SoMe FuN StuFf

We've had some excitement lately, and some just regular stuff, but it all deserves a picture or two. . .

My cute girls

My happy baby

My 9 year-old Nathan!  His cake of choice:  Monkey Bread

The "silly" pose

Yes. . .Benson and Sadie wear the same size of diaper at night.  

We had an AWESOME visit with my sister-in-law and two of her kiddos, who came to visit us just for fun.  Come back anytime!  The girls gave Aunt Christy lots of love.   

Matching girlies

It was so much fun to have a weekend to spend time together!  Wish we lived closer. . . 

I think this is the only pictures I got of Nathan and Cameron together.  They had such a great time playing together all weekend! (They are playing Monkey in the Middle)

Just another cute picture of Sadie

Last weekend, Bryson, Sadie and I went to Rexburg with my parents to go through the temple with my baby sister who is getting married in just over a week!   It was a great experience.  (And I have FABULOUS friends who took care of the other kids while we went) 

My mom, and three of the five girls

It's been breezy for the past couple of days, so we got out the kite today.  Kayla had a fun time flying it!  

And that's it!  It's been a busy month of March!  

March 19th - Week 45 - Take One

Tuesday morning we had an early start at the clinic.  We left at 8AM and headed to Boise.  When we arrived, Kayla got checked in, accessed and we met with Marnie.  Most of Kayla's counts were in . . . platelets looked great - over 400 and hemoglobin was normal.

Marnie asked me if we took Kayla out much.  Ummmm. . . yes, and probably more than we should!  It is a hard balance to find between becoming a recluse for the safety of her health and going out so we don't go crazy.  And really, Kayla has done so incredibly well, that it is easy to feel fairly secure with going out and doing things.  I am still very careful about washing hands all the time and wiping down shopping carts, chairs at church and many other thing with disinfecting wipes.  So, for the most part, life has been pretty normal.  We go grocery shopping, go to church, have friends over to play, and I have even let her play at a few different people's houses.

So, Marnie just went over a little reminders about being careful, which I totally understand.  As we were about done talking, the rest of Kayla's counts came back and her neutrophils were super low--430.  They have never been that low!  Since they were below 500, Kayla is considered to be neutropenic and she could not get her chemo treatment.  This is the first time we have had this happen in the middle of a cycle.  So, there's one more week delay, again.  She did end getting her monthly Pentamadine while we were there.  We were planning on coming back in on Friday for it, so now we don't have to do that.

It does make me a little nervous having her infection fighting neutrophils so low.  We have been sooooo blessed to not have her get sick with a fever this whole time.  I really hope and pray we can make it all the way through this way.

I also checked my calendar and realized that it was exactly one year ago when Kayla was originally taken to the hospital and we started this wild ride.  Wow.  If you haven't read the beginning of our story, you can do it here.  She has really come a LONG way.  What a trooper!  I feel like we can see the light at the end of the tunnel now and everything is really pretty easy.

March 12th - Week 44

I have a few fun things to post that have happened this past week, but I only have a few minutes, so I am going to do my regular weekly update for now.

On Monday, the 11th, Kayla was scheduled to go in and get Pentamadine.  We decided to do it on a day different from chemo because of the risk of mixing it with the new anti-nausea medication.  The clinic called me that morning and canceled it because it was too close to her chemo.  So, I rescheduled it for next Friday.

Tuesday, we packed up and went to the clinic.  Benson went to another friend's house (somewhere he hadn't been before. . . and he did great) and Kayla, Sadie and I headed to Boise.  We got there and Kayla got checked in.  Miss Jenn was out in the lobby and took care of Sadie and all our stuff so I didn't have to haul it back and forth.  That was nice. :)  Kayla got checked in --and we got a good measure of her height for the first time in over a month. :)  She is 107cm ( I think . . . maybe it was 108cm--I need to do these updates sooner before I forget everything).  When she was first in the hospital, she was 102cm.  That was just about 1 year ago.  So, it is great that she has grown.  Chemo often stunts growth.  She has gotten taller, though, and gained weight.  Kayla looks so great and normal compared to a lot of the other kids that we see there.  I feel so blessed!

After getting accessed, we went back out into the lobby to wait to meet with Marnie.  Marnie came out and told me that she was running behind, but that she wanted to get Kayla's fluids started and chemo ordered so that we aren't wasting time (yay).  So, we went back to the chemo suite to get started.  We got our normal spot with the bed, which was nice because it gives me a place to lay Sadie down.

We met with Marnie quickly  Nothing too much to talk about.  Everything looks great.  Oh, except her ears are pretty full of wax.  Bad mom thoughts started creeping in to my head. . . I haven't been cleaning out her ears!  I mentioned that and Marnie said that she doesn't want me cleaning out Kayla's ears (oh, I guess I was fine. . .)  but that if she got sick or anything happened and the doctor would really need to see in her ears, that they would have to clean them out.  So, Marnie told me to put a couple drops of Hydrogen Peroxide in them every night or every other night just to keep the wax soft.  Okay. . . I'll try to remember.

So, we spent the day in the chemo suite watching a movie, eating lunch, and taking walks.  Miss Jenn came in and played Legos with Kayla for the last hour or so.  It was so nice!  Sadie was sleeping and since I had been up several times that night with Benson, so I laid down and rested for a little bit.  It was a very slow day in the chemo suite.  For most of the day, we were the only ones in there.  That was very nice too.  It gives us a chance to chat a little with the nurses.

Once we got home, I had about an hour and a half to get everything together with the kids and dinner (which my wonderful visiting teacher brought) and bed before Bryson and I left for separate meetings and a babysitter came over.

The next morning, Kayla seemed to feel okay.  She did run in and throw up once, but besides that, she felt pretty good for the rest of the day.  Hooray!  This is soooooooooooo much better than zofran.

March 5th - Week 43!

Last Tuesday was our clinic day. : )  We got the kids off to school, packed everything up, left Benson for Bryson to drop off at a friend's because he was still asleep when we left, and headed over to Boise.

When we got there, I was looking over Kayla's med sheet, which I do each time, and I realized that I had forgotten to put on sleepy cream!  Oh no!  I totally forgot about it!  We have been coming weekly for almost a year and this is the first time I spaced it.  So, nurse Heather came out and got us and she put sleepy cream on Kayla's port and we headed back out to the lobby.  She told us they would wait 45 minutes before accessing her port.  Sigh.  That would lengthen our day.  Kayla did get checked in (she STILL won't stand on the scale alone and she STILL refuses to have her height measured) and we met with Marnie before she was accessed.

We didn't talk about anything too exciting.  Kayla looks great and is doing great.  I think our most recent miracle is that everyone in the family had been sick with something: a cough, sore throat, throwing up, fever, etc.  for the past two weeks. . . except Kayla.  She has had nothing.  I was even sick for a couple of days.  I am so grateful for that tender  mercy.

When the 45 minutes was up, Kayla got accessed and we waited to hear about her counts to see if she could start her next cycle of chemo.  We got the thumbs up from Marnie after a little while and headed back to the chemo suite!  They are doing lots of construction at the clinic right now and the chemo suite is about twp-thirds of the size it was (which was pretty crowded already).  We found a little spot and did our thing.

Kayla watched part of a movie, ate lunch, did some projects. . . the usual.  There was an older boy there that needed a breathing treatment, but there was no space available for him.  Penny, the chemo nurse, didn't want him to do it around Sadie, and since we were the only other people on that side of the suite, we went out to the lobby and played for awhile while he got that.

It was actually nice to be out in the lobby for awhile because it is nice and open out there.  Miss Jenn brought Kayla a little Lego Friends set that we spent time putting together.  Jenn told Kayla that she would keep this set at the clinic for a few weeks, so Kayla could play with it there, but then she could take it home.  Nice!  We love Lego Friends. :)

We went back to the chemo suite and hung out there for the rest of the time.  Before we left, Kayla told me that she wanted to give Jenn a hug.   All of the nurses and staff have tried super hard to win Kayla over and Jenn is always asking Kayla for a hug, but she always refuses.  So, when we were walking out to leave, Kayla went over to Jenn and have her a big hug!  Jenn was so surprised!  It totally made her day. :)

We drove home, and continued on with our busy night.

I have been so excited about the new anti-nausea medication because it worked so well last time.  When Kayla woke up on Wednesday morning, she didn't feel really good.  She ran to the bathroom several times thinking she would throw up, but never really did.  So, off and on during the day she felt better and worse.  I was so bummed!  I don't know why it didn't work as well.  When we were at the clinic, a couple of the pharmacists came and asked me how it was working and I had told them it was great.  I guess we'll see how it works next time.