We honestly have the most amazing family and friends and we are so grateful for everything that everyone has done for us and continues to do.
This last sunday grandma and grandpa Hollberg organized a private easter egg hunt for koda, it turned out to be a blast. I cannot even express the joy that this brought to koda and from that the immense joy and happiness that it brought to me, it makes me want to cry even thinking about it. Watching him i could tell that he actually felt like a 'normal' kid again, he has been cooped up and only allowed to go in the car and to the hospital the last 2 months, so getting outside and having this whole day for him made him so happy!

He not only got his favorite treats, suckers and tootsie rolls (which when he found those he screamed out of excitement "STRENGTH", inside thing, and we all thought he was hurt from how loud he screamed), he also got a BIG RED WAGON!

The look on his face was priceless, he loves this thing and is constantly asking for his 'new wagon' to play with, he can't stop thinking about it!

He also loved swinging with his great grandpa!

And coming down the slides to be caught by his great grandma made him so happy!

On a side note we had home care come today to take a complete blood count to see if koda is able to start his next phase of chemo tomorrow, interm maintenance. His counts are: White blood cells: 3,200 Red blood cells: 36,900 and Platelets: 274,000 so he is good to go in tomorrow, it's a bittersweet thing, i do HATE HATE HATE going in but i would rather not be put back a week, i want to get this kid to maintenace asap so he can have a semi normal life again. I was grateful for the week off though, i could tell it made koda happy!

Thank you so so very much to the wonderful family that organized this special day for koda, i know that it made a huge difference in his life and in mine! We will forever remember it and be grateful!

Warning: This is a venting session from a pregnant emotional mom so if you aren't in the mood to hear it, don't read on.

Koda is part of a group called hope kids, it's an organization for kids with illnesses like koda has and all sorts of illnesses that are life threatening. Long story short they email me when they have new events coming up that we can sign koda up to go to with other kids, where he doesn't have to worry about germs, amazing, great organization. I can't wait for our activities we signed up for. On to the emotional part i got an e mail about this movie

and that we could choose to go to a screening of the movie a week before it opens, it warned that it might be too hard emotionally for most families to see. Yeah i could't even read the description of the movie without about breaking down, and the only reason i didn't was because i stopped myself. This is part of the description of the movie:

This movie is about a child with cancer and has a wonderfully inspiring message about how God can restore relationships and work through other people to touch our lives. This movie is based on a TRUE STORY and we have to tell you ahead of time that the 8 year old boy in the movie doesn't make it.

There was more to the description, it sounds like a VERY VERY good movie, i hope to one day be able to emotionally handle it. For those of you who are emotionally stable and would be interested in seeing this, i would love to hear about it. Please know that i am staying positive about koda conquering this and will always be, this movie doesn't change that, however it is still hard to hear. I also do feel very strongly that koda is going through this trial for a reason, to affect a specific person or a number of people, just for a reason in general, so the description of the movie really affected me and makes it feel so much more real. I know we don't know exactly why this is happening to our little boy, but to hear that other people believe that it happens for a reason also feels so good!

Happy st. patricks day! For starters i wanted to thank everyone for their love and concern for us, it is so great to hear and we for sure feel it too! It means so much to us that we have such wonderful, amazing people that surround us. We feel constantly blessed in every way despite what is going on, the Lord is truly looking out for us!


So onto todays clinic visit..... It went pretty smoothly, koda is still having a hard time when they get the needle out to access him (which is totally understandable with all that poor port has been through) his little lip was quivering and he had the most heartbreaking cry. After he was accessed though he forgot about the whole thing and moved on, which was great!


His counts for today are   Red blood cells:32,100 (up a little from last week, very good)   Platelets: 324,000 (up about 50,000 from last week, way to go dude!) and ANC (immunity): 1,100 (dropped 3,000 + from last week) The ANC dropping is pretty scary considering it's still yucky RSV season, but that shows that the chemo pills he takes every day are doing their job! We just need to sanitize, sanitize, sanitize and keep him in for the next 2 plus weeks until we see it go up again.
Today they also sedated him and did the spinal tap and chemo in his spinal fluid. He gets a break next week from going in (YES!!!) and then we have home care come out the last week of march to do a complete blood count and if his counts are ok then he will go in that week to start his next phase of treatment, they don't want to do chemo on him if he is low on platelets and red blood cells because the chemo attacks ANY rapidly growing cell and will just make him even lower, if the counts are low, they will let him go another week off chemo to try to get his counts up again, he will have different chemo and may or may not be taking meds at home, will also keep getting bone marrow samples and spinal taps. I'm not sure exactly what will happen in this next phase, we will find out when we go in again.

I just wanted to teach our readers out there who don't know how to leave messages on a blog how to do it. I hope the way i explain it makes sense, i just had to figure it out and am putting it in my own words so good luck!


At the bottom of the post it will say that it was posted by sam and ali woodall at such and such time and next to that it will say (x number) comments, click on comments and it will pull up a text box so you can type your message in there and then beneath the text box it will say 'comment as' and that will have a drop down bar next to it and you can just select 'name/URL' and type in your name then press the post comment button below that. You may have to mess with it because i'm sure i'm not very good at explaining it! I just wanted to help you all learn how to do it because hearing from everyone means so much to us!

Welcome to koda's new website! Thank you all for bearing with us during this switch over. I like using a blog more because you can put up so many more pictures.

This is koda in his new shirt, the ones we made for supporting him, he is so excited every time he wears it or sees somebody wearing it, he will say "koda shirt". By the way we do have everyone's shirts that ordered them we are in the process of organizing and delivering. Koda is continuing to do very well this week, we go in this wednesday so come back for an update!