Week 9 & Week 10

Wednesday, November 19, 2003 11:38 AM CST

Week nine is done and gone. At least the treatment part of it is. Hard to believe that if all goes well, next week, week ten, is the last week of the induction stage of chemo. Then we will have two weeks off, and do the MRI during the week of 12/8.

Shaylee did really well again yesterday. I am so impressed with her. She is so brave and such a good spirited kiddo! The nurse who does the weigh and measure just adores her - ok, ALL the nurses do - of course! She always tells Shaylee how sweet she is and how cute she is etc. Yesterday she told us Nurse Rea had already picked Shaylee, she saw her name and immediately put Shaylee on her chart. *GRIN* Not too bad when the nurses "fight" over who does get to treat your kid!! Not a good thing when they fight over who DOESN'T treat them, huh?

(Shaylee adored Nurse Kathy, the gal that did the check ins. Each week she went through chemo, Shaylee wore a temporary tattoo, so each week she'd step back for weigh/measure and Kathy would look for, or at the tattoos. It was part of their routine. Same with whichever nurse was Shaylee's primary for the day. It got to be some of the nurses would stop by her exam room or her bed in the infusion room just to see what type of tattoo she had on. The nurses loved Shaylee because she always had smiles for them, she always was happy to see them. In that line of work, I can imagine sometimes the small children HAPPY to see you is few and far between)

We also got to talk to a nursing student yesterday. She was doing a question/answer type of thing on support and how well informed we felt about Shaylee's condition/treatment. Not sure how much we actually were able to help, but it was interesting. I told her we were really blessed with having such a wonderful supportive group of people, both here in 'real life', and online. I know we're blessed!

Shaylee does have a nasty cough, so PLEASE pray that it just stays a cough and doesn't settle in her chest. Dr T listened to her lungs yesterday and said all sounds ok now, to keep an eye on her. Lord willing it will remain ONLY a cough/cold. We did get the "OK" to treat the cough w/ cough syrup. At this point in the game I'm not giving her anything that doesn't have the official "OK".

(I remember this cough. It was the first one she'd really had since starting the chemo. It wasn't just a little "tickle" cough. It was, as I said .. .. a nasty cough. I can remember being so anxious about it...Was it serious? Should we be worried etc. )

Thanks again for all your support, prayers, thoughts and notes! You folks are all the BESTEST of the best!

~*~*~~*~*~

Tuesday, November 25, 2003 9:38 PM CST

We made it!! Week 10 is done and gone!! YIPPY! ~Happy dance~

Shaylee did so good today! In fact, we decided she's done so good lately she deserves another "Lion" for her necklace that we're making. Now mommy just has to get it caught up! She only had a few tears (very very few!) during the access of her port, and then she was GREAT! I'm telling you, this girl is my HERO! Her counts were down a bit, but that's because of this silly cough that is holding on.

(Hitting that ten week mark was so scary. The weekly trips were done yes, but now we were officially into the maintance stage......The meat of the treatments. But Shaylee, being Shaylee rode it like a champion. By this point, we were learning to read Shaylee so we'd know how her counts would be. When she was fussy, tearful, tired, bruising easily we knew the counts would be down. This week I remember her blood counts WERE down...Not enough to delay things but enough to keep an eye on - again related to that cough. They'd listened to her chest again but said it sounded OK. )

Next week we have NO, read it, NONE-ZIP-ZILCH-NADA-ZERO, medical appointments on the schedule for Shaylee!! NONE!! Wahooooooo......The only thing the week after that is her MRI, which we have to be there at 6am for a 8am appointment. UGH. The paperwork is in for her sedation for that, so should be fairly easy on her. HOPE! Then the week of December 16 we are on the maintance schedule - four weeks on, two weeks off.

(We were both looking forward to, and dreading the two weeks off. Looking forward to the freedom that came with it, but dreading it because, well, you become dependent almost on those appointments. They are routine. You KNOW you'll see th doctors and they'll keep a close eye on your child, so if anything is wrong they'll catch it. Plus we were coming up on what I remember as one of the first MRI's with sedation. The thought of actually having anesthesiology put her to sleep was a bit of a nerve wrecker! Part of that was not knowing what to expect and part of it is simply being a parent whose child has to have yet another medical procedure. )

I do want to thank each and everyone of you for your thoughts, prayers, cards, notes, gifts, support. I'm not sure we would have made it thru with this shred of sanity we have left without you!! THANK YOU. Please know that you are ALL on my list of things I'm thankful for this year!

Have a wonderful Thanksgiving!!

~*~*~~*~*~

Next posting - the two weeks OFF chemo!