End of Radiation Celebration!

Lately, we have looked for any reason to celebrate.  Today marked the end of radiation, so Maddy decided this was cause to celebrate!  To start this celebration, we went out for dinner- Chinese of course with her Chinese food buddies Miss Heckel and Mrs. Buehrer.  She will also be bringing donuts for her classmates and staff at the elementary tomorrow! It has been great to see Maddy at school and so happy lately!  We hope to continue to find more reasons to celebrate!

Radiation
(and Maddy got to bring the mask home-  great for Halloween!)

                                  When the doctor is away the patients will play- or atleast this patient!

P.S.

The 2012 Cure Search Walk in Toledo was a huge success raising over $30,000 for childhood cancer research.  Thanks to everyone who donated!

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!

July Update

Maddy was able to get out of the hospital on July 4th to spend time with family over the holiday. She was also able to be home when some relatives came in from New Jersey on July 9th. This was nice! Her counts bottomed out though as expected and she has had to have two platelet and two blood transfusions. She also has had to have "the shots" daily to help her white blood cells come back. With her counts so low, she ended up spiking a fever on Friday and had to go to the hospital. Something grew on one of the cultures, but the antibiotics seem to be working, so hopefully she will be able to come home by Wednesday. Not soon enough for Maddy! She continues to be experiencing a lot of stress and anxiety. We are trying to work through this and get her some help dealing with all the thoughts and feelings she is having. This is harder though to help her get through than all the physical pain she has experienced over the last two and a half years! All the continued thoughts and prayers are very much appreciated!

Cycle 4

Maddy was actually able to start Cycle 4 on time on Monday. We hope to finish up treatment and be able to get out of the hospital Wednesday afternoon in time to spend some time with family on the 4th of July. Her chemo treatment is going well, but Maddy is experiencing a lot of anxiety. She is worrying about everything! Her dad and I don't know how to help her. It is very frustrating and breaks our hearts to see her "beat herself up". We are praying that she can find some peace and comfort.