TeamLuc

Happy Birthday Luc!

2012-11-22T09:54:00.003-08:00

Happy 16th Birthday Luc!!! And Congratulations on all your hard work achieving straight "A's" this term!!

Luc Graduates Grade 9!

2011-06-02T13:05:00.000-07:00

Luc arriving at his Grade 9 leaving dinner & dance at Olympic View Golf & Country Club last night. He had a blast with all the friends and teachers that he has/hasn't seen in almost 7 months.

Congratulations Luc! You accomplished another goal of finishing with your class!

Weekly Luc Update - Day 184 - 31 May 2011

2011-06-02T12:51:00.000-07:00

Luc has been doing fairly well over the last week, periodic headaches and nausea. Over all, even with low energy levels he has managed to function very well, he squeezed in as much schooling as teaching time allowed last week. By Thursday afternoon he was feeling well enough to go to Vancouver on Friday for Tristan's Fastball tournament in Richmond. I had originally been preparing for Noah and I to stay home with him in case he wasn't well enough, so this revelation was great news for Tristan and Dana that we would be there as a family. That same Thursday night as I was about to send out an email, Captain Michel Chaisson from Air Canada emailed enquiring how Luc was doing. I emailed him back and long and short of it, he flew back from Shanghai on Friday and had us at Air Canada's Vancouver Airport Flight Simulator on the Saturday Afternoon.

Luc, Noah and myself met Michel, we got the tour of the center and then all three of us got the opportunity to do two take offs, one auto-pilot landing and one manual landing each in the Boeing 767 Full motion Flight Simulator that Air Canada Pilots use. As a bonus, we were also able to get in the Airbus A 330 Simulator as well, the entire experience was the most amazing experience for all three of us. A huge Thank you to Capt. Chaisson, Air Canada and Ronald McDonald House (who thought so highly of us to pass this experience onto us) all of you made such a lasting memory for us.

We still managed to see two of Tristan's games and Dana was at all four, it was a fantastic weekend for all five of us until Sunday morning when Noah woke sick. Upon arrival back in Victoria Dana took Noah to the clinic and he has been isolated to his bedroom since awaiting test results to come back. We received Luc's full 64 day treatment schedule today that starts on the 8th, definitely an interesting two months coming up, should be interesting to say the least.

Anyway, thanks to all of you for continuing to follow along on Luc's journey and all of the prayers and support, we truly appreciate everything.

ED AND TEAM LUC

May 24th, 2011 - Weekly Luc Update

2011-05-28T22:58:00.000-07:00

Last Wednesday Luc received his last doses of Methaltrexate and Vincristine for the Re-Intensification protocol in his treatment, he now has a two week break from injectable chemotherapy. He still has his oral drugs to take, but without the injections he will hopefully be able to build his system up enough for the Intensified round that starts on the 8th of June. Luc has had very little energy since last Wednesday, we went camping as a family at Rondalyn for the Victoria Day long weekend. Luc rarely left our site due to low energy, found himself nauseated a few times and a number of headaches.However even with all that he really enjoyed sitting around the camp fire and visiting with friends, family and many others that stopped by our site over the weekend.

Upon arriving back home this afternoon, Luc had a fairly significant bout of Left nostril epistaxis (nose bleed), fortunately with ice, positioning and pressure it only lasted ten minutes. He has remained very low key since and has chosen to just stay relaxed in his room since. This week Luc has a fair bit of schooling lined up in hopes of finishing his required grade nine courses before the end of June, knowing what is coming in June treatment wise he is really anxious to get as much done before the 8th as he can.
ED AND TEAM LUC

2011-05-20T15:52:00.000-07:00

Let's go back in time once again, all the way back to the night of Day 163 (last Monday). Luc had a really rough night at RMHBC, by Tuesday morning he was slightly better, we were informed that Luc's re-intensification has helped and Luc will finish this protocol on Wednesday of this week. I will get to the next round further along in this email. Tuesday afternoon they caught the ferry back to Victoria, Luc survived the trip and pretty much paid for it the next 48 hours after that and has been up and down everyday since. Luc had hoped to make it to the Dunsmuir Carnival last Thursday night but was incredibly sick that night, so I stayed home with him while Dana, Tristan and Noah went and represented the family. Tristan and Curtis performed a few musical numbers for the crowd, Dana cut Bill ( Luc's former bus driver ) and Josh Yate's hair which was a fund raiser for our family. Thank you Josh and Bill and everyone else, we truly appreciate everything everyone have been doing. So after this Wednesday's next increased dosages of Methaltrexate and Vincristine, Luc will have two weeks to build his counts and reserves back up. He will start a 64 day Intensified protocol starting on Wednesday June 8th, this will incorporate all of the chemotherapy drugs that he has had so far plus three additional ones. All of these drugs will have weekly increases in dosages, some are oral and most are I.V. administered. The majority of these drug increases are count dependant, which will mean that we could have multiple delays in this 64 day protocol which should end on August 10th, if delayed it could potentially go into September. It all depends on how Luc's body handles all of this coming round. I had my Superintendent over for coffee last week and discussed my return to work in order to get my pay cheques back to some what normal. Grant is willing to let me shuffle some holiday times around in order to be home at points during this next 2 1/2 months as well as let me return to work on June 7th, which is the day Luc and Dana ( possibly Noah as well ) will return to RMHBC for the start on the 8th at BCCH. I will be emailing once more this week a very special "Cops for Cancer" link, Cst. Rod Fraser, Westshore RCMP ( close family friend) is on this years "Tour de Rock" team and is riding on behalf of Luc. We are all very proud of Rod making the Team and very honored that he is riding on behalf of Luc and all Children battling Cancer.

For Rod's personal Cops for Cancer Tour de Rock fundraising page please click here

ED AND TEAM LUC

2011-05-16T13:05:00.000-07:00

Let's take this back to day 157 last Tuesday, Luc woke fairly nauseated, didn't want to get out of bed but had the teacher arriving at 0900. Luc put in a full day of home school and then at 1500 basically called it a day. On Wednesday he was back into VGH for more Erwinia in the morning and then more home school in the afternoon. On Thursday he woke really nauseated and not wanting any school, however reverted back to the attitude that has kept him going all through this, "Let's get er done" " I want to finish grade nine". By Friday he was pretty much spent, the Dx. gave him extra antinauseants prior to his Erwinia and by the time we got out of VGH at 1240hrs. Luc was actually a little hungry and accompanied Dana and I to Original Joe's, as we had arranged to take my mother out for an early Mother's Day lunch at 1300 that afternoon. Luc didn't eat a lot but did manage to stay fairly good until about 2000hrs. that night and was up and down from that point on through the weekend.

Luc and Dana returned to Ronald McDonald house on Sunday afternoon, by early this morning Luc's nausea finally took the best of him and was vomiting a fair bit. This continued through until they got into BCCH for Luc's tests and treatments this morning, they had to give Luc i.v. antinauseants in order to control things prior to the Lumbar puncture. This delayed things a bit this morning, LP was done around 1100hrs, sample sent to lab, Methaltrexate given through the LP. Luc then rested flat out for one hour and due to delays his Echocardiogram was bumped back so they gave the rest of the iv Chemo drugs through his VAD and he finally had the ECHO around 1500hrs. Luc is back at RMHBC now and hopefully getting some much needed rest. Dana too can use a little rest tonight, it sounds like it has been a very long day for them. Hopefully they will be able to return home to Victoria some time tomorrow and then continue here with treatments on Wednesday.

A special thanks to CRD Bylaw Enforcement, CUPE LOCAL 1978 for your much needed and appreciated support.

ED AND TEAM LUC

McHappy Day! May 11th, 2011

2011-05-16T13:00:00.000-07:00

Luc volunteering for McHappy Day at McDonalds benefiting Ronald McDonald House BC

Special thanks to Paul Lemieux, Thunder Power RC Racing Team

2011-05-16T12:55:00.000-07:00

Special thanks to Paul Lemieux, of the Thunder Power RC Racing Team, who sent Luc his National Champion Roar 2011 Trophy as well as the Chassis of one his winning cars and a load of other really cool racing gear for Luc!

Weekly Luc Update

2011-05-02T15:52:00.000-07:00

Here is the first of the weeklies on Luc. Since last Monday, Luc went into VGH on Wednesday April 27th, his counts were good enough to go with the next increase in Methaltrexate and Vincristine. Luc was doing fine over the following 24 hours, but by Thursday night was starting to feel the effects of the Chemo. On Friday I took Luc back into Vgh for his Erwinia double shot, which was also increased in dosage, he went through that just fine. By Friday night the combined medication increases were really taking the energy out of him and increasing his nausea.

On Saturday it was all I could do to get him out of the house in order to go to the ball park. Luc wasn't excited about needing fresh air on Saturday, however when they called out his name for an award, he was very surprised. Langford Fastball presented him with the 2010 Junior Volunteer of the year award at the 2011 Opening Ceremonies for his Volunteer help last year. Thank you to everyone at LFB for honoring Luc. I was only able to get Luc out for a couple hours and then he was back down in the house for pretty much the duration of the weekend.

This morning we were back in for more Erwinia, Luc's counts are way down. We had an hour and a half wait before treatment today, Dr. Eva made good use of that time to tell us about the need for fund raising for the Pediatric Oncology Department at Victoria General Hospital. She is in the process of trying to raise $50 Thousand dollars in order to obtain and equip a room across the hall on the 3rd floor for an isolation room for Pediatric Cancer Patients that require a higher level of isolation than what can be currently offered at VGH. Luc falls into this category on a routine basis.

VIHA, who oversee the finances for VGH do not seem to put any of the Pediatric Departments very high on funding and local media seem to put BC Children's Hospital more in the forefront for fundraising than the Island Pediatric Facility that could do more for Island Children and their families if only properly funded. Anyone with connections to media, corporations or Provincial and Federal Governments, any assistance in helping out the Pediatric Oncology Department at Victoria General Hospital will be greatly appreciated by all Island families with Children that could be getting treatments here on the Island as opposed to travelling to Vancouver.

ED AND TEAM LUC

Luc receiving the "Volunteer of the Year" award for 2010 at Centennial Park!

2011-05-01T22:52:00.000-07:00

Luc wasn't excited about needing fresh air on Saturday, however when they called out his name for an award, he was very surprised. Langford Fastball presented him with the 2010 Junior Volunteer of the year award at the 2011 Opening Ceremonies for his Volunteer help last year. Thank you to everyone at LFB for honoring Luc. I was only able to get Luc out for a couple hours and then he was back down in the house for pretty much the duration of the weekend.

Stay tuned for exciting news from TeamLuc!

2011-04-30T12:58:00.000-07:00

We have a very special surprise for Luc, keep coming back to the blog for some big news to be announced in the coming weeks.

Luc's Story on 'A' News

2011-03-04T15:37:00.000-08:00

Luc at the Canucks Game!

2011-03-02T16:55:00.000-08:00

Pictures of Luc at last nights Canucks Game in Luongo's private box. He and (15) other teens from Oncology were treated to the night out with two RN's and two child life escorts. It's nice to see pictures of him like this last night, with chemo starting back today, he won't be looking this happy over the next (28) days.

Fundraising at David Cameron Elementary

2011-02-23T13:41:00.000-08:00

Luc's wonderful friend Noah shaving his head in January 2011 to help raise money for Luc and his family. Noah helped raise over $2300.00, way to go!

Luc's dad Ed was the lucky barber who got to shave Noah's long locks.
For the full story, click here

Luc at Vancouver Children's Hospital

2011-02-23T13:37:00.000-08:00

Luc receiving a double shot of Erwenia on February 11, 2011

MEDIA

2011-02-22T14:31:00.000-08:00

By Ron Rauch, Times Colonist December 4, 2010
"De Jong rink doin' it for Lucas"
'Cancer strikes young curler just weeks before Coastal playdowns'

"About three weeks ago, Luc just wasn't feeling right,'' said Marc Lucas, Luc's grandfather. "He was very listless and not eating which is very unusual for him. He can sometimes sit down and eat an entire pizza by himself.

"The doctors did many tests and they thought it was a virus. They sent him over to Vancouver and he was in isolation for two weeks before they found the cancer. They still don't know what type it is but Luc is a fighter. We are prepared the worst, but hope for the best.''

"Since he has been in the hospital, all he talks about is his team kicking butt at these playdowns,'' said Brenda Lucas, his grandmother. "He also talks about coming back and playing with the team again. The guys on the team are friends all year, not just during the curling season. Luc is a fighter and I'm sure he will rebound.''
This was Luc's fourth year of curling and it would have been his first time to the junior playdowns.

Read the full story here