Thursday, February 26, 2009

More Prayers Needed!

Bree’s last chemo treatment went well. We were able to get in and out in one day. I promised her doctor I would bring him cookies if he could get us in and out in a day and he delievered, so Dr. Williams, your cookies are coming! :) We got there by 9am and as tradition goes, waited several hours for the chemo to arrive. By 2pm we were able to start her pre-drugs. She receives 3 drugs for nausea before the chemo enters her body. Then she received carboplatin, cyclophosphamide and doxorubicin. After the chemo was done she needed to have 3 hours of hydration via IV to make sure her kidneys were functioning okay. So, by about 8:15pm she was done! Yea! It surely was one L-O-N-G day! But, I am grateful it is over and that we didn’t have to stay any longer at the hospital.

I was also very grateful to go home because I wasnt feeling well that night. I started to get some kind of nasty flu bug...a complete package of chills, body aches, cough and lots of mucuous on the side! Gross, sorry! After a few days rest I'm starting to feel better, however, our little Breezy has seemed to come down with the same thing. Yesterday, I woke up at 4:30am to check on her and discovered that she had a fever. It was low grade (99.8) but by about 6am it was at 101.3 so we called the doctor. He sent us to the ER where they did a chest x-ray, urine sample, and blood work. Turns out she had a bad ear infection in her left ear but her counts are very high (ANC is 6900 which is really high for her) so that is a good thing. Another blessing is that her chest x-rays came back fine too. No pneumonia or RSV. Phew! So, they gave her a powerful antibiotic for the ear infection (rosephen) and let us go home by about 10:30am.

She was doing well yesterday and her fever seemed to be going away. Well, today she woke up at 5am and seemed very gaggy so I tried giving her adivan by mouth and that triggered her to vomit everywhere. She has been throwing up/gagging a lot today due to her either having nausea or getting the sickness that I have had. I think that's the reason why Bree has been so gaggy and throwing up. Too much mucuous! Along with her feeding tube down her throat, that probably aggravates her also, willing her body to throw up. Also, her fever seems to be coming back too. I'm very worried.

Anyway, what I am asking is if you would keep her in your prayers? Say a few extra for her? I am worried that if this cold gets worse for her she will end up in the hospital and possibly get pneumonia because her counts are supposed to drop any day now. When she drops, she is so suseptible to viruses and sickness in general that it could really be dangerous if she is already pretty sick when she does drop. I hope that made sense. The good side is that her counts were so high yesterday that our hope is that when she does drop, that she'll have a little bit of a cushion. But, the trend has been one day she is high, the next day she can be super low, especially if her immune system is fighting an infection. She might not have enough in her little body to fight it off.

I know Heavenly Father hears the prayers of the righteous and so I just wanted to extend the invitation to pray with us, ask that Breezy be okay and that her body will be able to fight off what she is sick with now. I know the more prayers the better!! I'll post pictures of our last round of chemo later but for now, I've gotta get my baby all better!



Friday, February 20, 2009

It’s been a while since I’ve updated! I discovered facebook and I admit it, I've been cheating on blogger with facebook. But, I'm back now, forgive me blogger. :)

We had a great Valentines day. Justin spoiled me (as he does every year) with a beautiful bouquet of roses. He also got a singing balloon for the boys and a single red rose and baby balloon for Bree. She is the princess after all!
Justin and I were able to go out to dinner with our long time friends, the Deckers, for a delicious dinner at Cheesecake factory. We had fun and enjoyed the great company! Thanks to my parents for watching our kids!

This year for Valentines day, little creatures found their way to our house…the Love Bugs! They turn everything pink and red in celebration of love! They magically turned the boys milk pink and also their pancakes!
They also turned the mac n cheese bright red (it looked more like hot tamales for lunch…kinda gross looking!) The boys loved this. Gunner was so excited to see what color his food would be!
The love bugs also left the kids some love letters and candy of course! What would this holiday be without a some sweets?!

This is my Dad holding Breezy. Such a sweet grandpa moment!

This past week we’ve been enjoying life at home! Bree has been doing really well. She’s had a cold but never got any fevers! She has pulled her NG tube out at least 4 times and I’ve had to put it back in. Sadly, putting the tube back in comes really easily to me now. I remember the first time she had to put it in. I couldn’t even bare to watch…now I put it down her in no time! But, she does seem to do well with it. She hardly cries and is the toughest baby around! And it is helping her to maintain her weight. She’s back on the growth charts! (Before the tube, she started to lose weight and fell off the charts). She also did well with her daily shots of neupogen. Her body recovered really well from chemo and the doc even discontinued her shots 3 days early because her counts were so high! Go Breezy!

This weekend Bree will go in for chemo again. Treatment #6. Fortunately, it should only be a 1-day stay at the hospital and then Bree should be able to come home. We expect to be called in tomorrow. She’ll receive 3 hours of drugs and 3 hours of hydration. Then, the cycle happens again…daily shots, low blood counts and nausea. Hopefully, she won’t have nausea like the past time, but around here we’re ready for it all!



Sunday, February 8, 2009

Catch up

This week we have been laying low and taking it easy at home. Bree has been doing great. She's happy as usual and hasn't been sick since our last hospital stay. We went in to the clinic and discovered her counts are dropping (which we expected) and her hemoglobin is low so she may need a blood transfusion this week but things are looking good. So far so good, anyway. Maybe I'll stop while I'm ahead and catch up on a few things!

Bree said her first word. Yea!! I put a quick video together of her saying her first word (with some help from big brother) and just some fun happy times we've had around here this past week. Her laughter is music to my ears! You have to watch the movie to see what her first word is! (Probably have to pause the music)


The boys have been up to their usual selves. Caleb has been doing so great in school. He's starting to match letters with specific pictures. Like A matches with a picture of an apple. He can do A-G and M, S & T! Go Caleb! He loves his teachers and loves going to school everyday. Caleb will be starting his spring baseball (special olympics) team next week. Cant wait to see my little stud muffin in action!



Gunner is my little rascal these days. He can always be found fighting the bad guys with his MANY swords. He has been caught too many times stealing knives from my kitchen to fight the bad guys in the backyard. It is cute to see his imagination at work. Lately he's been really into watching the Book of Mormon videos and keeps telling us how much he wants to be like Ammon...why you ask? Because he has a sword of course! (We are teaching him the true principle behind why Ammon was so great too!) He's also been quite naughty with getting out of bed at night. The past two nights this is where I've found him...
Stinker!

Justin has found a new love...for remote control cars that is! This was his birthday present this year.

This little machine can really move. It can even do donuts in the dirt! The boys love it and Justin loves to take it for a spin any chance he gets! Dont worry though, I'm still his #1. :)


And I have been really ambitious and have cleaned out cabinets, reorganized bedrooms and my pantry and I even planted tomatoes, zucchini, green peppers and strawberries. I've never had so many plants before so wish me luck that I dont kill them! I'll have to take some pics of my little garden plants, I hope they grow! 



Monday, February 2, 2009

Here we go again


Bree had her 5th round of chemotherapy this past weekend. We went in on Friday afternoon (after waiting all day to be called in again...argh!) and her chemo didn't start until 10:30pm (double argh!). It dripped over 3 hours so she finished at 1:30am. She gets her blood pressure taken every 15 minutes (during chemo only) so she was pretty agitated and I tried to hold her the whole time. The first night was pretty hard on her and me as neither of us got much sleep. But fortunately, the next two nights went much smoother. Thanks to a grandma that has a magic touch putting Bree to sleep (thanks mom!), she slept all night on Saturday and slept through her chemo! Yea! Then last night she went right to sleep after the knowledge that her Cardinals lost the Superbowl. Bummer.

We are home now and so happy to be here! So here are a few pictures of our weekend:

One of our nurses, Robyn, did face (and head) painting and she painted this on Breezy's head...unfortunately it didnt do the trick to bring home a Superbowl championship but at least it was a fun memory! That's the beauty of a bald head, you can paint big red birds on them!

Cute pic with Daddy!
Gunner playing on the ceramic cows outside the hospital. Ride 'em cowboy!
These are some of our nurses at the hospital. I thought they looked so cute all decked out in their Cardinals gear.
This last picture of Breezy is one of my favorites. I love her cute little teeth showing through her huge smile. And even though her head and eyebrows are going bald, she's still my baby supermodel. :)