Round 8

Yesterday Bree completed her chemotherapy. She’s finished! 6 months later, 8 rounds are done. I cant believe it. She’s been through so much. Oh, I am so glad she is done and hope and pray that she will never have to go through chemotherapy EVER again! (I forgot my camera so I took pictures with my phone. Not the best but at least you get the idea)
The only nap she got all day!

To recap, yesterday I took Bree in to the clinic for her counts at 9:30am. She was cleared to get chemo (doxorubicin and cyclophosphamide) and since it was just a one day treatment, they decided to do it from the POTC (Pediatric Outpatient Treatment Center). At first I had my doubts because it is very confined in there. There are about 10 beds crammed together in a very small room with a nurses station in the middle. So our space is literally about 5 ft by 5 ft. It’s tiny. There is a miniature crib for Bree and a chair for me to sit with a curtain for privacy. I was nervous about being there all day but it went better than I thought. We got there by 11am and she was able to start her saline bolus right away along with her premedications (adivan, kytril & decadron). What surprised me the most was that her chemo was there by 12pm so she was able to start that by 12:15! She had an hour & half of chemo drugs followed by a saline drip for 3 hours for post hydration. She also had urine collected so they could test to make sure her kidneys were functioning properly. (What they do is put cottonballs in her diaper, they soak up the urine and then the nurses put them in a syringe and squeeze the urine out of the cottonball…crazy huh?) So, by 4:45pm she was done. All she had left was to change her broviac dressing and we were outta there! No more chemo! Horrah! At least, we are praying that there is no more chemo for the rest of her sweet life.
Our sweet nurses Teresa & Jill! They loved to smooch on Bree!
Keeping her entertained...
As of now, her tests are scheduled for the first week of May. She will have a bone marrow biopsy and an MRI. This will tells us if the bone marrow is now clean of cancer and how much of her tumor is left. If her tumor is still there, she will most likely get an MiBG scan (intensive bone/organ scan) and the doctors will meet to discuss surgery. We are hoping and praying that the tumor no longer exists. If she can avoid another surgery that would be icing on the cake.

Sweet girl.
As for now, Bree is doing well. She was so tired yesterday. Truly wiped out. At about 4pm she started looking pale. She just wasn’t feeling well. When I got her home she gagged a few times and did throw up a little bit but we were able to get some medicine (zofran & adivan) down that helped keep everything down. The poor baby went to bed at 7:30 and slept straight through the night til 7am. (She usually wakes up several times a night after her chemotherapies). I am so glad her little body was able to rest.

As I think about these past 6 months, I think how hard this all has been. Watching my baby girl suffer, get better, then suffer again and again has been agony. It has been horrible to see her get sick and the worry that comes has definitely aged me. There have been times when I’ve felt strong and there have been times that I have wanted just to not do this anymore. I’ve just wanted to take Bree and run as far away as I could. But, I also knew that I couldn’t throw in the towel. We had to keep going. Keep fighting. That’s a phrase that we say a lot at our house. “Keep fighting.” If something is hard to do, we don’t give up. If I’ve learned anything through this experience so far, it has been to have faith and to be strong. Of course I’ve had times of doubt, sorrow and fear. Everyone does. It’s the moments after that when we pick ourselves up and ask for help from Heavenly Father. Then, have faith that He will help us. Thank you to all those that keep up with our Breezy, that pray for her and think of her. She is one loved little girl!