November 2, 2008 - Alex's first vote!!!

SUNDAY, NOVEMBER 2, 2008 10:27 AM, MST

Hi everyone! I just thought I would update the photo page with photos from this year. I wish I could post more than 12. It is hard to decide on the best 12. I have to remember that 12 is probably enough for you guys :o)

The first photo starts out in January. This was the evening of New Years Day. She was really sick at this time and we went to the emergency room around midnight. She was admitted for 12 days. I really don't have any pictures from the time she was admitted until January. It was such a crazy time that the last thing I was thinking about were pictures. I wish I had taken some now, though. It is just amazing to see the progress and just how much a young body can heal. It has taken so much work from Alex and all of us involved.

The last picture is Alex voting. This is outside the booth, since you can't take a picture inside. Can you believe they wouldn't let a mother take a picture of her baby voting for the first time?? The nerve! I had to promise Alex I would NOT take out the camera again until something spectacular happens.

That is it for today. I just thought I post some pictures from this last year. I am sure you will understand how delighted I am by these last photos.

I will post more later. Thank you for tuning in!

October 28, 2008

Today is the one year anniversary of Alex's diagnosis. What a night that was. I will never be able to drive by St. Mark's Hospital without thinking about that emergency room visit. There are so many things that I don't remember but this night has stayed vivid in my mind. Let's hope the next year brings better things and less complications!

On the clinic update... Alex had her first treatment in the maintenance phase. Not too much to celebrate there besides it officially starting and our next appointment isn't until November. Very wild! Alex had a lumbar puncture and IV chemo... and we also picked up 6 different prescriptions. We got her a month long "pill box" to put all the new drugs in. She was thrilled with this idea. NOT... but this is part of her treatment and cannot get forgotten.

There will be a nurse that will come every couple of weeks for awhile to draw a CBC and make sure her counts are staying within a certain range. The oncology clinic wants her counts low enough to be killing any lingering cells, but high enough so she can live normally.

Another thing that I thought I would update you all on... something I haven't mentioned here as we haven't had enough information to pass on up until now... Since Alex was diagnosed in 2007 and she was only 17, she is granted a WISH from the Make A Wish Foundation. Any child with a life threatening illness is eligible. She has mentioned many many things but finally decided on wanting to go to Italy next year. Today (wild since it is officially a year today) we found out that her wish has been granted. SOOOO cool! So, the Make A Wish Foundation will fly Dan, Alex and myself to Italy for one week next year. We are going to pay the additional money and take Dan's sons and my mother is going as well. We are also paying to extend the trip. This is such an incredible foundation. First Alex wanted to meet Noam Chomsky... then Jon Stewart and Steven Colbert... Then decided on a "Travel Wish".

I hope everyone is having a great October!!! I will update as soon as I have more to tell :D (big smiley!)

Thanks again for all the messages! I absolutely love them!

October 22, 2008

Hello everyone. We went last Tuesday to clinic and it was a very quick visit. Alex did really well with it. Her counts weren't all that great, but the treatment went well. Can you believe that this last regular treatment was just 2 weeks shy of a year? Maintenance actually starts this week. The home nurse will come tomorrow and draw blood to see if her first treatment of maintenance can start on Friday. She will get a lumbar puncture every 3 months, and of course we found out that it is at the start of every 3 months, so that means one on Friday. Hopefully her counts are good and she can get it going. Please send good blood ju-ju so Alex can get going on maintenance. Also... I don't know if I told you all, but I took Alex to Westminster (her college) and dropped her off last Wednesday to sign up for all her classes in January. She didn't want me to go with her. It was a very strange feeling to be dropping her off somewhere on her own. It's a great thing, but it felt like the first day of kindergarten again. She thinks I am crazy, of course, but all you mothers would understand. Everything went well and she actually met with one of her old professors. She is hoping to find some part time work there when she starts school. Also, Dan and I went up to her grandfathers and brought her car back home. She thinks she is ready to start driving again. Dan and I both have been out driving with her. She is doing really really well. It is a scary thing for me. You all would NOT believe how Dan is with my child. Of course, those of you who do know Dan would believe it. I don't know what I would have done without him all these months. Him and my mother. Dan makes sure he is off work for every single treatment if he is in town. He gladly does for Alex as if she is his own. I feel incredibly lucky to have found a man that treats Alex with a love that you can see and feel. Dan is, by far, the best man I know. My mother... well what can I say about her?? She is the best woman in the world!!! I will tell you, it has been a very very hard year. But, even in the very worst of times, I knew that I never was dealing with anything alone. There will never be a way I can thank Dan or my mom enough. Although I do know that both do so out of NO obligation, but out of love. Another thank you that I want to send out is to all of you! I mean that from the bottom of my heart. You have no idea what all these messages have meant to me. There have been some very stressful times and I can come here and read such positive things and go away with a different perspective. You have all given me more than you can ever know. Thank you! I will keep updating the site when I have things to report on. I know that there are many out there that read the blog and love to know how Alex is doing. Please send good blood ju-ju for tomorrow :o) I count on all your blood vibe sending. I really do.

August 26, 2008 - Radiation here we come!

Hi everyone! Well, Alex had her head mapping session today and everything went great. I was only allowed in for the first part and I was able to take a few pictures (updated). The techs took us all back into a CT room. They had lazers on her face and made some markings and put some form under her head that hardens up to exactly the shape of her head. After that they placed this plastic looking thing they took out of a hot water bath over her face. It was a waffle pattern looking thing... holes all over it, and then formed it down her entire face and head. There was a small hole for her nose, but there were little holes all over. This also hardens up after it dries. After this point we were asked to leave the room as they had to do a CT scan on her. I am not sure why, but I should have asked?? They said everything went well, and the radiation will start on Tuesday. Hopefully I will be allowed to take a few pictures of that procedure as well. I hope I am not the only nut that takes pictures of everything?? Someday Alex will be glad that I took all these, right? :o)

Oh... on the hair subject... Over the weekend Alex's hair started falling out like crazy again... in big clumps and it was stressing her out, so she just had me shave it yesterday. Dangit! She was a good sport about it, but I could tell she was bummed that it was going again. This should be the last time she loses it. SO... the red hair is gone and now she is back to smooth. She really does have a great head. It feels soooo good. I think she looks beautiful without hair. I am telling you, others aren't this lucky!

Thursday we are supposed to have home health come again and do a CBC at home to see if treatment continues on Friday. I am thinking she is going to be good to go. She is feeling GREAT and it has been such a nice two weeks. I wish we could stay in this mode for awhile longer.... but the show must go on. I will try to get some pictures on Friday as well, since she has a whole mess of things going on.

Thanks for tuning in for Alex's story. It really does mean a great deal to us. I will update again this weekend. Have a great Labor Day everyone!

May 29, 2008 - An overnight...

Just a quick update to say that we are back up in the hospital today. Alex was running a fever last night and this is what they do :( SO, at midnight last night we were on our way up here. One nice thing is that I asked the doctor if we could just go up to the admit floor and not go through emergency. SO, he arranged a bed and off we went. Things are looking pretty good here. They are hopeful that they will have us go home today. Wooo hooo

I will update some pictures when I get home... Hopefully that will be soon.

Take care everyone and I will let you know what happens.

May 23, 2008 - More blood!

Hi everyone... just a quickie to say that everything is good. We went up to the hospital yesterday for Alex to get her blood. They called just before we left and said that they decided to give Alex 3 units of blood instead of 2 because she was really low... so we were there for a little more than 4 hours. It is a LONG, boring process. Alex is a trooper though. We watched movies and snacked. She is feeling MUCH better and has some color now.

I updated the photo page. I couldn't go into the room with the MRI machine so I had to take a picture at the door.

We go back into the clinic on Tuesday and we also see the neurologist then as well. SO, hopefully I have some really good news to report on Wednesday.

Everyone have a great Memorial Day weekend. We are on lockdown here since Alex has NO white blood cells, so we are just hanging.

Take care everyone and I will update in a few days. Thanks for all your support. We do appreciate it.

Grandma and Alex watching a movie while Alex gets blood.

The nurse sets up another bag...

May 22, 2008

Just a quick update for everyone that worries... I will update more tomorrow, but we made it to the hospital today and Alex had her MRI... she was accessed up in the Oncology clinic where they did another CBC (blood count) and her red counts went down even lower than Tuesday so they are going to transfuse her tomorrow with a couple of units of red blood cells. Her platelet count went up a little, so they won't have to do those also. They typed and cross matched her this evening, so hopefully the blood will be ready when we get there tomorrow afternoon. I will update tomorrow with some new pictures. I just thought I would check in and say that the MRI went well and that we are heading back tomorrow for our 3rd day at the hospital this week. At least we aren't sleeping there :o)

Talk to you all tomorrow! Please keep the blood cell vibes coming. We need them!

May 21, 2008

Hello everyone!

Well, we had clinic yesterday and things went as good as possible. Alex hasn't felt well at all over the last week, so it was just an OK visit. She lost almost all the weight she has gained back over one week, so that sucked. Other than that, things are fine, it just wasn't her best week. She has had a low grade fever going on since Friday, but they were confident that it was just due to a cold that she has. Her blood counts were all horrible. She was borderline needing a trasfusion on both the red and the platelets and her white count was pretty much non-existent. They really like the counts to come up on their own, so she was sent home without blood for now. We are going back in tomorrow so Alex can get another MRI, so they will check her counts again if she is still feeling like crap and then they can transfuse then. Hopefully she will feel a little better by tomorrow. I spoke with her neurologist last week about the Lovenox shots, and she said that she wants a MRI done before the shots are stopped. This will give her an exact image of what things looked like at the end of the blood thinners incase there is a problem down the road. I can't tell you all how excited Alex is to get rid of these twice a day shots! In some ways I can't believe it has been 6 months since she had the stroke... and other times I think this has been the longest 6 months of my life. I can't even tell you how different things are today than they were 6 months ago. Alex has come so far... there are doctors at our clinic that are just amazed by her progress.

When I talked with the nurse yesterday in clinic about how Alex was feeling, I learned that all of this is normal. I guess it is just hard for me because Alex has been doing so good that it is really hard to see her so "down" again. I asked if all the chemo from the last two weeks were cumulative, and it is. That explains a lot... then the nurse went on to tell me that people think the ARC is an easy chemo because they allow parents to do it at home, but she told me that ARC is not a mild medicine... it is a big, heavy hitter and most feel really crappy right now. This was the first time that Alex has had to go to clinic carrying her pink bucket in a long time... sucks to have her so sick all the time. SO, no pictures this week.

I will update tomorrow or the next day with the MRI info... and hopefully remember to get pictures this time.

Thanks to everyone for your thoughts and prayers. They are, as always, much appreciated.

April 29, 2008

Just a quick hello and update... Alex is doing pretty good this week. It is so nice to have a week off!!! I don't remember if we have had two weeks in a row of no chemo?? I don't think so...

Well... I updated pictures and the latest is... (drum roll please) Alex decided to get a big blue streak in her hair. I was getting mine done (by my super coolest of all mothers) and while we were picking up supplies, she decided of all the times to go wild and experiment...now is the time. SO... I think it looks really cute on her.

The other new picture is from last night... the three of us went out to this new Gelato place... VERY good!!! It is so good to see her eating normal again and out and about. We are staying clear of busy places now, and hoping her counts are good come Friday. Friday morning home health will come in again and check them... then it will be a new roller coaster ride come Tuesday.

Dan and I are going on a much needed vacation next Monday and Alex's dad is coming into town to be with Alex for a whole week! This will be great for the two of them. I hope she isn't sick the whole time. Hopefully he will take some pictures for me to post when I return.

Starting on Tuesday the 6th, she will have another spinal tap done, and an entire new series of chemos. Some of which are the ones I administered at home back in January.

Have a great two weeks everyone! Please keep up the good blood vibes!!!! I need you stick with us even though we are going to be gone for awhile :o) I will update as soon as I return.

God bless!!!

April 20, 2008 - The Blood Drive

Thank you everyone who came out yesterday to the blood drive!!! It is so amazing to witness the generosity of someone sitting there giving blood.

Thank you Tina, for arranging this drive... you did a great job, and it was so good to see you!

The day was awesome! As you can see by the updated pictures, Alex was able to attend the drive. It was a success! It was so wild... we were standing in the hall waiting to be interviewed in order to donate, when this stranger walked up to us and asked us what we were doing... he was the janitor of the building... we told him about the drive and who it was for, and he called his wife up to drive over, and these two strangers sat down to give blood for Alex's cause. Un-real!!!

I want to thank everyone who came... I wish I knew all of your names. Please know I mean YOU when I say thank you!

Thank you Dave Koz for coming out on your 50th birthday and thanks for bringing your friend Roxanne. It was so nice to meet her and I can't believe even she gave blood! The kindness and generosity just amazes me every day as we go through this ordeal.

I will tell you... this was my first time giving blood. I had never even given it a thought before all of this. I was even a little nervous about doing it... if I am honest. But... I figured with all of what Alex has gone through, the least I could do is sit there and give some much needed blood. ALL my worry was for nothing! It was such an easy process! It really only took a few minutes to give and didn't hurt a bit. It was such an easy thing to do, that I will seriously keep giving as much as I can.

Thank you everyone who came out! Thank you for giving up a part of your Saturday to do something in Alex's honor.

Alex and a VERY good friend of mine, Dave Koz

Check out all the good blood!

March 25, 2008

Standard Interim has been officially kicked in the BUTT!!! Woooo Hoooo!

Hey everyone! Well... we made it to clinic today and everything was great. Everything except Alex lost another 3 1/2 pounds!!! NOT good!!! I was really surprised by this! I think because the dreaded mouth sores have returned, I don't think she has been getting as much to eat as I thought. I have my work cut out for me to get her eating before the next phase because the doctor wants her up and holding steady. Get this... I can wrap my two hands around the biggest portion of her thigh, with room to spare!!! Other than that, everything else looked great. Most of our day was spent waiting on the chemo. It seemed to take forever today. Dan and Alex made good use of time by doing chair racing up and down the halls (picture posted). I know they love us there.

Alex has 15 days off until the dreaded phase starts. She will get many many different types of chemicals in this next phase. I have posted a picture of her next schedule. It shows what she gets on what day. On day one, she gets many things... some things run day 1 thru 7... there are several different chemos that she will receive 4 days in a row, at different times.. she will have 3 more spinal taps done... They are also introducing several types of chemo that we haven't had before... some orally, and some IV and some in her spinal fluid. She also has the YUCKY steroids day 1 thru 7 and then again days 15 thru 21. We are also back to going to clinic every Tuesday. This will be her last break of any kind before she finally gets to maintenance. WHICH I PLAN TO HAVE ONE ASS KICKING PARTY!!!!! Those that can attend, it would be great to see you there. I will let you know when.

So... we have 15 days of freedom until this starts. She probably won't feel the best tomorrow, but then things should start perking up. I hope to have a good couple of weeks with her. One thing that is WAY exciting that is going to happen during this break, is that it is going to be Alex's 18th birthday!!!! April 3rd WOOOO HOOOO!!!! Alex has been so excited to register to vote since she was WAY young... too funny... but true... SO, we will definitely get that done. It is so cool that she will probably be feeling really dang good by her birthday! Her dad is going to fly in (just for the day...but WAY cool!) and the family is going out for a BIG dinner at The Melting Pot. Something fun and different, and her choice. I will take pictures of the party and let you know how it goes.

Also... the Physical Therapist starts on Thursday. It will be so good to get Alex doing some different things. I need to find her a "hot" personal trainer. I know that would do it for me... hee hee

And for everyone who played last week... Lennon wasn't buried... he was cremated and his ashes were given to family and friends... Duane won!

Thanks everyone!!! And please send good blood vibes. Treatment can't start on the 8th unless her white count is high enough... and her platelets are up. All of your good thoughts are working. I really believe this... so please stay with us :o) And....

HAPPY BIRTHDAY ALEX!!!!! I LOVE YOU!!!!

This is a filter that the chemo runs through.

March 14, 2008 - Lumbar Day!

Happy Day 31 everyone!

We went to clinic today as scheduled. First it was up to the Oncology clinic and that is where Alex is measured and weighed... blood pressure done, all that fun stuff. The good news here is her blood pressure is finally back down to normal and with NO drugs doing it. Yippee!!! She has been off of the 2 different blood pressure drugs for a month now, but her pressure has still been quite high every time we go in. Today it was awesome. Alex weighed 45.9 for the last three visits and today it was 46.0. SO... I am not allowed to nag her for a whole week about eating :o) That is like MAYBE an ounce. I wish I had this problem... I have gained an ounce sitting here on my butt, typing this! After the examination by the doctor, we were sent down to the RTU (Rapid Treatment Unit) for her Lumbar Pucture (pictures updated). As a side note... Alex and Dan try to think of funny things that RTU stands for every week. I can't even tell you what some of them are!! Anyway... first they put you in another waiting room and then the anesthesiologist comes in and goes over her history... and really talks with you about things. I love all of them that we have met. After that they take her into a sedation room and that is where they do the procedure. I am always able to go in with her, up until the time when she goes to sleep.... The procedure went fine and soon we were taking her out of the recovery room and back upstairs for her IV chemo. Today we opted for the wheelchair as she was still pretty out of it... Since we went down to the RTU today, her chemo was ready and waiting for us in the clinic.... and it was QUIET in there today. It was extremely nice. No one was making signs and flashing them out the window... no one was causing trouble... today was trivia... let's see how many people know this one??? Without using GOOGLE.... Where is John Lennon buried? Write your answer in the guestbook... the winner gets.... well.... they just win. :o)

That was about it today... just a bunch of chemicals designed to make Alex kick this nasty bug! We have an 11 day break now... next appointment is the 25th and then we are DONE with this phase!!! Yippee!!! Keep the blood cell vibes flowing so we can get it over with!!!

Thank you everyone... for all your well wishing!

March 5, 2008 - First trip back to Barnes and Noble

Hi again!

I just thought I would update with a new picture and let you all know that today, the first time since October, Alex has returned to her natural habitat. This is exciting... Picture has been posted. We figured that this was probably the best day to get out. We know she had a few blood cells from yesterday, so... off we went to Barnes and Noble, Alex's old home away from home, and workplace. We ran into Alex's old manager that wished us both well, and told Alex that she has a job whenever she is ready. He was really hoping by next week :)

Oh, another funny things since yesterday... the hospital has contacted me to see if I would sign a release for that photo of Alex. I guess it has become a BIG hit and they would like to use it in one of their Powerpoint training programs. I guess it has gotten around to quite a few people. I will let them use it. If it can make someone else laugh, it will be worth it.

Hope everyone has a great week!

March 4, 2008 - HELP!

Happy Day 21!!!

Hi everyone! Well, we had clinic today and let me tell you, it was the fastest clinic day EVER. In and out in 2 1/2 hours and that was WITH treatment! Yes, Alex had enough white blood cells to continue. We were really happy about that. The red count was still low, but the overall volume of blood had increased, so that was great.

This clinic day was TOO funny! SO, we are sitting in our room waiting on the doctor and the blood counts to come back, and this is Alex's time to entertain us lately, so... she rips off the paper on the examining table and writes "HELP" on it... there is a window in the room that looks out onto the hallway of Primary Children's Hospital, so Alex opened the blinds and held up this sign to every person who walked by. It was hilarious to watch all the different expressions. We were laughing so hard. Anyway... once we moved to the infusion room, the front desk lady came back and said that it was the funniest thing she had seen in the clinic and that Human Resources had called and was concerned about the child in room #1. It was great. I have included a picture. She even had me email her the picture. I think all sorts of people from around the hospital sent others to look at the window. It was like a hidden camera scene from Jay Leno or something... the different looks we were getting... some just standing there for a second, wondering if they should come in?? Was it funny? Should they just ignore it and move on?? OH, you had to be there. I haven't seen Dan laugh that hard in a LONG time... and he laughs a lot.

Other than our waiting room fun, there wasn't much else exciting that took place. Alex felt well enough (obviously) to order from room service and have lunch brought up while we waited for her chemo to arrive. Now we are hopefully going back next Friday for "Day 31" and the second to last treatment on this plan. They will actually send a nurse out to our home on Thursday to run a complete blood panel to see if we have to waste our time going in on Friday. That will be nice.

...as I was sitting there today, there was a couple that was being escorted through, a nurse showing them the clinic for the first time. They had that "deer in the headlights" look. You could tell that they were getting the first tour of everything. I know exactly how that feels...I am sure I had the same look. I felt for them... because I had no idea, at the time, how much that place was going to be a part of our lives and how scared I was at the unknown... so many questions and you don't even know what they are. Now it is just part of our routine... something that we don't complain about too much, and we just try to find something to laugh about while we struggle through. Alex is an amazing girl.

No word yet on if the Neurologist read the EEG results yet. My answer would be no... so I will have to bug her about that. As far as the last bone marrow biopsy went a few weeks ago, there was still a reading of 0% leukemia cells! Yea!!!

Thank you everyone for all your thoughts and prayers. Please keep the good blood cell ju-ju coming! We need two more treatments out of this one! Next week will be a Spinal Tap. I will try to remember this time to get a picture of it... it is pretty interesting. Have a great week everyone! Thanks so much for taking the time to read Alex's story.

February 24, 2008 - That's a wrap!

Happy weekend everyone!

Sorry for the late check in. Thursday was a long day, and then we had good friends come in from Kansas and Alex's dad from Florida on Friday, so things have been a little crazy all weekend. First of all, it was soooo good to see our friends. We missed our cruise with them in December, so they decided to come out this way and give us all hugs and hang with us for a few days. We had such a good visit! Thank you for coming Debbie and Rich!!!

Alex's treatment on Thursday was able to go forward! It was a great thing. Even though you dread the sick days that are ahead, you know that if treatment gets postponed, you are just further away from maintenance. So... her white counts were high enough to continue. She had IV Methotrexate, and Vincristine. The clinic visit was actually quite quick. We had to be at the hospital at 7:30am for her EEG (pictures updated). The test went well, but we don't know anything... of course. I will have to find out from the neurologist this week how things look.

After the EEG we went up to clinic and sat and waited for the doctor and the blood test to come back. After the blood counts were checked out, we had to wait for the chemo to be made up. It is specially made for every patient, so it takes awhile. They make it up based on your weight at that time... and the increase of chemo is also based on what your blood counts read that day as well.

Alex has had a great weekend with her dad and step-mom. Yae!!! Everything has gone really well. I am sure she is going to be very sad to see them go today.

Keep up the good blood cell vibes everyone! Send some more red ones... we were really low again. Not enough for a transfusion on Thursday, but they were way down from last week. And for ONCE since all this started, we have NO clinic visit this week (dare I say that?). Yippee!!! Our next visit is next Monday, and that should be "day 21" of our 51 day program.

Thank you everyone for everything! I hope there isn't much exciting to report on before next Monday :o)

February 19, 2008 - A walk outside!

Hi everyone!

I just thought I would write a quick update and let you know that things are going pretty good here. We were able to get Alex out yesterday for a walk... she made it about half way up the street and then we turned around. It was awesome to get her out walking. We still have to hold on to her, but her endurance is getting a whole lot better. Yae! It probably means she has plenty of red blood cells right now. Today Alex actually came into the kitchen and helped me a little with dinner. We have a galley type set-up here, so she has something to hold on to and go from one side to the other very easily. It was great to have her in the kitchen with me.

Thursday Alex is having a few things done. Hopefully her counts will be good enough for her treatment, but she also has an EEG planned. This is where they hook up many many colored wires to your head and you lay there for a LONG time and they flash strobe lights, and other lights... very strange to watch. The Neurologist wants to have another one done to check to see if she is still at risk for seizures. Alex suffered two of these after her stroke. She doesn't think she is at risk anymore, but she wants the test done so we can (hopefully) take her off the twice a day seizure medication. The first EEG she had done was just after the stroke and it showed a very sleepy brain... SO, it will be very interesting to see how this one turns out. I do know that this test will be much easier because they won't have to weave through all her hair. She has to be sleep deprived for the test and they only want her to sleep from the hours of midnight and 4am the night before. SO... tomorrow we will be up partying! I will try and remember to take a picture of this test.

Also... I have had many of you write to me and ask if there was anything they could send Alex, and I have been at a loss as to what to tell people. I thought of something over the weekend that she really likes and seems to be quite helpful. We learned in clinic that the scent of peppermint really helps with nausea, so we put 100% peppermint essance oil on cotton balls and put them on her humidifier in her room. Well, she could really use more peppermint oil, we go through a lot of it. You can find it at most health food stores. Anyway... that is something she really enjoys and it helps her.

I hope everyone is doing well! Please keep up the good blood cell vibes. We need many for Thursday! I will write then and update pictures and let you all know if the treatments have continued.

Thank you everyone for everything!!!

February 13, 2008 - YAY! Day one!

Hi everyone! We finally made it to "day one" of Standard Interim. This will prove to be a very confusing, long process. From what we were told yesterday, every single treatment in this course, is count dependent. Dang! There is a treatment every 10 days, but if her ANC is not over 750, then they re-draw blood in 4 days and go from there.

This is how our week started out... Monday I picked Alex up from her GREAT weekend with her dad. They had a fantastic time and everything went smoothly. Thank GOD! We had a MRI appointment later that day so we went into the clinic early so they could draw some blood to see if they could start her new phase on Tuesday. This was 3pm... They took the blood and we were downstairs ready for the MRI. Once she was inside the machine (dang, I forgot to take a picture of it!) I ran back upstairs to see if the blood results were back... It is now 5pm... The lab has lost her sample and Alex is in the MRI machine for 45 minutes, so we wait... Once she came out of the machine, the lab sent someone down to take some more blood and we all went back up to clinic to wait for the results. We were the only ones in there besides the nurse. We are quite close now. Anywho... by 6:45 we still did not have final results but the ANC was only looking to be 610... not enough to start treatment, but they wanted us to wait because the final tally can sometime produce a few more cells. BUT... of course in our world things didn't happen quickly or smoothly and they sent us home and wanted us to come back in the morning for another sample. At 7pm we headed home. Jeeze! At 7:30am they wanted us back in to give some more blood. Once we were in the examination room waiting for the doctor, we found out what the deal was the night before. When the doctor came in, he said that the lab didn't like the look of some of the cells and they wanted him to look at them. Turns out that everything was normal and good. I am glad that I didn't go home knowing this. Anywho... the night did us some good because she grew a couple more white cells through the night and she had 900. Enough to start.

Alex was first taken down to the RTU (Rapid Treatment Unit) and they sedated her and she had a spinal tap, where they administered chemo, and they also did a bone marrow biopsy to make sure everything is still in remission. We should find out about that on Friday. After she came out of recovery we went back upstairs to clinic, and she got two different doses of chemo. Vincristine and Methotrexate. This is the first time she has gotten Methotrexate through the IV. This type of chemo will be given every 10 days and they will gradually increase the dosage with each treatment. This is called the Capizzi method. We are lucky that we were randomized to this form of Methotrexate, because if she would have gotten the High Dose Methotrexate, she would have had to have every treatment "in patient". Not fun! Anyway... everything went smoothly and we were home by 1pm. This was a record time visit. Yae!!!

So, next Thursday she will go in again... if her counts are good. SO, please send bunches of good blood cell vibes. We need a lot!!!

Thanks for all the messages, the thoughts and prayers. They are very much appreciated.

February 7, 2008

THURSDAY, FEBRUARY 7, 2008 6:36 PM, MST

... Just thought I would check in really quick and say that there is nothing new. The MRI machine is still broken so we were canceled again. It is rescheduled now for Monday but the part is still not in and it should be on Monday. Yeah... right :) I am hoping so and then when we go to the doctor on Tuesday, he can read the results to us. I am SURE it won't happen this way in my perfect world... so...

Alex leaves tomorrow until Monday with her dad. She will be up in Ogden at her grandfathers house. She has been a little anxious about going there, since that is where the stroke happened. But I think as time goes by, she gets a little more certain that things are getting better. I really hope they have a nice visit together. So far, she hasn't had a great one with her dad since all this has happened. Let's all send great vibes for a GREAT weekend for Alex.

Dan's sister, Sandy and his brother in law, Duane are coming into town tomorrow as well. I SOOOO hope they get here before Dave picks up Alex. I know they would like to see her. I am really excited for their visit. They haven't been here together to visit us in 7 years... and neither of them have met any of my side of the family, so I am really looking forward to them being here.

I will check in Monday or Tuesday and see how all of you do on your vibe sending skills :o)

Have a great weekend everyone!!!!