The Power of Faith, Love, and Hope

We said we would get back to you with who had to buzz their hair at the High School... well, the pictures say it all!

In just three days, the high school raised close to $6000.00 in honor of Maddy. No one was safe from the clippers! Half of the money raised will be going to St. Baldrick's to help fund children's cancer research. The other half will be donated to other cancer organizations and charities of our choice.

It is hard to put into words how truly thankful our family is to be a part of the Archbold school district and community. While we have been through many trials this past 16 months, we have found ourselves continuously saying how lucky we are- lucky to be surrounded by such caring, generous people, lucky that any help we need is always just around the corner, and lucky to have a community praying for us. The events over the last few days have renewed our faith and once again, we find ourselves saying how lucky we are!

Today was a perfect example of what cancer CANNOT do:

Cancer is so limited... It cannot cripple Love. It cannot shatter Hope. It cannot corrode Faith. It cannot destroy Peace. It cannot kill Friendship. It cannot suppress Memories. It cannot silence Courage. It cannot invade the Soul. It cannot steal Eternal Life. It cannot conquer the Spirit!

From the Bottom of Our Hearts We Thank You!!!

The Lamberts

Sunday Update

Maddy had a pretty good week. She was able to Skype most days with her class which was GREAT! The steroids are starting to really kick in. Maddy is hungry all the time and has lots of aches and pains. She is also tired. Getting up and "going to school" really wiped her out each day. Her treatment on Thursday was uneventful which we like. Her immune system has rebounded for the time being, so hopefully she can get "out" a little. She has another treatment this coming Thursday and then on Friday, we go to the University of Michigan to meet with the bone marrow transplant team (this was changed from Monday). We were told to expect a two hour meeting and we have to bring Maddy. We are just trying to mentally prepare for this meeting right now.

On a positive note, there is going to be a St. Baldrick's event in Archbold on March 14th. (http://www.stbaldricks.org/events/mypage/eventid/4276/eventyear/2011)

The ladies organizing the event are honoring Maddy. When the Archbold High School Boys' Basketball team heard about this, they decided they wanted to do something so they are going to have a pledge drive this Monday - Wednesday. On Wednesday, the team will be buzzing their heads. Depending on how much they raise, there may be a couple of other people who have to do the same. We'll let you know... : )

Bald Is Back!

Maddy had her weekly treatment today. We were at the hospital for 7 hours. All went well though except Maddy's hair started falling out in clumps today, so on the way home, we stopped and got another hair cut. We went short last weekend, but it was not short enough to prevent hair from getting everywhere. Thanks to the ladies at Salon Bliss for helping us out through this transition. As you can see in the pictures, it is amazing how things can change in a few short weeks.

We also found out today that Julia is not a transplant match for Maddy. This means we will have some major decisions to make over the next couple of months. For certain types of relapses, there is a lot of data on what treatment option (transplant vs. chemo) has the best overall outcome. However, for Maddy's type of relapse, (Isolated Central Nervous System within the first 15 months), there is no clear cut answers when there is not a sibling ("related") match. We have an appointment in March at the University of Michigan to talk to the transplant doctors and review all of our options since we would be looking at finding an "unrelated" donor if we go the transplant route. I am sure we will then do a lot of talking with Maddy's doctors and try to figure out what our next step will be once we get through these first three months.

Relay For Life

Russ and I had decided that we wanted to start a school Relay for Life team this year. We had just sent out an email to see who was interested in joining us when Maddy relapsed. Luckily for us, we are surrounded by caring and supportive co-workers. Mrs. Deb Buehrer, Miss Cindy Heckel, and Miss Jen Hurst all stepped up and said they would lead the team. The team members also continued to grow. The team has some exciting fundraising ideas and are getting everything in place including registering the team. In honor of Maddy, the team is called "ABC 4 Maddy" (Archbold Bluestreaks Care for Maddy). You can go to the following web site to look up our team, see our members, check our progress, or make a donation to our team:

http://main.acsevents.org/site/TR?fr_id=31518&pg=entry

We're Home!

It was a very long day, but we finally got home around 7:30 PM. Maddy's surgery to remove her old port and replace it with a Broviac catheter went well. Maddy is quite sore, but hopefully will bounce back quickly before her next chemo treatment on Thursday. With this new catheter, Maddy will not have to get anymore needle pokes, but it is a lot more maintenance since it is partially external. Russ and I will get our lesson on how to do dressing changes and take care of the catheter to prevent infection when we go back to the hospital on Thursday.

It has been a long week and it is only Monday! We are glad to be home and hope to get a good night's sleep without the beeping of IV machines...

Thanks to everyone for continuous prayers!

Sunday Update

Maddy's fever broke and her cultures have come back negative. She is feeling better except for being tired and a little cranky- the steroids are kicking in! She is just going to stay at the hospital tonight since her surgery to put in her new port is Monday- just in time because her counts are already dropping from her chemo treatment last Thursday. If all goes well, she should be able to come home Monday after surgery. It will be nice for all of us to be home and to be able to sleep in our own beds!

Feisty Girl

Maddy has had a rough couple of days. It started yesterday with having her first treatment of the new induction cycle. We no more than got home when Maddy spiked a fever of 102-103 and had to go back to the hospital last night. When she arrived at the hospital, the nurses tried to access her port. Three nurses later and a half hour of "torture" for Maddy AND Russ, they were not successful. From talking to Russ, it sounds like our usually quiet and shy little girl told the nurses exactly what she thought about the whole process! Neither Maddy or Russ got any sleep during the night. Then this morning Marcy, one of the nurses from the clinic, came over to the hospital to try her luck at accessing Maddy's port. This was another "torture" session with Maddy's feisty side coming out, but eventually was successful. Julia and I arrived at the hospital after school to find a VERY exhausted little girl and her very exhausted dad. At this moment, Maddy is finally sleeping peacefully- except for when the alarms go off on her IV machine...

She is now scheduled to have surgery to put in a new type of port on Monday. We are hopeful this will eliminate some stress for her! For now, she is just hanging out at the hospital so they can monitor her temperature.