Tasha and Dominique. Tasha and Dominique took care of Nicholas and got him back on his feet when he came out the hospital wehn he couldn't walk. After class, Nicholas took a break and went to sleep before his class with Mr. Stephens. Mr. Stephens mixed the class up with literacy and math which had Nicholas smiling going from math to reading comprehension. When class was over, Nicholas took his eight steriods chemotherapy medication and went to bed. Friday is the one day during the week that when Nicholas gets up early, he has to get ready for class since PT/OT start at 9am. Nicholas usually gets up around 6am and the other days execept for Monday and Wednesday, his PT/OT at Support By Design start at 1130 and Noon. Diony was waiting for Nicholas as he walked through the door. Diony set another obstacle course, but before he did some motor skills exercise and then had Nicholas do a obstacle course in which he had to work on getting matching letter and numbers to different stations of the obstacle course. After the PT with Diony, Nicholas took a little break and got rady for Sapna. Sapna worked on putting on and off clothing items and motor skills. Once the both sessions was done, Nicholas had much time to waste before his class in the afternnon. During the hours to kill, Nicholas played with his trains, watched some television and ate a good lunch. Class was for a hour today, so Mr. Stephens concentrated on literacy which included, name and sentence writing, same words, but spelled different, sight words, did some addition, colored and finished off class with a focus of the letter E and words that start with letter E. After class, Nicholas was all happy knowing he will have a fun filling weekend of family and fun to celebrate his birthday. The weekend was dedicated on celebrating Nicholas' 5th birthday. Mommy and daddy decided just to have ice and cake and family over. On Saturday everybody came that lived close to Nicholas in which his Aunt Michele made his two birthday cakes. On Sunday all his family that lives upstate New York came to spend with him. Once the weekend was over, mommy was happy to get some rest after all the cooking.  HAPPY BIRTHDAY NICHOLAS!!! 5 YEARS OLDMARCH 7TH: HAPPY BIRTHDAY NICHOLAS!!!! YOU'RE 5 YEARS OLD TODAY. KEEP UP THE FIGHTING ATTITUDE THAT ONE DAY YOU WILL CONQUER AND DEFEAT YOUR LEUKEMIA CANCER. Nicholas woke up in the morning and went to the foot specialist to get his foot brace adjusted and then later in the afternoon he had class with Mr. Stephens. Before leaving the hospital, Nicholas went to visit his oncologist to wish her a happy birthday in which her birthday is on the 9th of March. With Nicholas going to the foot specialist, he missed his PT/OT classes at Support By Design. Today's class was spent concentrating on literacy, read couple books with questions and answers, writing upper and lower case A. When class was over, Mr. Stephens gave Nicholas a car for his birthday in which he played for the rest of teh day until it was time to go to bed. March 1st-March 6th: Nicholas had a easy Tuesday as he went to get his AFO braces adjusted to his foot better since one of the braces was rubbing on the side of his ankle. The AFO specialist fixed and Nicholas was out. On the way home Nicholas went to visit the day care center that took care of him before her got diagnosed with leukemia two years ago. Nicholas was all smiles and laugh as he remembered all his old teachers at Hanover Day Care Center. Once he came home he relaxed and rested before his class in the afternoon in which Mr. Stephens worked on literacy, coloring, name wirting, copying and dictation. Wednesday he was back at Support By Design for PT/OT. Diony had Nicholas first for PT and he gave Nicholas a good hard working session full of games and exercise that made Nicholas use his whole body with a focus of coordination and activities using his left leg. Next up was Jen with OT and she continued to work on Nicholas' left side, but using motor skills, independent skills and self thinking skills exercise to make Nicholas work on both physical and mental strength. When Nicholas got home, he was tired and his body was tired that mommy cancelled class in the afternoon so Nicholas could get some rest. Funny how when Nicholas got up, all he was saying were is Mr. Stephens to start class, but mommy already cancelled class. With no class he just went right back to sleep. Thursday during the day, Nicholas was back full of energy and just wanted to color and cut stuff. He got a activity book and started coloring and cutting out shapes and designs out of his Mickey Mouse book. Later on when class started, Mr. Stephens had Nicholas work on math, literacy, writing upper and lower letters and words of letter B, reading comprehension and some clock reading exercise. After class with Mr. Stephens, Nicholas was tired and took his daily amount of Thursday chemotherapy medications and went to bed after watching a Thomas & Friends movie. Friday was going to be a long day, but the good thing is that Nicholas has PT/OT early in the morning and class in the afternoon, so he had a couple hours to rest and give his body time to get back strong. Diony gave him a obstacle course to do in which he enjoyed climbing up and down and swinging off the tube and when he was done with Diony he went over to Sapna who had do lots of motor skills, independent skills and mixed PT/OT exercise to improve his balance. Once he left the rehab center and got home, he and enjoyed a nice lunch and played with his games. Mr. Stephens gave Nicholas a dosage of everything they went over during the week. They worked on reading comprehension, name writing with one line, copying and dictation and finished off class with some addition. After class Nicholas just wanted to talk about his suprise in which his aunt Michele got him. He kept asking mommy and daddy for his surprise, but mommy and daddy just kept quite and tried changing the questions. Saturday was Suprise Day for Nicholas and he was getting a birthday gift that will bring lots of joy once he arrives at his suprise. Daddy had time to go to the surprise with Nicholas and mommy and till get to work on time. The family took the train to the surprise, because parking is hard to find in midtown and especially saturday morning. The big surpise for Nicholas when he arrived at Madison Square Garden was he was going to see THOMAS & FRIENDS LIVE ON STAGE!!!. Once he saw the saw of the show, all he wanted to do was head to his seat. When the show started Nicholas was bundle of joy and all he wanted to do was sing a long with Thomas and Friends and enjoy. The joy of mommy and daddy watching Nicholas enjoy himself and other kids at MSG was something special. Mommy and Nicholas called Michele when they got home and told her that this was one of the best birthday gifts that he ever got at such a young age. After speaking with Michele, Nicholas went to sleep and later got up to play with his train set. Sunday the rain washed out the day, so daddy went to mass alone and ask god for a blessing to continue looking over Nicholas and keeping his strength and spirits high for his birthday. February 22nd-February 28th: After enjoying the long weekend, Nicholas was back to a regular schedule because he had to make up rehab and classes from his time in the hospital during the week when the kids were off for the winter week vacation. The 22nd started off with Mr. Stephens early in the morning in which they worked on sight words in which he knew 96 out of 100, addition, got introduced to finding crossword puzzles, name writing, copying, fire prevention and fire prevention skills and a hour later he had class with Ms. Goldie. Goldie spent her 90 minutes with Nicholas working on dictation to work on his listening and writing, did the weekly reader, motor skills and independent skills, read a couple books to finish off class. When class was over, Nicholas took a break and got redy for a afternoon class with Jen for occupational therapy. Jen worked on balance, agility, coordination of controlling his body while climbing up a hill and finished off class with indeopendent skills. Once his day was over, Nicholas was trired and just wanted to sleep and rest. The next day Mr. Stephens came early since Nicholas had a make rehab class with Diony and Jen at noon. Mr. Stephens covered all the aspects of literacy and math. They worked on name writing using one line, copying date, time, month, year and weather, reading a story by just usuing a picture, addition, number writing 1-thru-6, crossword puzzle, coloring, did a missing number chart, read a book with questions and answers. Once class was over with Mr. Stephens, Nicholas went to OT/PT. Nicholas had a double session with Diony in which was very intense and gave his whole body a total workout in which he used every inch and part of his body. Next up was Jen with PT in which she covered a mixed of PT/OT on working on building up endurance and strengthen up the left side of his body. When PT/OT was done, Nicholas was tired and all he wanted to do was to get something to eat and go to bed. When he got home his cousin Christiaan was over and that gave him the extra energy of wanting to play trains and cars with his cousin. The next day was a trip to ARRIBA in which he was scheduled to only get a dosage of vincristine chemotherapy medication. While Nicholas was in the hospital last month battling a tummy virus his weight went up and down. Nicholas was all smiles and joy to see Nelly who took care of him today. After checking out his vital signs which was good, he was weighed in which he was at 70pds from the up and going down between December and today he was at 48 inches. Later on he was checked on by his oncologist which she was happy to see a improvement in Nicholas' walking, speech and overall his attitude to beat his cancer. After getting his dosage of vincristine, Nicholas' day was done at the hospital. Once he got home, he was tired and went to sleep until he got up to take his chemotherapy medications. Mr. Stephens came early Friday morning and spent the class working on math, literacy and art projects. The weekend was just fun and play for Nicholas as he enjoy building blocks with his leggos, his train set and coloring. February 18th-February 21st: Today was a new day for Nicholas and it showed during his PT session with Diony in the morning. Diony got the best of Nicholas and he worked him out good . The obstacle course that Diony gave Nicholas On Friday was all about strengthen up the upper body that when class was over, you though Nicholas pumped up his chest. Later on in the afternoon, after hearing class was cancelled, Nicholas went to bed and got a good night sleep. Sapna mixed her occupational session with physical therapy as she worked on Nicholas' balance and coordination working with a tire tube. Nicholas had fun bouncing off the tube when he couldn't get his legs up between the tube, but once he got his legs up he enjoyed swining side to side and Sapna had fun controlling his body and watching how Nicholas corrdinates his body to slow down and to get off the tube leg by leg instead of just jumping off and landing on the mat. Over the weekend Nicholas spent sometime upstate with his cousins celebrating Manuel's 5th birthday party. He had a blast playing and running around and once the fun was done it back driving back to Brooklyn in which he slept most of the ride. President's day Nicholas did not have the day off as he had makeups with Mr. Stephens and Aly at Support By Design while he was in the hospital. Mr. Stephens was first in the morning as he went over name writing in which he writing with one line, history on George Washington, copying in which he copied the day, date, address, President's Day and weather on one line, read a fire prevention book and did some fire prevention skills, math addition using dominoes, dots of numbers, sip counting of 2, 5, and 10, number writing, number recognition, reading comprehension and writing in fill in after reading and finished off class with current events. Right after Mr. Stephens spoke to mommy and daddy it was offf to physical therapy with Aly. Aly split the session with Nicholas wearing his foot brace and 1/2 without the brace. With the brace she worked of coordination and to see with the brace if his weight shifts to one side while walking, his body reaction during exercise and tossing and passing around a medicine ball and speed walking. Once the braces came off, Aly saw a difference on how Nicholas was walking and could still see that his still shiofting a little to the right when he walking, but with working and stretching out everyday, he will be back 100%. Next all did ball tossing, climbing up and dopwn a hill of mats and finiswith a game of teather ball. Everyday Aly is picking more and more what Nicholas needs to improve and get back strong and everytime time Nicholas works out with Aly he is enjoying his time and having fun, but most important he knows he getting back his strength. Once Nicholas got home, he played with his trains, read some books, watched some television and rested because the rest of the week is more class, PT/OT therapy and on Thursday he has to get a dosage of Vincristine chemotherapy.  Nicholas with New York Red Bulls Defender Carlos Mendes at The Brooklyn Hospital Center (TBHC) Pediatriac Oncology Christmas Party 2010. The Nicholas Modestin Pediatric Cancer Christmas Toy Drive Thanks Carlos and the New York Red Bulls for making a beautiful special day for the kids and giving out bunch of soccer balls to kick around with Santa Claus. February 17th: Nicholas got a little tired this morning that he had a little appetite for breakfast. He only ate a bowl of cereal and was ready to head out for his physical therapy session at the hospital with Jeanne. Before class started Nichoals ran into Tasha who got him back in his foot during the tough times when he came out the hospital and couldn't walk and Tasha did a GREAT JOB. Jeanne worked with Nicholas and Nicholas was surpised that Jeanne left his leg brace on him during the whole therapy. At first he complined he wanted it off, but she wanted to him to get used to it while working out. Every therapist has his or her different style of working with Nicholas and everyone has help Nicholas gain back his trength and powe in his lower body. Jeanne worked Nicholas on even bars, climbing over blocks using the even bars, climb up and down steps, kicking and throwing a medicine ball, walking zig zag to wok on balance and coordination and speed walking without and balanced himself on a balancing ball to finished of the class. When he got home he was tired, but not sleepy. Now that his body is getting adjusted again of his therapy class, he is not sleeping during the day . So he ate lunch, played with his trains and watched television to get ready for Mr. Stephens. Today's class was mixture of math and literacy. They finished off the page on turnaround numbers, sight words in which he knew 95 of the 100, coloring in which everyday staying inside the picture is getting better, copying in which his writing was good and staying within the one line structure, name writing, reading comprehension and finished off with math addition. Once class was over he took his seven chemotherapy medications in which he takes on Thursday's and went to bed to get ready for his morning PT and OT class. Saturday and Sunday is rest day for Nicholas and one thing mommy does make him rest to save his energy and his body to start the week.  Nicholas walking home in snow after a day in physical/occupational therapy at Support By Design. February 16th: Since daddy hasn't been called to be a sub in the last couple weeks, Nicholas is getting up after the sun comes up in which has given mommy and daddy a extra hour of sleep. The extra hour also gives Nicholas a little more time in bed and he can get when the sun is already up like when daddy sub that he gets up and the sun is not up yet. Nicholas getting early also helps daddy to jump into job hunting mode in the morning. Today was a long day for Nicholas and it showed when the day was over. He started his day with phyiscal therapy at Support By Design with Diony and Diony gave hm a jugle style obstacle course in which Nicholas had to use every part of body to scratch and crwl through the course. The one Diony did that was great that he made Nicholas going through the course by himself and when he got to the balance beam he used a stick to Nicholas to hold to walk across. The one place Nicholas had fun was crawling throgh a tube in which sometimes Diony shaked a little and Nicholas had fun rolling around. Once he complete a alphabet puzzle, he knew he finished the obstacle course. After the course, Diony did some leg exercise to cool down and was ready to see Jen for occupational therapy. Jen did more of a occupational class in which she did motor skills exercise, balancing, coordination and building strength and endurance while walking around and doing different style skills. Nicholas has adapted great with his therapist and it has showed in his sessions as he is having fun but most important he is learning and listening to make himslef strong and back to 100%. Once class was over with Jen it was back home to get ready for Mr. Stephens. Wednesday is one day that Nicholas only has about a hour to get ready for class after getting home from therapy. By the time Nicholas finished watching Thomas & Friends class was about to start. Today Mr. Stephens didn't changed up the start of class with Nicholas and went with the name writing. He is teaching Nicholas that once you start school next fall the teacher is going to start class everyday different and not the way Nicholas wants. The name writing was good today in which the rst of the class the worked on continuing doing turn around facts numbers using blocks to get the answers, sight words in whichhe knew 93 of the 100 words, reading comprehension, number writing and wrote math number words, focusing on number correspondence and conversation. The one thing Mr. Stephens is happy about is that he is seening a consistent determination, focus and discipline in Nicholas during class that he is taking in everything that he is learning with the old and new stuff. After class he was tired and not sleepy, that he watched some television, took his chemotherapy medications and went to bed after reading a book with mommy.  Nicholas crawling and scratching in obstacle course during physical therapy at Support By Design. February 15th: Nicholas got in the morning driving his mommy up the wall and making several request for breakfast in which it finally came down to a bowl of cereal after he asked for pancakes, bacon, oatmeal, tamales in which he eats on Sunday's usually after mass and cereal in which he ate before a day of academics. After eating breakfast and getting ready for class in the morning with Ms. Goldie, Nicholas wanted to play, but instead mommy shut everything off so he could relax andconcentrate and get ready for class. Nicholas just sat back and relaxed. Today Ms. Goldie started out class with making a a good night chart in thing that Nicholas does at night before going to bed. He wrote first eat dinner, take medicina(chemotherapy medications) wash up, brush teeth and go to bed and then colored the pictures. Next they worked on there weekly reader in which was about practicing and having healthy teeth and a smile, read a Thomas & Friends Book in which they had questions and answers, went over the alphabet with a combo of the letters and a object, date, month, weather and having conversation. Once class was over with Ms. Goldie he ate lunch watch some television and got ready for class in the afternoon with Mr. Stephens. Mr. Stephens is putting in a lot of hard work into Nicholas and it is showing with the progress Nicholas has made from day one. The discipline, focus, concentration and determination that he has installed into Nicholas from a teacher point of view is very prositive and productive. Nicholas did a lot work today in a span of two hours. Thye did skip counting of 2,5,10, read couple books with questions and answers, recalling facts, filling number grid, counting up to 10, turn around facts 1+2=3 & 2+1=3, addition using blocks, reading comprehension, name writing which was solid, number writing which was good but the number 8 is giving some problems an a FNNY Fire safety book in which Nicholas did most of the introduction writing his information, house address and contact. The only thing missing was a fire helmet. Another productive class. After class was over, he played with his computer educational game, watched some soccer with daddy, took his chemotherapy medications and went to bed. The physical therapy is showing good vibes on Nicholas as he more of controlling his body, walking better, able to climb up stairs better and focus more on how is walking alone instead of holding hands with mommy, daddy or one of his therapist.  New York Red Bulls Defender Carlos Mendes with Modestin Family at TBHC Pediatric and Oncology Christmas Party 2010. February 14th: HAPPY VALENTINE'S DAY!!!! HAPPY VALENTINE'S DAY TO NICHOLAS' DOCTOR'S ONCOLOGIST, NURSES, PT THERAPIST, OT THERAPIST, TEACHERS, FAMILY, FRIENDS, CHEMO ANGELS, FOUNDATIONS AND EVERYBODY WHO HAS SUPPORTED NICHOLAS. THANK YOU. Nicholas was back to his busy schedule on this Valentine's Day. He has Aly for PT in which she worked him hard of increasing endurance and muscles around the waist and right before class was over thay played a game of bowling. Jen had him next for OT and Jen gets the best out of Nicholas during her session. For every activity she does with Nicholas along like other therapist, you could hear the excitement of Nicholas enjoy a combo of OT and PT. When class was over, Nicholas headed home to get ready for Mr. Stephens. Today class was only going to be for a hour since it was Valentine's Day and it would be nice to let the teacher go home early today. They did name writing, read a book on "Coming Round the Mountains" with questions and answers. The did there conversations part of class and finished off with Nicholas making a Valentine's Day card for mommy and daddy. Mommy and daddy were all happy to get a hand made card from Nicholas and the the chocolate shaped box was extra special. Before going to therapy, Nicholas gave mommy a card and then gave daddy a card. Once class was over in which Nicholas had a lot of energy he just wanted to play more with his computer game and trains before taking his chemotherapy medications and going to bed.  Nicholas taking a dosage of Vincristine Chemotherapy medication after waking up from a spinal tap from Nurse Nelly and mommy December 2010. February 12th & Febraury 13th: Saturday's it all about having fun and enjoying himself. Nicholas built his new lego train from Toy Story, build his tracks to bring all his Thomas & Friends trains, watched some televion and back to playing and building blocks and when it was all over he was tired. He took a break to eat and went right back to play until it was bedtime. Sunday was relaxing day. The family went to mass and Nicholas got a blessing from the priest as daddy asked the priest to look over Nicholas and guide him through his battle to conquer his leukemia. After mass daddy headed to his freelance job and mommy and Nicholas had the rest of the day resting and watching Toy Story I and II.  Nicholas and his friend Kevin with TBHC Peditric Oncology Unit (L-R) Dr. Sadanandan (Chief Oncologist), Nurse Nelly, Nurse Lynda (kneeling) and mommy and TBHC Christmas Party 2010. February 11th: Today was a long day for Nicholas starting out with PT/OT, class and a haircut. Diony had him first in the morning with PT and it was all about throwing and kicking. Diony knows Nicholas is a strong kids wthen he throws the ball with two hands and from his right and kicking from his right is strong, but today he wanted to get more power from the left side in which he noticed that sometimes Nicholas gets lazy of using the left and today he got the best out of Nicholas from his left side. Even though the left side is not as strong as the right side, with a everyday workout and working on endurance Nicholas will be strong on both sides. Next up he had Sapna in which she worked on self independent skills. Daddy and mommy are very happy with the productive workout Nicholas got from his Aly, Jen, Sapna and Diony this week after spending several days in the hospital and a week to recover to regain his strength. Once Mr. Stephens came it was all business and class time. Class started out with copying and working in the frame of one line, name writing, connecting dots from A-Z and coloring the picture to work on staying in boundaries, numbers and the difference of odd and even, puzzle connecting 1-20, constant blends, read couple books and conversation. After class it was off to the barber to get a haircut and one the cut was done it was back home to sleep.  Rudy Francis finishing The Walt Disney Half Marathon in honor for Nicholas battle to conquer his ALL Leukemia at Walt Disney World January 2011. Thank You Rudy. February 10th: Relaxing day for Nicholas during the day. No therapy, no class til the afternoon, so it was playtime and watching some television. Once Mr. Stephens came in, it was all business and class time. Math day today as they started out with finding the difference in which Mr. Stephens made Nicholas worked by himself finding the numbers of more or less, read a book and then made a minin book in which Nicholas did all the writing, coloring to work on boundaries, name writing and copying, sight words in which he knew 98/100, conversation and read a new book to finished off class. Once class was over he watched some television took his eight chemotherapy medications, read a spanish book with mommy and went to bed.  Nicholas posing in front of Christmas Tree on Christmas Day 2010. February 9th: Mommy was a little tired and daddy took a break from job hunting to take Nicholas to therapy today. Diony was all ready for Nicholas. During PT Diony set a obstacle of climbing up and stepping. He made up as a numbers, shapes and finishing a puzzle. You could her Nicholas' voice while enjoying himself working with Diony and you could see teh connection with his threapist in which he is determine to see Nicholas back 100% and walking strong. Once the session was over, Nicholas took a little break to get some water before starting class with Jen. Today Jen worked on building up the left side of his body in which she made Nicholas do everything with his left hand and foot. They also did motor skills and self thinking skills to make Nicholas think of the next move. Aly, Jen, Sapna and Diony are doing a solid job on Nicholas and you can see the discipline that they're teaching not only physically but mentally also. The taxi was running late and after waiting a 1/2 hour daddy decided to train home. Nicholas was all happy to take the train home and with a train a couple blocks away and not during rush hour, daddy and Nichoals had a fun ride home. All Nicholas could say when he got home was telling mommy that he took the C and G train to come home. One he got home he ate his lunch and got ready for Mr. Stephens who was coming in a 1/2 hour. Today's class was anothre productive day. They a dot picture using the alphabet and colored teh picture, writing numbers 6,7,8 & 9, name writing was good, copying date, month and weather, played a number grid game, skip counting of 2 & 5, sums of numbers and finished off class with conversation. When class was over Nicholas was tired and from the workout, the walk to the train and home and class he was mommy medicina and went to bed.  Nicholas playing with Thomas Tank Engine Shake Shake Bridge. Thank You Angel Betty. February 8th: Today will have no therapy and no class in the afternoon. The only class he had today was with Ms. Goldie in the morning. Goldie changed up class today and did a lot of hand skills with Nicholas. First up she practice with Nicholas on how to tie a shoelace off a madeup shoe which he had problems ate first, but a did a good job after several tries, work with play doe to loosen up his wrist and hand to make shapes, weekly reader on the meaning of Groundhog day and finished off reading a book and writing. When class was over and no class in the afternoon, Nicholas had to get ready to go get his AFO brace fitted to worked on getting his left foot straight again. Without the brace you could see his left ankle twisting in a little. Once teh family got to the brace place, Nicholas knew whate he was there for and also remembered that his daycare was right accross the street. One day when it gets warmer, Nicholas would like to visit the kids and teachers he spent time with for a year and couple months. After getting his legs adjusted into the AFO, he was ready to head out. When the family got home, daddy did a little job hunting before the family had school open house to see the kindergarten program for Nicholas next fall. The school is a Arts& Letters school in which only 50 kids will be accepted by lottery and all we can hope for is the best and Nicholas will be picked out.  Nicholas and Ms. Santa Claus at TBHC Pediatric Oncology Christmas Party 2010. February 7th: After spending a night watching the Super Bowl and eating birthday cake, Nicholas for once woke up after the sun came up and it gave mommy and daddy a extra hour of sleep. Once he got up he was ready to head to for his PT/OT class since he was out a week. First up was Aly with PT and she says Nicholas did not miss a beat from working out. Aly had him do a lot leg ups using bars, sticks a height in which he had to work by himself picking up the stick while climbing over a bar without help. Aly wanted to work on his balance and his coordination to see how he handles his body in case fell down. Nicholas fell down one time and jumped right back up. After the leg up, she had do a obstacle course in which he did a good job of doing it twice. Next up was Jen in which continues to put Nicholas through a tough session of OT with a mixture of PT in it. Jen worked on motor skills, leg coordination and self independent skills to see how much Nicholas candle hanle by himself. After the session you could see the sweat in Nicholas and he just wanted to drink some water and eat a cookie before jumping into the taxi and going home. When Nicholas got home he ate lunch and got ready for class. Mr. Stephens gave Nicholas a lot to do today during class. They started out with name writing in which he a good job with spacing his letters and making it clear, copying a sentence of the date, weather and month, did a 100 sight words, reading a book and identifying the words of ING like picking, cooking, cutting and having questions and answers, next up was letter writing of the letters V & X, domino addition in which they did setting up numbers, number writing, word of number and finished off the class coloring the right number of pizzas to teh answer to the math questions. Mr. Stephens was happy with the productive class today. After class he ate dinner took his chemotherapy medication and went to sleep.  Nicholas and Mommy with Santa Claus at TBHC Pediatric Oncology Christmas Party 2010.  Nicholas in front of Christmas Gifts. Nicholas' Chemo Angel Betty gave him 25 gifts for 25 Days Till Christmas. Thank You Angel Betty for making those 25 days Till Christmas that brought joy and happiness to Nicholas.
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