Another Friday done!

Wow...What a difference a week makes! On Friday, back up to primaries for Chemo & another back poke (lumbar puncture). Avery has been a whole new person this week, compared to how bad it was in the previous weeks. Her stomach has hurt, but compared to what we were dealing with, it is so much better. When we asked Doctor Wright, her oncologist, yet again about going to Yellowstone, she encouraged us to go & said it would be good for her. We have had this trip planned 2 years ago, but 4 out of the 5 of us siblings were having baby girls that summer so we decided to wait. She has been so miserable we didn't know if we would go. Now off the steroids she is getting her personality back & then some. She's been so funny lately!

On Tuesday (24th) was the first time she noticed her chubby cheeks from the steroids. For her little body to get hit with so much Chemo & Steroids in a month, she was miserable & I guess never noticed her cubby cheeks. It's funny because while she squeezes her cheeks she keeps saying, "Why do I have these chubby cheeks"? And "Where did I get these chubby cheeks or she'll say "When are these chubby cheeks going away"? She doesn't get sad about it, just says it in a funny way over & over again. Yes she still has those chubby cheeks, but her swollen feet & legs and her swollen & hard tummy have gotten so much better. Her belly button is back to normal and she's been able to walk so much better. Since her appointment the week before which was the last time she had her steroid medicine she has lost 5 lbs which is so big.

I can't describe how great it is to finally see her smile again, to giggle which she has done a lot of this week , for her to get her cute personality back & to be nice to her sister again. Kelsi really needed this. I'm dreading when she has to be on steroids again, but embracing every good & happy moment I can. A few days after we stopped steroids I heard her giggling late at night in her room. I couldn't miss that. Johnny was ready for us to quiet down & go to sleep, but there was no way I was stopping her from being happy & laughing. We have seen no or very little of this in a month and it was so good to see her smile.

Good News: Her bone marrow test came back from the week before & her cancer is .001% undectable. This means her cancer is in remission. This is exactly what they wanted & of course what we wanted. PCMC test the cells in the bone marrow & then send them to Seattle where they have even more specialize equipment to look for any abnormal cells. However, if they were to stop treating her now, the cancer would come back. So we spend the next 2 plus years doing treatments to make sure they get ride of all the abnormal cells & to make sure the cancer doesn't come back.

Clinic took a long time because they had a hard time getting blood to withdraw from her port. They figured there was a clot in her port, so they gave her medicine called (TBA) to brake it up. The day before, home health came to draw blood because our visit was count dependent. This means if her counts weren't high enough we wouldn't start our next phase of treatment called "consolidation". She was not excited about getting poked, even if it was at our home. The first home health nurse couldn't get her port to withdraw blood. Avery was a little hysterical, which I'm sure didn't help. The nurse withdrew the needle & we had to wait until her boss could come & try. It went a lot better the second time. Jed, Cait, Becky, Kyle & Saydee showed up & it must of helped because she did a lot better. Her counts have dropped, but were still good. ANC went down from 2800 to 900; WBC was 3.7 up from 3.5; RBC was a little lower 2.48 from 2.92 & Iron was lower 8.3 now 7.8. Her HCT was 23.8 down from 26.8. They were lower, but they felt good about them so no blood transfusion.

The lumbar puncture went better then last week. Not that that would be hard to beat. She didn't have the severe adominal pain & wasn't bawling with hunger like last week. The nurse didn't even get yelled out this time when she woke up from sleep, so it was definitely a better experience.

For the next month, we go up to Primaries every week, but one. This is really getting so old & hard to make the drive every week, but we know we have to do it. She had Vincristine (Chemo in her port) and now for this month we give her chemo by mouth every day. Every time we go up to SL this month she has another back poke, which she is not a fan of, but again we have no choice.

Becky told Avery if she was brave then to call her in Beaver & she would get her paints ready & come paint her face. This is something she has wanted to do for a long time. She kept asking if we were in Beaver yet. This little girl doesn't forget. We had some fun with the paints. Avery painted Kelsi's & Avery & Saydee painted Becky's & mine. Good times!

Today, Dane Leavitt, a member of the fifth quorum of the seventy, came to visit our family. We appreciated his encouraging words & concern for our family. It was neat to have him in our home.