Back on....

I'm back, and going to try and be a bit better about posting and going back to visit the time when Shaylee was going through chemo. I figured it was time to get back to it, after all she's due for another MRI next week, and she's been OFF chemo over two years now! That's AMAZING to me really!

When I last posted, I posted about when Shaylee had been so sick. She'd had pneumonia, and was on breathing treatments etc. Thankfully they didn't make us stay at the hospital, but I know if they had we would have been very well taken care of. In fact, that's kind of related to why I'm back here now....posting again. The Jr high is launching a fund raiser this week, where they want to raise money for the hospital Shaylee received her treatment from. She and I are going to go to the assembly and participate. We are going to share about some of the things that make it such a great hospital. so here I am......back.

So Shaylee was begining her maintance portion of her chemo - four weeks on, two weeks off. We'd go up, get checked in, weighed and meausred, all those good things, get our room or area, do a blood draw, start the IV, wait for counts, order the chemo, hook it up, hang out for the drip, wait for it to finish, flush the port, take off the tagaderm (NVER EVER fun, the only thing I EVER heard Shay complain about in the whole 60+ weeks) deaccess the port, bandaid, grab a toy from the toy box, wave good bye and head out.........pretty basic right? Well, during the two weeks off Shaylee had her MRI to check on the tumors.

from email update:
Good evening friends and family,

And it IS a good evening! I'm not good at beating around the bush, so we'll jump right in! Shaylee had her MRI last Thrusday, which she handled like the champion she is. In fact they told me they wished ALL their peds patients were as good as her. *proud grin* She did really well, and insisted we stop for "chicken stars" at Carl Jr. on way home - she was fine!

Today we went in to restart the chemo, we're now on the maintance part, four weeks on, two weeks off. Shaylee did great again. The doctor came in and told us they had the MRI reports. The tumor has SHRUNK!! Yeah God! I don't have the paper work right in front of me, but I believe the numbers were about 21mm by 16mm in July and last weeks readings showed 14mm by 6mm. SIGNIFICANT change is what the radiologist stated. We are thrilled! Our hope was simply to stop growth, but it shrunk. All those prayers worked! Thank you all.

Now we continue on with the next 48weeks (or whatever we'll have left depending on counts etc). We've been blessed with proof that what they are doing IS making a difference. Shaylee is still her happy silly self. She's still charming the nurses and staff up there. She's still so very brave everytime we go for her treatments, and now we can tell her it is making a difference!

Thank you all for your prayers, friendship and support! This has been the best "Christmas Gift" we could have hoped for as far as news is concerned. I hope and pray that each of you is blessed this Christmas. Your prayers and support have truely touched our lives. THANK YOU!

What a blessing that was! I know there are a few of you out there (Lisa, Ann) who can understand the absolute JOY at work such as "shrinkage". I can tell you in complete honesty its a HUGE weight off to know that the nasty stuff you're puting your child through, all that junk you're forcing into their body, IS really doing something good; that it is making a posititive difference. I can't speak for anyone else, but I remember very clearly the feeling of relief that we were not doing this for NOTHING! That something was happening.

Christmas was coming, James had been out of work for so long, there was just no money for Christmas. We had maybe $20 we could spend on all four children. We'd decided we'd hit the dollar store and get each one $5 worth of things. I don't know how to convey how much that hurts, to know you can't really give your child a "good" Christmas. Not that there is anything wrong w/ having a small Christmas, or that there is anything wrong with buying things at the dollar store.....but these kids had already been through so much it just broke my heart to know we couldn't at least give them a nice 'big' Christmas.

But God was with us, and God was (and IS) so good to us during that whole time frame. We had a call from the church that a couple small groups (bible study groups) wanted to do something special for our kids for Christmas. Would that be ok? They asked for a list of a few things the kids would like, so we sent in a fairly generic listing..... We received a call saying the gifts would be in the office, we could pick them up after church on Sunday.

The only two words that can describe it was humble and awe. Complete and total AWE. An overwhelming level of awe. There weren't just one or two things for the kids, there were piles of things! Seriously, PILES!! Amazing, mind boggling piles. Heart wrenching, slack jaw inspring piles. Humbling piles of love and care, from people who did not want their names known, but wanted to share their ablitities, their love. Piles, that even now, four years later can reduce me to tears.

Somehow we got them stashed in the back of the van with the kids no wiser, got them home and got them tucked away until Christmas morning. I wish I had taken pictures of our closet, because there were so many gifts in those piles that when they were combined with the gifts from the kids AngelMoms, that James and I couldn't hardly get into our closet to get to our clothes. For a week or so, we had to simply pile our dirty clothes on the floor of the bathroom, because the hamper had been burried! Never has it been such a joy to go into a closet! Christmas eve, long after the kids were in bed, we got the piles and piles of presents out, and placed them around the tree for the kids.



Now, you should know, the ONLY things in those piles taht was from James and I were the stocking stuffers we used that $20 for.