This is Nanni and Papa Hammack filling you in and updating.  Aidan has been entertaining us daily with his wit beyond his years.  He says and does the funniest things.  We recently had a “You’re A...” contest and he slammed dunked his Great-Aunt Min with a grand comeback and she declared him the winner, but she required a rematch next time she was in town.

We have had a lot of family recently in town due to a death and they have all enjoyed the chance to banter with the champ and give a few snuggles along the way too.

Aidan and Sage meet up with some of their cousins to go treat or treating from their Great Grandma and Papa Wallace’s house.  My parents really enjoyed the activity and youth, after dealing with the loss one of their sons.  It added sunshine to them to see seven little costumed grand and great grand children running and giggling throughout the house, high from all the sugar [winking].

Aidan was a very active ninja all dressed in black with his (plastic) num-chucks.  Aidan does not regulate his temperature well since the radiation and get cold easily but he did quite well given the temperature was about 29 degrees.  After about 45 minutes, he came wandering back on his Papa Hammack’s shoulders to be warmed up with his bag loaded with candy.

Aidan is back in preschool and loving every minute, he is there, although he had caught two colds back-to-back from being around so many children.  With the exception of a couple of colds, which has made some very subtle symptoms, appear Aidan has been doing extraordinarily well.

Aidan last visited Children's Hospital on Friday the 27th.  The results of his examinations were very very encouraging and provided a tremendous amount of relief to us his family.  All his testing again showed normal results, with no indications at all that any problems were present.  The Nurse Practitioner that has been instrumental in Aidan's care had nothing but positive words to describe his condition.  She said that if you plotted all Brainstem Glioma patients on a chart, putting those that had the poorest responses on the right, and those with the best responses to the left, Aidan would be as far left as anybody has ever seen.  She said flatly that Aidan has done better then any patient Seattle Children's Hospital has ever treated with Brainstem Glioma.  You can only imagine how uplifting this news was for all of us that care for him so deeply.

Aidan has an MRI scheduled for Nov 9; this is the second change of date for this test.  We will again load up the vehicles and make the trek to Seattle to be there with him.  We are hoping and praying that the results of this latest MRI will confirm the miracle we believe is taking place.  Aidan's last MRI was about two months ago and at that time, his tumor remained approximately 60% smaller then it was at his baseline MRI.  We believe that this upcoming MRI may finally come into line with all the other testing, and finally show either a further reduction in the tumors size or the total absence of tumor.  Please keep him and his family in your prayers for that date.

The story of Aidan and our community’s support is an awesome story, and nobody tells it better then Aidan's Momma, Tanya.  The story as she tells it is so compelling and uplifting, that the simple fact that she has stood before two audiences and told it, has helped to raise over ¼ million dollars in the last month alone.  Neither Aidan nor his family benefited from the proceeds in anyway, other then to know that they are already "paying it forward".  Some child, somewhere, at sometime will be able to utilize the wonderful services of the Ronald McDonald House or Children's Hospital and it will be because of Aidan and his Family.

Based on the above, you can imagine how well our spirits are now doing.  We are positive that we are witnessing something so very special, and in a very strange way, we feel blessed by this whole ordeal.  We have seen the love, the care, and the generosity of our community on a continuing basis, and that alone trumps any bad news.

Please pray for those fighting this ugly monster and especially for Katya Polishchuk, Matthew McGowan, Makenzie Tank, Colby Steigerwald, and Leslie Schmidt.