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No Chemo this week

Keira had a radiation appointment on Monday, so they waited until after her appointment to admit us to the hospital for her 5 days of chemo. She got her fluids started around 8pm and then at 10:30pm they said well, her counts are too low for chemo, the checked again in the morning and they were lower, so we go back on Monday, early to get blood work done, and then be admitted after Keira's radiation appointment. She's doing well though, feels good, she's just tired. She has 3 radiation appointments and then things will calm down some, we won't have to go to Ann Arbor everyday.

This may be the longest week of my life

Let me just break down my week for you. Monday-School for me, and then I had a 1 year old b-day shoot. Tuesday-We went to a Petting Zoo and Keira had radiation Wednesday-Keira had radiation & a CT Scan, plus I had class Thursday-7:40am radiation appointment, blood draw after that, dr. visit, then chemo, then I had to kill 3 hours until I could meet my friend Tiffany for the New Kids on the Block, Backstreet Boys Concert, which was the most amazing thing I've ever been too!! Friday-Coop dr. appointment @ 11, Radiation for Keira @ 1:10, had to get groceries for my SIL's baby shower, Keira's end of the year daisy party @ 5-7, The kids babysitter's graduation after that, then I had to take a test for my business class. Saturday-Meeting with a client to talk about Senior Pictures @ 11 & then @ 2 I start shooting a wedding Sunday, Make the food for my SIL's shower, shower is at 2. Plus, sometime in there I have to clean the house and pack mine & Keira's bags for her week @ the hospital, and I need to edit pictures. Ok, that was my week. LOL! Keira is doing great, she was sick on Wednesday because I forgot to give her some zofran, but once she got her meds, she was fine. They also did a CT scan on her tumor and let me just tell you how amazing it was, this tumor has gone down to about 1/3 its original size if I had to guess, in just 2 rounds of chemo & 6 radiation treatments. I want to thank all of you so much for your thoughts & prayers, as you can see, they are working. And if you get a chance to see NKOTBSB, DO IT!!! It was seriously amazing, I had one of the best times of my life. :)

First 4 days of radiation finished.

Keira started radiation on Tuesday and so far, so good. She got sick after her first treatment, but we gave her some Zofran and she's been good since then. Yesterday before chemo she got sick, just a little, but she was fine the rest of the day.

It does suck driving back and forth to Ann Arbor everyday, but it hasn't been as bad as I expected. The week of June 20-24 she'll be admitted to the children's hospital cancer floor to receive her chemo that week and she'll also have radiation. They want to monitor her for the first 5 day treatment and they're longer, she has to be hydrated before and after teh chemo is given, so being admitted makes since and I don't have to worry. We also started our Summer Activites, Colored Popcorn, Movie Night & Homemade Playdough so far, we still have the Imagination Station & Splash Pad for the rest of the week. I hope the weather is good for the splash pad, or I'll have to switch things around.

Our Bucket of Fun Summer Activities

Since this summer is not what we expected again, I tried to come up with some ideas, mainly thanks to Pinterest.com I'm totally addicted to that site.  I came up with a pretty good list of things for the kids to do, weeks that Keira will be having chemo 5 days a week I decided to keep our activity to 1 craft that week.  Other weeks I've got it broken down into 5 categories, Crafts Fun, Food Fun, Fun @ Home, Local Fun and Travel Fun.  

For example our first week is Homemade Playdough, Colorful Flavored Popcorn, Movie Night, Go to the Splash Pad in town and go to the Imagination Station.  Keira and Cooper both loved the advent activities for Christmas, I bet they'll love this. If they start feeling better, Coop is working through a cold or something, he sounds terrible and Keira has woke up feel sick to her stomach the last 2 days.  Thankfully Zofran works.

And here is my bucket, if you want to see it.  I put each week in a different color and wrote the week number on the back, since I have to plan everything almost exactly based on Keira's chemo treatments.  

I got the Paint Bucket from Joann's for $4.99, Self Adhesive Ribbon, each for a $1 and the yellow ribbon was a $1.  I used card stock to print the label on of Dani's old kits, that I think is retired now and those are Lauren Grier word snips, that are also retired.  

Friday Update

Yesterday seemed like it lasted forever.  Chemo actually didn't take that long, but we had other appointments at the hospital later in the day.  

Yesterday we found out that her CT scan of her lungs came back clear!  Her heart is in great shape, hasn't changed since her very first time in the hospital last year.  

Every 3rd week of chemo is a 5 day a week treatment, I didn't know that.  

We found out about radation, she starts Tuesday, the treatments only last about 20 minutes, so I get to drive 45 minutes one way for a 20 minute treatment session.  That part sucks, but of course it means my girl will beat cancer, so we'll do it with a smile. :)  She has to do 16 sessions of radation and we should see a big change in the size of the tumor by then.  I think her last radation treatment will be around June 28th.  

She handled the chemo well yesterday, mainly tired.  This morning she woke up, said she felt sick, vomited a little bit, and I gave her a zofran.  She ate a little breakfast and some chicken nuggets for lunch.  

Here's the purple hair we did, it was a big hit at the hospital yesterday.  When we got home yesterday there were balloons for each of my babies on the front steps and handmade pillow cases with the kids names on them.  And Question marks in the "from" part of the tags.  I thought it was just wonderful.  It brightened their days, and it was so thoughtful to include Cooper.  My poor little man has a cold this week or allergies, something, we can't really put our fingers on it exactly.

And another super nice thing that happened was one of the local salon owners, wants to do their annual spa day benefit in Keira's honor this year.  I worked with Lisa this winter on special valentine's day boudoir shoots.  

And I bought some hat patterns last week for Keira, so I can get her all stocked up for when she starts loosing her hair, well one of the shops I purchased them from on Etsy offered to send me some more for free.  Speckled Frog Crochet I've bought 2 patterns from her so far and they're so great, easy to follow.   And A Lil' Loopy is sending her a hat.   

We appreciate everyone's thoughts & prayers!  

 

All Fixed

They fixed the billing issue, although I'm not sure still why I can't upload the pictures. Anyhow, first chemo is tomorrow, I have class today. I'll try to post updates on Fridays. Hoping to make this blog interesting, it was much more so when we were in Alaska. Michigan isn't nearly as exciting. LOL!