Happy New Year!

We hope everyone had a Merry Christmas.  We sure did!  We were able to spend time with family and friends over the Christmas weekend.  On Christmas Eve, we celebrated with Russ's mom side of the family.  Korene, Russ's cousin, and her husband, Al, decided to have a raffle to raise money for ABC 4 Maddy.  All of our family members bought tickets for a chance to win a high chair and a child's table and chair set that Al had built.  After all was said and done, we raised $1020.00 for Relay for Life.  It also reminded us of what Christmas is really all about.

On Christmas day, Santa was good to us.  He brought Maddy an electric scooter and the video was taken Christmas morning.  We just had to share.  As you can see on the video, Maddy had a little difficulty remembering to let go of the throttle before trying to get off the scooter and she sacrificed her body to save Andre's car.  Good thing her platelet count was up on Christmas-  not too many bruises!  After that first ride, Maddy kept saying that Santa brought her a dangerous toy.  Shame on you Santa!  Since then though, she has gotten used to the scooter and loves it!

We are now looking forward to celebrating the new year.  Maddy had counts twice this week, and she still isn't where she needs to be to start her next treatment.  We are now looking at next week.  On one hand, we are glad that she has been able to enjoy the holidays.  On the other hand though, these delays just prolong this whole process.  It just reminds us that we have to enjoy each day and not waste time trying to control  things that are beyond our control.  This of course is often easier said than done!


Happy New Year!

Update

Maddy has had a rough couple of weeks since she started the Intesification 2 phase. Maddy did not respond well to the chemo that she got at the start of this phase. She spiked fevers and had to stay a couple extra days in the hospital than expected. Her counts dropped dramatically and quickly. She has now had to get three pints of blood and three platelet transfusions. She has also had some stomach pain and vomiting. We are also still having to give her daily shots to try to generate white blood cells. Since her counts are not yet recovering, her next chemo treatment that was supposed to start on Monday is going to be delayed. We hope to avoid the hospital for the holidays. It looks like she may start the next treatment the week after Christmas. The worst part of all this is the fact that she has to do this three more times!

On top of all of this, we have also been busy getting ready for Christmas. Maddy is so excited and has been trying to get me to let her open presents early. Her sister Julia is busy with school and basketball. We are all ready for a little break to rest up.

We hope everyone is able to enjoy time with family and friends over the holidays. We wish you all a very Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year!