Day 13 of Treatments

Yesterday Sadie smiled a lot and actually enjoyed playing!  She seemed a little more like the Sadie we know.
This morning, her hemoglobin was at 6.9 so she is getting another unit of blood.  Her platelets are also pretty low, they are watching her and we expect she will be given a unit of platelets tomorrow before her procedure.

Because of the holiday, she is getting her "day of Chemo" on Wednesday instead of Thursday.  She will be put under again for the Chemo into her spinal fluid and another type of chemo into her IV.  Everytime we do this, she can't eat anything after midnight and drink anything after 4 AM.  It's so hard!  The steriods make her ravenous!  We're hoping for an early time slot, but that will be difficult since everyone is having their procedures tomorrow instead of Thursday.
Scratch that!  The oncologist fellow just came back in.  No Lumbar Puncture tomorrow!  They were confused...or just wanted to make me worry for a minute.  Either way, I'm much happier now!  (Because they did not find Leukemia cells in her initial spinal fluid check, she does not need Chemo into her Spinal fluid on day 15.)  So no procedure tomorrow!  Just the Chemo thru her IV.  That's a relief!

Sadie's team of doctors just came by.  They let us know, just for the sake of keeping us informed, that they are still seeing some Leukemia cells in her blood tests.  They have been talking to "the experts" (i.e. Dr. Dahl) and it doesn't seem to put her in the "high risk" category yet.  What's most important is that on day 28, when they do the bone marrow aspirate, that they find NO Leukemia cells. 

Please keep praying for Sadie's body to be strong in fighting and overcoming these bad cells!  I'm thankful for the doctors who keep us informed so we know what to pray for.  And I know prayer works!  At this time especially it's what I rely on and trust in the most.

Sadie's Hair

Today Sadie and I were having a picnic on a blanket spread over our hospital room floor, and I noticed a clump of her hair on the ground.  It was a small clump, and probably not related to the chemo (it's still pretty early into treatments for her hair to start falling out), but it scared me.  So, I prompty got a pair of scissors and a ziplock baggy and snipped off a few of her curls to keep.

I don't know why the hair thing is so scarey.  It's really a harmless side effect when compared to others.  But it means her cells are dyeing and it changes her appearance, and that scares me.

(I wonder what it will look like when it grows back.) 

Right now we do a lot of waiting.  We're trying not to be bored.  Sadie is handling the treatments really well.  The doctors say we won't know for sure how effective the Chemo has been until they do another bone marrow biopsy, and they will do that around December 7th. 

We're also still waiting for some genetic test results which will help determine her risk and the treatment plan after this Induction period. 

Evan and Andrew flew out to Montana tonight with Grandma Judy.  They'll be there until after Thanksgiving.  I'm very excited for them!  Grandma Judy makes the best pies!  Charity and all her boys will be there, and I hear they've been getting lots of snow!  Oh, I wish we could be there too!

Thank you Grandma Judy for making all these changes so much easier!  Here they are going into the airport:

My Hero

Check out her blog here.  I can't even tell you what an inspiration she has been to me especially during the last week.  Love you Cherisse!  So glad little Lucy is back home, even though I will miss our hospital night chats.  :)

Daddy knows best!

The IT went well this morning.  She was starving when she came out of anesthesia and completely devoured her breakfast.  Then fell fast asleep.  When she woke back up, she wasn't quite as energetic.  She wanted to rest more and didn't have much of an appetite.  I think she may have felt a little nauseous which Chemo can do.  While she was under, they changed the dressing on her picc-line. 

There was a little scare in the afternoon, early evening.  The nurses couldn't get her picc-line to flush or draw blood.  They thought there was a clot somewhere and so were putting a medication into the lines to break down the clot.  Still didn't work.  She needed to get her second type of Chemo thru her IV around 5 pm, and the picc-line still wasn't working.  I was so worried they were going to have to poke her again and put in another IV!

In enters Dave to save the day!  "Home" from work!  Dave noticed the picc-line catheters weren't sticking out as far as they used to be.  They called in a "Picc-team" nurse to take a look.  Sure enough!  Daddy was right!  She adjusted the length, pulled it out a little more and wa-la, we're back in business!  Relief!

Now she's had her second type of Chemo for the day, and is sleeping soundly.  Day 8 was a big day, and I'm glad it's over.  We learned one thing...sometimes the parents know best. 

Tomorrow morning she'll have to take 5 different oral medications along with the IV antibiotics!  She hates the orals!  Poor girl. But we spoil her when we can.

Good news: She won't need any more Chemo for a week.  So now it's just wait and watch her numbers from the labs to see how she's responding. 

Oh, I find this interesting....after Sadie has a Chemo treatment, we have to wear gloves when changing her diapers for the next 48 hours.  Makes me think about how powerful this poisin really is.  But it's saving our baby's life.

Tomorrow - Day 8 of Treatment

Sadie's getting two different forms of Chemo tomorrow.  One is intrathecal (or into the spinal fluid).  The other is an IV push (goes into her IV).

She has to be put under to do the intrathecal. 
It makes me anxious and nervous to see how her body will respond.  Last time she came out of anesthesia, we had a hard time keeping her Oxygen levels up.   

As for the Chemo and Steriods, the side effects we've seen so far are:

• constipation
• bloated abdomin
• change in her temperment.  (She's really cranky and demanding.  It's kind of cute!) 
• she sounds hoarse
• a huge appetite (also very cute!) 

Today we put on her shoes and she walked around the halls.  (We have a video of it, but it's upside down.  Oops!)  It's so good to see her acting a little more "normal."

We're praying that tomorrows procedure will go well and that her little body can handle the chemo.  We love our little angel!

P.S.  Is it weird that I've moved into a hospital room?  Today I caught myself calling it "home."

Sadie's story

A lot of you have heard our sad news.  Our little Sadie was diagnosed with Leukemia (Accute Lymphoblastic Leukemia) on November 8th. 

I'm hoping to create a journal of sorts for Sadie and to keep all of you informed thru this blog.  She won't remember all of this, but it will always be a part of her.  She will always be a "cancer survivor."

 

Thank you for all the prayers and love.  We feel so blessed to have such wonderful friends and family and it has definatley made this time easier. 

More of Sadie's story to come.

Calling it Quits

As much as I love the idea of blogging, I just can't keep up with it!

Seems like every time I sit down to the computer I find a million other things that need to be done first. (Sigh) Someday maybe I'll pick it back up again. And I'll let you know when that is. But for now, I'm calling it quits. (Ugh. That was hard for me to admit.)

Sorry!!! I love you all!

July - The Ranch

My Grandpa Foote grew up on a ranch bordering Zion's National Park! I still have a hard time imagining what that would be like.

Andrew loved the old catepillar tractor!

We hiked to Twin Hollow with all the kids.

We found some indian petroglyphs on the hike. It's hard to see them, but their near Evan's arm. The other picture was just to give you an idea how high up they were. Evan has no fear!

Carving away at the sandrocks.

And finally, the traditional cafe lunch before hitting the road.

I love this place!

Other notes to remember:

Car toppers and night travel are the only way to go!

Fireants hurt when they bite...just ask Evan.

My knees are not what they used to be.... a sad and painful realization.

And I have the strongest and toughest husband in the world...just ask anyone that went on Fat Man's Misery.

Family golf tournaments can be fun!

I thought he was napping....

No, our bath water is not normally that blue.

Our week

This is what our house looked like the first few days of June. Blah!! I hate throwing up! For some reason (I think it's purely because I'm "the Mom") I was the only one who didn't get sick.

We told the boys, their bodies had caught "the flu bug" and they just needed to throw up until all the germs were out of their bodies. During one of Evan's vomiting sessions, a fruit fly got caught in his spit up bowl. Evan exclaimed, "Look! I got one of "the bugs" out!" LOL!

We did recoop in time to celebrate Dave's 31st birthday! Happy Birthday Hubby!

We spent a big chunk of the day on the beach at Half Moon Bay. There's this great tide pool spot there with all kinds of treasures and creatures.


We saved a few star fish. (Threw them back into the water.)

It really was a fabulous day!

Dave requested a pull-up bar (the P90x chin-up bar to be exact) for his birthday.

I love the determination on Andrew's face here!

(P.S. There was a photo on the box of a guy doing pull-ups and he had his shirt off. So before the boys started doing theirs, Andrew said, "Wait! Wait! First we have to take our shirts off!")