Blog

Remember when I said

I'd blog more often? Well, as you can see that hasn't happened. LOL! I just thought I'd post a quick update about how things are going here. I'm taking my seasonal photography break, I love that I don't have to worry about anything like that this time of year, although I do still have 1 shoot to edit and mail out a couple discs. Sean has been busy this weekend with his dad & cousin installing new windows. They have finished 5 of the 7 we have. Hopefully next weekend they'll be able to finish the livingroom & kitchen windows. And then a week from tomorrow we'll be getting a new roof. 2 major things we knew our house would need when we moved in.

Keira is doing great, she went back to school a couple weeks ago, this was her first full week back, she even started ballet this past Tuesday. She has 2 rounds of chemo left, 8 total days left. The first week of December/last week of November she'll do 5 days of treatment & then the week of Christmas she'll do her final 3 days. And with any luck, we will not have to deal with her having cancer again.

Cooper is still the funny, sweet, silly boy he's always been. Very excited about Christmas, this is going to be the first year he really gets it. I'm so excited about the holidays. I love this time of year.

Hope you have a fantastic Thanksgiving!! And Black Friday shopping. I'm looking forward to going out with my MIL & SIL.

Keira is doing well

Keira finished up 5 days of chemo on Saturday, so that leaves her with 3 rounds of chemo to go before she's all finished.  She's doing great, still getting tired, we haven't sent her back to school yet, but she's going to start meeting with her teacher twice a week starting today.  

We took her bandages off on Saturday night, and I took her picture to show off the new scar. 

Good Week

We didn't have to spend the night at the hospital at all. LOL! Keira was discharged on Monday, she still has her drain in, but all seems to be going well & it will come out Tuesday morning & she'll start chemo Tuesday was well. She'll have 3 rounds left after next week, and if we stay on track she'll finished chemo the week before Christmas. What a fantastic present for all of us. We've been kind of lazy this week, I did take time for the kids to do a few halloween related crafts, they also decorated the Halloween Tree, which is one of their favorite traditions. Tonight we all painted little terra cotta pots & made them look like a family of jack-o-lanterns. That was a big hit.

the jack-o-lantern family, left to right-Cooper, (the big one), Sean, Keira (front right) & mine.

Keira having fun painting.

And here's Coop last Thursday on his field trip, I didn't have any this cute from tonight.

How's Keira

Well, I guess I haven't been doing that great of a job keeping the blog updated, and I think its because I haven't been able to directly upload pictures until today, don't ask me why.  LOL!  

On September 28th, Keira had the tumor that was in her liver was removed in a 5 and a half hour surgery.  They did they're best to use her old scar, but had to go over to the right more & up the middle.  All in all she's doing very well, she's still not completely back to her old, happy go lucky self yet.  They discharged us last Monday, after she spent 3 days in the PICU and 2 days up on the cancer floor.  Then on Thursday afternoon she had a 102.5 fever, which sent us back to the hospital, where I'm typing this message from.  She had 100 mls of fluid removed from around her right lung & 15 mls removed from a spot near the liver, and a small drain inserted by the liver to drain that fluid.  We are still waiting for the cultures to come back & see if there is an infection, they thought it might be pneumonia when we first came in because she has a bit of a cough, but now they don't seem to think so.  All of this that's going on is normal surgery stuff that can happen, but all stuff they'll fix.  She's doing fine today, she's been sitting up, coloring & playing playdough on & off since yesterday, which is a good sign, probably the most active she's been since the surgery.  

 

This is her new scar, after her surgery.

And here's Keira last Sunday night, one of the first real smiles we'd gotten out of her.  

I'll try to update more often.  I want to start posting my pinterest projects too, that's my newest addiction & the hats I've been crocheting.  I've made 4 since yesterday, since I've had a lot of time on my hands.  

We appreciate all the thoughts & prayers everyone has been giving to our family! 

What's been happening this week

This week started a 3 day round of chemo for Keira, Monday I had to take her & Cooper up to the local hospital to have blood work done to make sure we could start chemo on Tuesday, that took about an hour. Not the most fun I've ever had. LOL! Then on Tuesday we got up and dropped Coop off at Grandma Pat & Grandpa Doug's around 8 and headed to Ann Arbor for Keira's 9 am appointment. The chemo she was getting is toxic on the bladder, so she had to be very hydrated before and after. She got hooked up to fluids and we left I guess around 3:30 Monday afternoon, it was an all day thing, she came home with a backpack w/ her fluid bags & pump, she actually still has it until the morning. I had to give her Mesna (not sure on the spelling), through her iv bag, its a bladder protectant, and I had to do that every 3 hours. Wednesday & Thursday were much shorter days, we left the house around 8, and we left Ann Arbor probaby around 11:30/12ish both yesterday & today. The actual chemo only takes an hour. Some other things going on, Keira's benefit dinner is on Saturday night, I've been crocheting hats like a crazy person to put in the silent auction, that's the only thing they'll let me do to help. LOL! I've made 9 since Sunday. My hands are killing me though. And Sean and I are going to see Keith Urban tomorrow night and I'm beyond excited!! Not as excited as I was to go see New Kids on the Block & Backstreet Boys, but pretty darn close. Again, thank you all for your continued prayers & support.

Nothing new

Keira was suppose to start her 3 day round of chemo on Thursday, but her neutrophil counts were too low, Neutrophil are the white blood cells that help fight off bacterial infections, they have to be at 1000 and Keira's were at 700, so on Monday we'll have them checked again and hopefully will start chemo on Tuesday. She's feeling fine, just standard procedure not to do chemo if they're below that level. Its actually been nice to be able to sit and home and not have to do anything. On Wednesday we did take the kids to Build a Bear because Keira wanted a Smurfette and they're went nuts over them. I'll have to post a picture. Thanks again for all of your thoughts and prayers. We appreciate them so much!

Update time, sorry its late

Well, last week was a busy, eventful week. I started noticing that Keira's hair was starting to fall out over last weekend, so on Monday I took her to have a hair cut, I thought we'd go to a short pixie, it would be lessing shocking I thought to go in stages with the length of her hair, so we did and it looked so cute, within 2 days of that hair cut it was coming out by the handful, so I decided to shave it off on Wednesday, that way we wouldn't have hair all over the house. She had chemo on Thursday, her white blood cell counts were high enough for camping! She was super excited, so we planned our trip for Friday, just an overnight since it was the first time the kids had ever been camping. Friday morning I wake up to find my name tagged in several different posts on facebook and when I click on them I find an amazing digital scrapbook kit that my wonderful online friends had created for our family as a fundraiser. You can find that beautiful kit here Camping went amazingly well, and they even caught some fish. It was a great time.

Sorry, forgot to post on Friday

Keira is doing great, feeling good, we're going through the low counts stage though. Her white blood cells are below 500, which means no crowds, things like that. Watching for fevers, but so far so good. She is starting to loose her hair, I found a pretty good size lock of it in her bed on Friday, which really took me by surprise, simply because I didn't expect her to loose it since she didn't the last time. That tells me the chemo is working, same thing with the low counts, I feel like everything is doing what its suppose to, last year I'll be honest, I did wonder if it worked since she had such an easy time. Only time will tell, but I believe it won't be back this time. Thank you for all the prayers & positive thoughts you've been sending our way, they're working!

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.

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.