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Sunday, 1st September 2002 |
 
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Welcome to my News and Letters Section From My Trip To New York |
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Letters From Stanley |
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Dear Friends, Hello from the Sclavos Family in New York. Stanley is post-transplant day 118. We had great news today from Stanley’s Specialist Dr Nancy Kernan that Stanley's leukaemia is all gone with tests coming back negative. Stanley’s blood counts are good and his t–cells are slowly coming back. Like all children who have had leukaemia and then a bone marrow transplant Stanley remains at risk for two years. What the results do mean is that we can plan to return to Australia in mid-September. Kos will be running for Pharmacy Guild President in Queensland. We thank everyone most sincerely for their spiritual, emotional and financial support. Stanley would like to update you of what he had been up to since his email of 12th June. Love from all of us. Kos Effie Stanley & Nina Hello Everyone, Thank you for reading my email and watching my web site. I have been very busy. I had my 10th birthday last month. We had a live web cast of me cutting the cake and about 200 people were on line at that time. I have had many visitors in the apartment from Australia and even new friends from New Orleans, Boston, and New York. Everyone bought me and Nina presents. We are very lucky. Please look at all the pictures on my web site. www.sclavosnet.com One of the most exciting things to happen is that my cousin Stanley from Australia, Nina and I went to the WWE Wrestling at Madison Square Gardens. WWE set up a meeting for me to meet Hulk Hogan. It was so cool. They then helped Nina and I to meet wrestler Brock Lesnar in New Jersey at a live Raw Wrestling television show. Our family went to Greenport, Long Island (most Americans call it Greekport). Father Gerasimos invited me to go and have Holy Communion there. That place is so different to Manhattan. We had fun. The 4th July fireworks were great from our Apartment. Another cool thing to happen was that I was featured in the International Microsoft Conference in New Orleans. It showed how I keep in touch with my school in Australia John Paul College. Today is Nina’s last day of ballet Summer Camp at Steps on Broadway. She loved it. Thank you to everyone who prayed for me and I pray every day that everything will be OK. Love Stanley |
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Dear Friends, Hello from New York. It has been a while since I wrote so I thought I would take a little of your time and tell you how I am going. Thanks for your prayers for me and your emails. Today is transplant day 74 and a big target is day 100. I was a sick about 2 weeks ago, I had an infection, but I am feeling a little better. I hope to be fine for my birthday on 22nd June. I will be 10. Even my hair is growing back slowly. I will have a bone marrow test at the end of June to see how I am going. I hope to have t-cells by then. T-cells are important because they fight viral infections. I still go to the hospital about twice a week. I still have to take lots of tablets and I am not allowed in crowds. I have had some visitors which has been fun. My Grandmother Chrissy and Aunt Debbie are coming to visit. I am excited because my cousin Stanley is coming to visit. He is coming with his mum, Kay. I hope to go to the wrestling with Stanley at the end of June. Nina finishes her school year at the Cathedral School this Friday. The kids here then have summer break. They return to school in late August. The weather is getting a little hotter each day. There is still a lot in the news here about bombs going off in New York and last weekend the subway was closed because they thought there was going to be a bomb. That gets me scared sometimes. I know Spider Man has only just come out in Australia. The movie is set around New York and Spider Man moves from skyscraper to skyscraper in Manhattan. The final battle scene involves our friendly neighborhood Spider Man and a cable car of school kids across a river. That cable car is about 200m from our apartment. How cool. I had 2800 visitors to my web site in May which was fantastic. Please have a look at the latest pictures on www.sclavosnet.com. We try new things on the web site all the time. I hope you like it. Dad, Mum and Nina say hello. I pray every day that everything will be OK. God Bless Everyone Love Stanley |
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Dear Friends, Hello from a very wet and windy New York . I am writing to give you an update on how I am going. It has been nearly two months since I left Brisbane. I am out of hospital now and having treatment as an outpatient. I go for treatment two days a week in the hospital and stay in the apartment the rest of the time. My blood counts are good but I am still getting the GCSF injection each time I go to the hospital. GCSF boosts the growth of the blood cells. Because I am feeling a little better I started to do some contract work for school. When I finish the work I send it via email to Ms Pearce in Australia. I am having many people email me and I am making lots of new emails friends in America. Dad and I have updated my web site. We are now using FrontPage 2002 to make the web site, so all the people with America On-Line (AOL) who could not see the pictures, can now see them. My doctors and nurses could not see the photos they were in. I have also moved address and taken over Dad’s address. The new address is www.sclavosnet.com In April I had 1500 visitors to my site. There were lots from Australia and America but also from Japan, Austria, Germany, Greece, Korea, Sweden and even China. How very cool! People from leukaemia support groups have been giving out my web site address. I hope I will be allowed to see the new Star Wars movie when it comes out here on 16th May. I have to ask the doctors if I can go if I wear a mask and go at a time when the movie theatre is not busy. Mum and Dad bought me the new Star Wars Lego which came out on Monday. Spider Man starts in the movies here on Friday. It looks cool. The WWF is coming to New York on 29th June 2002 so I have set a goal that I eat and drink well so I can go with dad. They will be at the famous Madison Square Gardens. Nina will start to go to school here in two weeks after the holidays. There are 9 kids in her class. Thanks again for your prayers and good wishes. Mum and Day say hello as well Se ya later. God bless everyone. Stanley |
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Dear Friends, After you were kind enough to send me a good luck and best wishes message I thought I would write to you and tell you how I am going. It is Sunday here in New York and I am in the hospital at Memorial Sloan Kettering. Nina had her bone marrow harvest operation on Thursday. She was very brave but has been sore over the last couple of days. She is walking OK today. I received Nina’s marrow early on Good Friday. I finished all my chemo and radiation the previous 10 days. My mouth and throat are sore because I have ulcers from the chemo. I have not had food or drinks for a week because of the nausea and my sore throat. I will have to start to get food by the drip later today. I have had other medicines by my drip every day. I now have to wait now about 14 to 21 days for Nina's marrow to start growing inside me. Because of that I have to be very careful not to get any infection. My web site has been updated with some new photos. I have been trying to keep up with all the news at home and I am happy the Broncos and the Lions won. I watched my school assembly live via web cam last Wednesday night and that was very cool. John Paul College raised $15000 for my treatment. Thanks John Paul College. I will write to you again soon. I would again like to thank you for thinking of me. God Bless Stanley |
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Dear Friends, I am writing to tell you how I am going. It is Sunday night here at Memorial Sloan Kettering Hospital in New York. My room has an internet connection so I able to get on the web and send emails. On Monday I came to the hospital. I had an anaesthetic and they put in a new central line for me to get my medications. On Tuesday through to Friday night I had 11 sessions of radiation. It is hard because I had to stay very still and I felt really sick and weak after a couple of times. On Saturday I started to get my strong chemo. I can’t eat because the chemo makes me sick. I will have chemo for a few more days then I get Wednesday off. On Thursday I get Nina’s marrow. I miss Nina because she is not able to visit me. Children under 12 are not allowed to come to the ward unless they are patients. It is really cold outside and two nights ago it was -4degrees. The Doctors and Nurses here are really nice to me and ask lots of questions about Australia. I am the first Australian bone marrow transplant patient they have had. I have put some photos of my Doctors and Nurses on my web site. The Child Life Therapists here play lots of games with me. They have many activities and a huge video library. Thanks to everyone for helping me. Yesterday my friends sent a copy of the Trade Tools advertisement in the Sunday Mail which said Mr Ford’s company will help raise some money for me. Rachel Ford is his daughter and she is in my year 5 at John Paul College. I want to thank my school John Paul College because my teachers and schoolmates have kept in touch with me. The school has also put a web cam with my class, Nina’s class and the library. You have to have a password for that page. JPC are also fundraising for me and on this Thursday 8 teachers and 2 students will have their heads shaven on assembly. I can watch it LIVE from my hospital room because the Headmaster Mr. Paul has arranged for the assembly to be web-streamed. That will be really cool. Mum stays with me in the hospital each night. My parents have found an apartment and it takes about 5 minutes to walk here. Please look at the new pictures on my web site I’ll say goodbye now. The Academy awards are on here tonight and I have a bet with the nurses that two Australians will win Oscars. Se ya. Stanley Sclavos |
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Hello from New York- 14th March 2002 Many thanks firstly for all the good wishes and support I have received. I have kept your cards, letters and copies of emails in a book I keep with me and I read it when I want to think of home. Thanks to Mr Steven and Mrs Anna Vergotis and Mr Greg and Mrs Kay Sclavos for organizing a fundraising dinner to help pay for my medical costs. I know many other people are fundraising for me including my school John Paul College. I miss my school and my school friends very much. I am telling everyone at the hospital in New York about all the things we do at JPC. In New York they call ‘cool’ things ‘sweet’ and they say the school sounds ‘sweet’. The staff at the hospital on the night shift will be looking at the live web link of staff and students shaving their heads and beards for me. Thanks to my Headmaster Mr Stephen Paul, staff and students for their support for the fundraising day on 28th March. I was very happy to get an email from Mr Paul yesterday. The school keeps me updated from their web site. The Pharmacy Guild of Australia where dad works are also helping to raise money for me. Thanks to all the pharmacists in Australia. I especially want to thank Mr Greg and Sonia Lasrado from Insane Media who brought $100,000 worth of memorabilia on the fundraising night. Greg and Sonia have helped me even more since then. Greg put us in touch with a nice Family in New York who have helped us. Thanks to Yishai & Shanee Habari. Greg came to say goodbye at the airport and gave me a toy and they will be coming to New York to visit me.
Many other people helped with the fundraiser and I thank them. Please see my photos from the fundraiser that my dad has put on my web site. My family and I arrived safely in New York. We are now staying at a medical tower apartment very close to the hospital. I am having a week of tests at the hospital and I am booked for the start of the bone marrow transplant procedure on Monday 18th March. That is when the chemotherapy and radiation begins. Nina will have an anesthetic on 28th March and I will get her bone marrow late on the 28th March or 29th March. On Saturday I went to the Empire State Building. It was a fantastic view but very windy. They had a lot of security at the building which made us take 2 hours to reach the top. I nearly lost my scarf with the high winds. We went to Times Square again as I wanted to visit the Toys ‘R Us store which has a giant ferris wheel inside the store. There were thousands of people there. The weather is quite cold and because I do not want to catch an infection before my transplant I will not be going out before Monday. I will be having treatment for the next few weeks and I will do my best to have my site updated. I will try and write again soon. That’s all for now. God bless everyone. Love Stanley Sclavos
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