Happy Easter

Hope everyone had a wonderful Easter.  The last few weeks have gone very well.  Lisa is handling her every third week of chemo very  well.  She seems to tire easily, but with a daily 2 hour nap is pretty happy and full of energy.

The last week was Easter Break for the kids and we enjoyed some movies, going bowling, and an overnight trip to Frankenmuth with our good friends the Grendysas.

The last two days have been filled with family, fun, food and lots of Easter eggs.  We had a great time and enjoyed being outdoors for a few hours each day.

Mike and I have decided we are going to do another fundraiser this year. Last years event focused on raising awareness about Neuroblastoma and we raised $21,0000.   BLAST 2011 will focus on raising awareness about childhood cancer and the need for research.  The event will be June 11 from 12-6.  We will have food, a funfair, vendors and raffles.   Please mark your calendar and spread the word. 

The event is only 6 weeks away! We can definitely use help again in arranging this event.  If you have any good raffle items or are able to volunteer your time please let us know asap by emailing info@blastnb.com. 

It takes a village to raise a child.  Hopefully our village can also help us to BLAST childhood cancer.

Keep praying and keep living every day to its fullest!

YEAHHHHHHHHHH!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Continued Interval Response to Therapy

Scan results are in....Continued Interval Response to Therapy (this means they are seeing less cancer than last scans and Lisa is responding to chemo) ...need I say more????

Scans this week

Sorry for the lapse in writing, we've been a bit busy with life this past week.

Lisa went for her bloodwork and CT scan yesterday. Today is day one of the 2day MIBG scan.  Not sure if it's because Lisa has been doing so well or just a feeling of complacency from doing all of this for so long, but up until yesterday I was feeling pretty positive and I wasn't anxious about the tests.  . 

However, as we strolled around the hospital yesterday, the sinking feeling in the pit of my stomach began to grow and a little bit of panic set in with a whole bunch of what-ifs.  While Lisa has been doing extremely well, she has begun to come down with a cold and as yesterday wore on she was becoming progressively more pale.  When they took her vitals, they looked up in surprise when her temperature registered 99.9.  I told them take it again, they did and it was 98.6....I told them write that one down and we quickly exited before they did the standard 3rd try.  We found out later that her counts are good, so I'm hoping the first temperature reading was just a fluke. 

The what-ifs have mounted  because Lisa tripped the other day and is continuing to have pain 2 days later.  No one saw her trip and she didn't say anything until a day later.  Buttttttt, since then she has been having a LOT of pain...tear-induced, face squinching, irritable, give me a pain pill now pain.  Normally this would probably slip thru my radar and I wouldn't pay much attention to it; however, this last week we received sad news from Lisa's school.  A fourth grader had fallen on the playground and while she seemed okay, she continued to have pain and it got so bad in the evening that her parents took her to ER for x-rays.  The results had them travelling immediately to UM/Motts because it was discovered that she had bone cancer in her leg.   This child and her family have jumped to the top of mu prayer list and have made me more cognizant about Lisa's ankle pain.  It is pretty extreme and there is no visible sign of injury which makes me wonder if those evil little cancer cells have taken over her ankle. 

I hope and pray that I am wrong and it's just from the fall that no one saw, but even as I type this my heart speeds up as I again wonder "what if" and direct every curse word I know (which is a lot) at those f-ing cancer cells.  The anger wells up in me...I'm so mad at that damn cancer and what Lisa has endured.  The scans better come back good and the chemo had better be working or I'm going to be very unhappy and everyone knows if Momma ain't happy, nobody is happy!  Arrrrghhhh!

So for the sake of everyone else, I hope scans are good.  I will keep reminding myself to breath and think positive thoughts.

As always, keep praying and offer up an extra one for our 4th grade school buddy! 

Popsicle Party

Yeah.....once again, Lisa sailed thru chemo last week.  While she gets a little more tired than usual, it doesn't stop her from having a Popsicle party with her Motts' buddies!

So far so good, no bad side effects this week.  She goes for scans next week which again will let us know if the chemo is stopping the cancer from progressing.  It is the best we can hope for at this point.

Happy Spring!

Things have going very well.  Lisa sailed thru the last chemo round without a hitch. The weather here in Michigan has been warming up and we've been able to wear our lighter jackets a few times in the last week.  Lisa loves being outside and going for walks.  Only problem is the spring weather seems to bring on spring colds.  Lisa is sniffling and coughing since Friday.  While normally not something to be alarmed about, it always makes me nervous when she enters a chemo week with her immunity down.  We start another round of chemo today and I'm hoping the cold doesn't throw her off track!

Keep your fingers crossed and send up a few extra prayers that she sails thru chemo this week!

Happy Spring...yeah!

See the PSA of Lisa with Gerard Butler on YouTube

Lisa has been doing awesome.  She sailed thru her last chemo without a hitch.  She continues to go to school for 1/2 day of kindergarten and then returns home to run laps around the house, boss everyone around and then take a 2 hour nap in the late afternoon.  She's even started kicking a soccer ball which may not seem like much, but it's tremendous giving the instability and pain she's always had in her legs!

We received news today that the Public Service Announcement that her Kids Kicking Cancer class did with Gerard Butler was finally posted on YouTube.  We are hoping soon that it hits the public television stations...how exciting!!  

You can view the video here: http://www.youtube.com/user/rabgkkc#p/a/u/1/iqoAGDvyr6Y

Keep praying and keep living every day to its fullest!

Lisa is doing great

Well....Lisa seems to have sailed right through the chemo last week and we are mid-way thru the "week after" and she still looks good, feels good and is running around.  I'm starting to think chemo is laced with caffeine!

Her limited side effects from the chemo this time give us hope that she can continue on the drugs for a while and that last month was just a fluke caused by some virus.  At this point, all we really have are these drugs because she is responding and the studies that are available are just that...studies.  There is no known success rate  and putting her into one of the studies would mean she would have to discontinue the chemo.  Doc's feeling at this time is that this chemo combination has been effective in the past and scans show that at this point the chemo is keeping cancer at bay so it's in her best interest to keep her on it.  In other words, if it ain't broke don't fix it...unless something comes along that we know will work better or her body starts shutting down from the toxicity level of the chemo we stick with it.

So...while it's not the miracle of a cure or all cancer is gone...it gives us the one thing many of us wish we had...more time.  She has been fighting for nearly 3 years now, almost double the 18 mos they originally predicted. I continue to pray that she will just keep going and going like the energizer bunny she appears to be.  She is so remarkable in her wisdom and attitude for such a young age, I can't imagine her succumbing to this horrible disease.  So I continue to pray, keep my fingers crossed and remind myself to breath and be thankful for each day...it truly is a gift.