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Maddy's "levels" were not good yesterday so she had to stay one more night at the hospital- she was not happy and would not talk to Dr. Kitchen yesterday! However, her levels were where they needed to be this morning so she was able to come home pretty early this morning.

She has to go back on Thursday for another treatment, but that should just be a one day visit to the clinic. We are looking forward for the 4th of July weekend as we will be spending it with family and celebrating birthdays!

Friday

Maddy finally was able to start her treatment at around midnight last night. She is getting the gallon of methotrexate again that runs 24 hours so she will be done at midnight tonight. Our goal is to get out of here by Sunday. Thanks Miss Heckel and Mrs. Beuhrer for the visit. Maddy enjoyed having some company.

Counts Up

Maddy went to the clinic this morning for blood work. Her counts were up today, so she was sent to the hospital to be admitted for treatment- only after stopping at the cafeteria for some BBQ ribs for "lunch" at 11:00 AM. As of 8:00 PM, her treatment hasn't started yet. They are having trouble getting her pH level and specific gravity where it needs to be before they start the chemo. The nurse has a call into the oncologist to see what she wants them to do. Hopefully they figure it out soon so we can get going- the sooner we get started the sooner we can get out of the hospital.

Monday's Doctor Visit

Maddy went to the clinic for bloodwork yesterday and to the PICU for her bone marrow aspirate.  Her bloodwork came back and her platelet count was too low to proceed with the chemo treatment, so we will try again on Thursday.  The doctor looked at the bone marrow and said it looked good to her (no leukemia cells), but it will be sent out for further testing.  This was a relief!

Decision

We have had some friends and family ask, so we thought we would let everyone know that we have decided to have Maddy continue with the chemotherapy protocol instead of going for a bone marrow transplant.  This was a very difficult decision-  one that we put off as long as possible.  Now that the decision has been made, we are looking forward and praying for continued strength.

The decision to continue with chemo is a two year commitment consisting of the following:

Intensification 1 (4 cycles of chemo lasting three weeks each)
Reinduction (1 cycle of chemo lasting five weeks)
Intensification 2 (4 cycles of chemo lasting six weeks each)
Maintenance (5 cycles of chemo lasting 10 weeks each plus radiation)

This should take us to around March 2013.  Maddy is scheduled for a bone marrow aspirate on Monday and if her counts are good, she will start the first cycle of the Intensification 1 phase.


On another note, our family has signed up to walk at a Cure Search event to raise money for childhood cancer research.  The walk is Saturday, July 30,2011 at Pacesetter Park in Sylvania Ohio.  Registration/check in is at 8:30 am and opening ceremony and walk is at 9:30 am.

CureSearch is the ONLY research facility that contributes directly to the protocols and treatments of over 80% of all children that are battling cancer. It is also the only one that is exclusivly researching childhood cancers. 96% of all donations go directly towards research with only 4% administrative.  If interested, you can check out the event at www.curesearchwalk.org/toledo.  Our family joined the "DreamMakers" team with the Mercy Group.  

We hope everyone enjoys this beautiful weekend!  Happy Father's Day to all those dads out there!

Relay For Life 2011

Well, Maddy made it to RFL.  Again, another gift from God!  She was able to get her treatment and get out of the hospital in time.  She felt good.  The storms that the weathermen were calling for Friday evening seemed to just go past us...  need I say more!

The evening started off with Maddy being honored as the Junior Honorary Chair. She was so brave and stood up in front of hundreds of people and read her story, All About Maddy.  It was awesome to see the sea of lime green out in the crowd which gave her courage.  From there, the fun and festivities began.  Maddy had a wonderful time and held out until midnight before retiring to Mrs. D's RV for the night (she refused to go home to sleep).  Words can't express how wonderful the night was. (You just have to be a part of Relay to really understand it.)  Russ and I are so grateful for everything that Deb, Cindy, and Jen did to get the ABC 4 Maddy team up and going.  We are also grateful for the many people who volunteered their time and talents to make the team a success.  As of Saturday at noon, our team had raised $13,000 of the over $140,000 collected in Fulton county.  How AMAZING!!!!  I have included just a few of the many pictures that were taken.  Enjoy!

  

Thursday

MADDY IS HOME!!!!

Tuesday

Maddy finished receiving what amounted to be about a gallon of chemo through her IV over a 24 hour period around 8:30 this evening.  Julia and I went to the hospital this evening with strict orders to stop at the Spaghetti Warehouse to pick up dinner on the way.  We were able to sit down as a family and have dinner and a few laughs.  Maddy then started to get very tired.  After her chemo was finished, we cuddled in bed and she fell sound asleep in a very short time.  As I laid beside her, I noticed that she had lost all of her eyelashes...

Maddy is still determined to get discharged by Friday.  She made Julia and I bring everything she would need for Relay tonight just in case we have to go straight from the hospital on Friday.  I am afraid that the chemo is going to knock her down, but she is tough and usually does what she says she is going to do.   The other day, Maddy was working on a little craft project.  She wrote a little saying on an index card that she was going to use on her project, but decided not to and threw it away.  Russ and I dug it out of the trash and this is what she had written:

I know I'm strong,
I know I can do it,
and I know God is with me!

Treatment Started

After a two week break, Maddy's counts finally got high enough to start her next treatment today.  She was hoping to get one more week off because she really wants to make it to the Fulton County Relay For Life event this coming Friday.   We have already told everyone we can think of at the hospital that Maddy just has to be ready to be discharged by Friday!  Now, we are praying that her body metabolizes the chemo they are going to give her so they will allow her to be discharged  according to OUR plan!  : )

Maddy had her spinal this morning and she has been getting fluids all day in preparation for the chemo.  They are also checking her "specific gravity" to make sure she is ready-  that is a new one for us.  We are not quite sure what that means...  She is in good spirits and hopefully will not have any complications.

We'll let you know how the week goes...