Quick Message

Hey Everyone. I hope all are doing well and fantastic. I got a strange email form Jen who is working with www.amw.com She said that many people are checking me out and not getting the vote properly done. I just wanted to put out there the "How to Do It" if you are so interested. First click on http://www.amw.com/allstar/2009/ then you will be able to search for "Botkin"under search all nominees. After my picture arrives you click the picture and it will then give you a bigger picture and the ability to vote. Click on the word vote, and you will be able to enter your email address and two words. When your finish that there is a area to check and then it says great, vote for Eric tomorrow, as you can only vote for me once a day. Anyway if this is something that interests you I just wanted to give you the easiest way to get it done. Again I don't know if I have enough to win as there are some horrific people but I just wanted to let those that wanted to know the way to get it done as easily as possible. Thanks to Everyone.

I'm Home!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Hey Everyone! Let me start with a big wheeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeew. It is so nice to be home again. I would like to give each and every person at the City of Hope a great feeling by being a series of unbelievable Doctors, Nurses, And Cleaners, but you reach that point when you ready to leave. No more medicine, no more checks to see if you are ok, and well that is when I decide I am ready to go home. We got home on Sunday and were just trying to be normal. Just trying to be relaxed and working to get my head back on track. It seems like a lot, but it is just trying to be normal. I'm sure it will take me a while to get back into doing stuff, but I have to tell you I am very happy to be home. I am going to the doctors on Monday to have the sutures removed and then am waiting until March 13 to start my new medicine. Instead of pills, I have been shifted to IV Chemo. So I will enjoy 3 - 4 hours as the medicines work to start in me. Hey and as the last thought, I am on the web site called http://www.amw.com/. I have to tell you that this was really funny as the girl called me on Monday and wanted to ask me about joining the competition. I told her that I didn't know anything but sure. She told me that 65 people had tried to get me on board to see if I might win. Well lots of paper is completed and I am now there. To make this easy, if you want to vote for me, you can go to http://www.amw.com/allstar/2009/ place my name Botkin into the search area and will be able to vote for me. I don't really feel that I am so great but I want to give all those the opportunity to vote for me that wants too. While winning would be sure unbelievable, I just wanted to share it with you. And lastly I wanted to thank all the people who sent me cards. It is almost overwhelming to get everyones signature so thank you very much. It was really nice to take several moments and be able to read what everyone wrote to me. Thanks again to my RFD friends.

Day 4

Sorry everyone for not putting something up last night. We had a busy day of visitors. First his family that lives in the area was here and then he had a whole room full of family from Arizona who came out to see him. Eric was resting and he had 11 people in the waiting room waiting to see him. It was quite the scene. Then last night Eric had some high school friends stop by (Neil(from Washington), Scott & Mark) and time slipped away. It was great to see Eric having a good time with his friends. Since I have been around since high school I also know these friends and it is so funny to see them pick up right where they left off 20 something years ago. Anyhow we are working hard this morning reminding everyone that we are going home today and trying to expedite the process. Unlike a hotel they don't try and get you out of here by 11:00am. So we will see what time we can escape! Obviously Eric is doing much better and is also ready to leave, they have unhooked the the IV but left the needle so they still have access. I am expecting Eric to remove it at anytime, once he feels better he is not a very good patient! So things are moving in the right direction and hopefully you will hear from us this evening from HOME!

Love & God bless,
Hallie

Day 3

Hey everyone, I'm still here!!! I just wanted to take quick minute and thank God for keeping me longer here on this plant. I still sit in the ICU location(only because there are no rooms in the wing I am supposed to be in) at the City of Hope (which just happens to be fantastic) and will probably by removed tomorrow. Hallie took a great picture of me and Hunter but no one gets to see it. Only because we left the cord at home! I should go home on Sunday if things continue to go as planned. I thank everyone for checking on me and praying for me. I look forward to getting back to something important. I don't know what that important thing is but I look forward to getting back to it (ha ha).

Day 2

Ok so today went pretty good....until Eric missed his lunch then things went bad and fast! 1st this morning they ordered Eric a liquid diet......well those of you know Eric know he loves his food and none of it is usually liquid. Once I squared away the food issues he was able to eat breakfast.....this was a good thing. Then it was time for lunch, I ordered lunch and just as it was coming they took him to the MRI. So no lunch then! Well when he got back he was in lots of pain and not hungry...then he got grumpy because of the lack of food. So his head hurt because of the MRI, the noise from the MRI and the lack of food....this was not good. Of course this put us all on edge because this is how things were going the last time. So we got him dinner and his mom said it was like watching the empty tank fill up. As soon as his belly was full everything fell in to place...Thank goodness! Well needless to say Eric had a rough time this afternoon but when I left him tonight he was doing 1000 times better. Hunter came by to see him and will see him in the morning this was good for both of the boys! Tomorrow Eric should get moved to a real room and begin the rest of his stay at the Super Fantastic City of Hope and Eric puts it!

God Bless,
Hallie

Day 1 Surgery # 5

Well thank goodness today is almost over what a long day!!!! Eric went into surgery at 12pm and the Dr. came out a few short....long hours later around 4:30pm. He said that he removed almost all of the tumor and did the best he could without compromising Eric. Unfortunately as we have stated before there is never a chance that all the cancer will be gone. So we pray for a speedy recovery and that the tumors will not make an appearance anytime soon. As for Eric's current condition he seems to be doing well, alert and responsive. He is still a little confused about names, dates and locations but that is to be expected. He is stable and progressing in the right direction. The Dr. said that we will probably get to stay at the hospital for the weekend....so a little vacation for us with room service. I will continue to keep everyone posted on his progress for the next several days.

Please pray for the following:

• Strength for our family
• speedy recovery
• positive results from the chemo
• that the tumors stay away
• that Eric will continue to be strong and have a positive attitude

Love and God Bless,

Hallie

Fun Times Again!!!

Well everyone more disappointing news, I need surgery again. It is pretty unbelievable to have an amazing dual surgery three months ago and then get another run now. I am fortunate that this removal is in the same place as it was before, but still it can be a little overwhelming. I was trying to really understand how all this was happening. You know how to I get roped with another removal of something growing in my head that is only three months after the last lesson. But then God made it so easily for me to see and understand my thing. My life can either be at a curb or a wall. A curb or wall you say, not understanding what the heck I'm talking about, but yes, a curb or a wall. Think about how you can get over a curb. You just take your foot and place it over the curb and your life keeps moving without anything to hold you back. But now a wall, oh sheesh. How can you get over a wall. You can try to keep jumping over, trying to slide yourself over the top, or just giving up and feeling horrible about not being able to get over the wall. But the real movement is up to you, you can have it any which way. It is all up to you. You have the ability to decide which way you are going to handle that unknown thing that is being planned in your lives. My next surgery is on Wed the 18th and I am believing that I have just another curb to pass so that I can be able to complete that thing for God.

Update! Another Challenge

Hello everyone,

I guess from the title you have already figured out that something is going on and we are about to face another challenge. Let me start with a review. Eric has been doing very well the last month or so even though he did not feel that great. I was sure that everything was fine with him and was not the least bit worried about the MRI on Friday (today). Well on Wednesday Eric had lunch with me and the girls from work and we noticed a few odd word issues but not too much to think about so we continued on with our day. I went to get my nails done after work and while there Hunter called with out Eric's knowledge to let me know that he needed help with homework and that daddy could not help because he was talking funny and not making any sense. So I left right away and got home and asked Eric what was going on and he said "what" and then started talking but was making no sense, mixing up words, saying random things etc. So I called The City of Hope and they said call 911. Eric kept saying no 911 I fine. He was not fine! So I called 911 he went to the ER and was transferred to the City of Hope around 10:30pm. He was admitted and given meds to help the swelling. On Thursday afternoon he had the MRI and the Dr. came by around 5pm to let us know that he had good news and bad news. Oh great!!! He said that Eric has another tumor and this was not good, it grew back so quick and this was a very big concern. Although the good news was that it was not touching any brain and he would be able to take it out without much issue. He said that because Eric was so young he would recommend surgery and removing the tumor. Eric did not hesitate to answer and said "yes let's do it than" . He feels that this Dr. is the best and is confident with his advice. So we meet the Dr. on Monday and find out when in the next two weeks Eric will be going in for his third tumor removal. What a big surprise to all of us.....I know I felt like someone hit me over the head with a hammer! Although I will have to say that Eric is handling this very well and continues to but his faith in God and knows that there is a reason for all of this to happen. Hunter and I are lucky to have such a strong person to help keep us grounded. Anyhow you ask what then......well after the surgery Eric will heal and start his next chemo which will be intravenous. It is called avastin and they will pair it with something called cpt-11. He should not have terrible side effects mostly just annoying stuff! He will have the chemo every other week until it stops working.

Well I guess that is it in a nut shell. I know that Eric wants to write something but I asked him if I could fill everyone in first. So look for something this weekend from Eric. Will will update about the surgery as soon as we know more.

Thanks for all your prayer,
Hallie

3 weeks of blaaaa

Hey everyone. First I want to apologize to everyone for not putting up any interesting info. I know that you are all checking to see something about me or some of things I'm thinking about, but my pills I am taking were just so much that I had just run down. You see in the old, pre-3rd or 4th surgeries I was taking my chemo pill for one week, getting back to normal for a week and then two awesome weeks of being Super Eric. After the surgeries I am taking the chemo pills for 3 weeks and then enjoying the one week of returning back to normal before I start for another exciting 3 weeks of pills. AHHHHHHH. It is really funny that you are in a position of your non- favorite pills and yet don't know whether doing or stopping is offering you any goodness. Oh well this Friday I am going to get a MRI and have a see at what is going on in my head. I hope that there is a whole lot of nothing going on so things will be really easy with the doctor. Well I guess that's it with me and all my issues. I will get back to everyone on Friday and let you know how the MRI came out. So please continue to pray for me and the family.