April 17, 2011

Well today is Sunday and day 5 of chemo.  We are up in Calgary right now and she is getting her last chemo treatment right now as I'm typing.  This is her last round of Ifosomide and Etoposide and we are so glad.  She gets very high hydration 24 hours a day with this chemo because it is so hard on the bladder.  They also give her mesna twice a day which coats the bladder and protects it from bleeding.  Because of the insane hydration she is getting she goes to the bathroom every 1 1/2 or 2 hours.  It is always an emergency to make it to the bathroom so every couple of hours all night she shoots out of bed and says "Mom I gotta go right now!!!"  Then I jump up to unplug her IV and get her to the bathroom in time.  We are excited to be done this one!!!! Today she is getting a blood transfusion and then she has to hydrate for 24 hours so we can go home tomorrow.  The next chemo is the awful Doxorubicin and it is the last of that one! YAY!!!!!! That one is hard on the heart so she has to have an ECG and Echo done before that chemo.  We are so glad to be able to scratch certain ones off the list now even though we still have 20 weeks to go.  We hope we can get through the week without a fever and another admittance to the hospital but we are prepared for it. After the next round we have evaluation week again where we have all the tests and scans to see how things are working.  Last week we went to the spaghetti supper fundraiser for Zach Giesbrecht who is a 6 year old boy newly diagnosed in Taber.  Kevin and Kade shaved their heads again and we were all able to go as a family and meet them which was really nice. A few weeks ago, Brynn's uncle Corb did a benefit concert for us in Taber and had an overwhelming response.  It sold out and they had an auction that was amazing.  Kevin's boss bought a Calgary Flames jersey at it and then handed the jersey to Kevin.  We still are amazed at the support we continue to receive and feel so blessed to live where we do.  Thanks again for all your support! We will continue to try to keep you all up to date!!!!

March 2011

Well March was a pretty good month except for a little excitement!  First my oldest Sadie turned 14 and is going to Stake dances now and can get her learners! Crazy!!!!! We came home on the 5th and got to enjoy a few days at home.  On Thursday the 9th Brynn needed platelets and wasn't feeling that good so they told us to go to Lethbridge emergency because they would have to bring platelets out to Taber and it would be faster.  That turned out to be a big mistake!  We were in emergency from 4:30 until 9:30.  I was in tears because of frustration.  My daughter is neutrapenic (no counts) and we are waiting around with all these sick people coming and going.  I was ready to leave and take her back to Taber where the emergency is way less busy and they took us up to pediatrics.  Brynn gets really nervous to get her port accessed by new people.  I asked if they could call the nurses in the Cancer unit to come but they were closed.  They assured us that they could do it and it was the worst access we have ever had.  It was just mass confusion and when they are totally nervous it makes me really nervous.  They pushed the needle in way to far and continued to hold it down into her skin.  Brynn was crying and saying OW OW which she has NEVER done before!  By the time they were done, we were both in tears and I was on the phone to Calgary seeing if they had wrecked her port which would mean surgery to fix or change it.  They reassured us that it wasn't wrecked.  We came home the next morning and late that night she got a fever.  Thanks goodness we just left her accessed so we didn't have to go through that again.  We went and started antibiotics in Taber and then went to Calgary because Taber was full.  It felt good to be back at Children's where I can relax and know that they know exactly what to do.  We came home on Sunday the 13th and then had to wait to start chemo until her platelets were over 75.  Now that we are down to the last half of chemo,  the end is in sight and we just want to get going to the end.  It is getting more and more frustrating for Brynn and us when her counts are taking longer and longer to recover because her bone marrow is just tired out from so much treatment.  We are waiting 2-3 weeks to start week 29 treatment so it just prolongs treatment.  When we finally got to start on the 23rd it was Doxorubicin which is the hardest chemo on Brynn so far.  The last time she had it she had pretty severe mucoucitis and couldn't eat or even talk for 6 days.  We were nervous how bad it would be.  We all fasted and prayed that it wouldn't be as bad.  When she finished and we went home we just waited.  Just over a week later on April 1st she needed transfusions and had a bit of a sore throat but no fever.  We went for the transfusions to Taber and I called our nurse and told her she had a sore throat and her counts were zero.  She said to drive up as soon as she was done getting her transfusions.  Kevin and I questioned going up when Brynn didn't even have a fever yet but decided to listen.  We got the Calgary hospital at 7:00 that night and at 9:00 she spiked a fever.  That night there was a big snow storm and I was sooo glad I had drove up before that hit.  The next day Brynn's throat was a bit more sore and her bottom was getting sore.  They gave her some morphine and she just ate popsicles for about 3 days.  Then is all started getting better at once!  We thought her counts must be up because her throat sores were gone- but they took 2 more days to start rising.  The sores this time around were much more manageable and were were so grateful that our prayers had been answered.  Brynn even said- that wasn't so bad!  She is such a trooper!!!