Welcome to Maintenance!

Maddy has officially started Maintenance!  She had a clinic visit and got all of her home meds today.    She then went for her first radiation treatment.  Mom cried, but Maddy did great!  We now have the "plan" for the next 50 weeks.  We are praying for no more set backs!

Maddy thrilled with her first evening dose of meds...  37 and 1/2 pills!

A Picture Is Worth a Thousand Words!

Heading off to school on the first day...

Start of a New Phase

While many kids are dreading the start of school and the end of summer vacation, there is rejoicing in the Lambert house!  We found out today that Maddy will officially be able to go to school tomorrow-  the first day of fourth grade!  Of course, it will be an adjustment-  she is used to staying in her PJs all day while "doing" school at home, but she is so excited!

Maddy completed the last chemo treatment in the Intensification II phase last Thursday.  Once her blood counts stabilize from this treatment, she will officially start the Maintenance phase for a second time.  Because she relapsed in February 2011 in her spinal fluid, she will be getting cranial radiation for 10 days at the start of the Maintenance phase.  This is tentatively scheduled to start next Monday-  she will be going to the clinic for bloodwork on Friday to determine where she is at.

We are just so glad to be back at this stage and hopefully will have no more set backs!



Again, just wanted to remind everyone that:

Coming up on September 8th is the second annual CureSearch Walk in Toledo.  All the money raised by CureSearch goes directly to children's cancer research and resources.  You can go to the link below to check it out and donate to this cause:

http://www.curesearchwalk.org/toledo/maddy

Did you know:

• Every day, 36 children are diagnosed with cancer.
• Children's cancer affects all ethnic, gender and socio-economic groups.
• The average age of children diagnosed is six.
• More than 40,000 children undergo treatment for cancer each year.
•  Cancer is the leading cause of death by disease in children.

September is also Childhood Cancer Awareness Month-  wear your GOLD ribbons!  

End of Cycle 4

After the usual delays, Maddy's counts were finally where they needed to be to start her last high dose methotrexate chemo treatment today.  She will be in the hospital for a few days for this treatment and then will have to recover before one more chemo treatment to complete this last cycle of treatment in this phase.  Once this is done, she will have radiation and then finally hit the "Maintenance" phase.  We go for a consultation next week for radiation since this will be a new experience.  We are hoping for minimal delays from this point on so that Maddy can get back to school ASAP.  It looks like she won't quite make it for the start of school, but we are hoping she will make it back shortly there after.

It is hard to believe that Maddy is going to be a fourth grader and Julia an eighth grader!  Boy does time fly!

Coming up in September is the second annual CureSearch Walk in Toledo.  All the money raised by CureSearch goes directly to children's cancer research and resources.  You can go to the link below to check it out:

http://www.curesearchwalk.org/toledo/maddy

September is also Childhood Cancer Awareness Month-  wear your GOLD ribbons!