Tuesday, September 18, 2012

We had a sickness pass around our house over the past week.  Lilly and Gus started with and and it progressed to me and Sarah.  Jess was supposed to teach at church on Sunday but instead was taking care of her sick family.  Luckily Sarah's fever didn't stick around and it never crossed the threshold of 101F so we didn't have to go the ER.

Sarah is excited for her birthday tomorrow (9/19) but we will celebrate it as a family this weekend. She finally started maintenance on Friday.  She gets a week of steroids (a different kind from before) as part of each round.  It isn't the same dose, but does cause some of the mood swings.  Since the dose is different, it hasn't been as bad as it was during the other treatments, but there are times that both Jess and I have to remind ourselves that she is on steroids.

We are grateful for the continued love and support.  I am humbled by the service that is rendered in our behalf.  I feel the prayers and the thoughts and they lift me up each day.  Thank you.

Sunday, September 9th 2012

It looks like it has been two weeks since I last updated.  Sorry for the amount of time since the last update.  It has been a busy time at work.  The kids have been mildly sick and Sarah is fighting to get her numbers up. Sarah has been low numbers for the past two weeks.  We were supposed to start maintenance this past Wednesday, but her numbers were in the 200's, so she has to wait a week.

Gus had a birthday last week, but due to him being sick, we postponed his party until today.  I made a Lightning McQueen cake.  He got a wagon to share with Sarah.  He already loves to be in it and we haven't taken it outside yet.

Gus's Cake

Lilly starts school tomorrow.  She is excited and a little nervous about starting the first grade.  Jess has been ready for this day for three months.  We will have to get the house into a schedule again.  She starts earlier in the day than she did at the other school.  It will be good to get here on a system where she has to get up earlier.

Thanks for all the love and support.  We feel the prayers and thoughts of our family.

Sunday - August 26th - Back Home

We are all back home.  Sarah didn't break the fever mark and was able to come home today.  She had a fun time spending Saturday night and Sunday with Grandpa Butch who stayed at the hospital with her. The kids have loved having Grandpa around.

In the middle of Church, Jess came and found me and she said that she was getting a migraine.  I took her home to let her rest and hopefully quell the migraine.  I kept Lilly and Gus at church with me.  When we got home, Jess was still needing more rest, but was a bit better.  We put Gus down for a nap and Lilly and I went to get Grandpa and Sarah from the hospital.  That gave Jess some good time to rest.  Hopefully the migraine doesn't return.

Thanks for all the love and support.  We feel the prayers of those who pray for Sarah and our family.  Here are a couple of videos Grandpa took while playing with Gus.

Friday, August 24th - Back in the hospital

I find myself composing another blog post from the hospital.  Sarah has been fighting a sickness for the past 10 days or so.  She has had low-grade fevers off and on during that time.  She started one about 3am this morning and it stayed for over 8 hours.  We called and got an appointment to get her checked out.  Her ANC is below 200 (actual - 24) so she was admitted in order to give her antibiotics to help her fight whatever it is.  There hasn't been any indication of what it is yet, but she has had a little bit of a running nose and a cough.

My dad flew into town today to come spend some time with us.  It was fun watching my kids play with him.  He brought Sarah and I to the hospital and stayed with us most of the day.  It was nice to be able to have him here to help out.  Jess's brother Jon has also been in town this week.  He came out for dinner on Sunday and is staying tonight at the house.  The kids love to have visitors to play with.

This will probably be the last time for a while that Sarah has to stay in the hospital.  She eneters maintenance on September 5th.   That means that they will try and keep her ANC above 1000.  She will have clinic visits monthly or so.  We are looking forward to it.

We are grateful for all the love and support.  We hope the hospital stay will be short.  Thanks for all the prayers.

Sarah losing her first tooth

I have been meaning to sit down and write this post since Sunday.  Sarah has had a loose tooth all of last week.  One of the times while she was under for radiation, the nurses tried to see if it would come out, but it wasn't quite ready.  On Sunday, Sarah was done having a loose tooth and came and asked me to pull it out.  I got some floss and tied a knot around the tooth and pulled it out.  She was excited to get the tooth out, but was a little scared of the blood that came.  We got that stopped and she was super excited to get a vist from the tooth fairy.

Sarah's missing tooth

Sarah has had a low grad fever every afternoon since Sunday.  We headed to the ER on Monday night to get her blood drawn and see if we needed to be admitted.  Because she hadn't hit the threshold (101F) and she didn't have any other symptoms, they let us go home.  She had a clinic visit today (Wednesday), and her hematocrit was low enough that she needs a transfusion with a possibility of platelets as well.  The doctor did say, that it was common when all the numbers were low that kids sometimes would spike a fever during transfusions.  If she does, then we are admitted for a few days.  We will see what happens.

Sarah has 2 more radiation treatments and another clinic visit before we start maintenance.  From what they tell us, life will be come more normal after this next week.  We are looking forward to it.  It has been a long year.  We are grateful for all the love and support that has been given us.  It would have been a lot harder if we didn't have people praying for us and helping out.

August 11th - First week of Radiation done.

This past week has been busy as Sarah has had early morning appointments every morning M-F to get her radiation.  The radiology clinic at UWMC does a good time to keep on time.  We are also one of the first patients of the day, so we haven't had many delays.  Sarah was worried about the radiation on Monday but has been good the rest of the week.  She has done well with the treatment so far.

Sarah's numbers are low.  Her ANC is already almost to the bottom.  Her platelets and hematocrit are also falling.  She will probably need a transfusion of either platelets or red blood cells this next week.  Today, we finished her last dose of Cytrabine.  It will be nice to not have to do the 4 days in a row again.

Seattle has gotten hot the past few weeks.  We pulled the inflatable pool out and have used it a few days this past week.

Playing in the pool

The Amazon Summer picnic was today (Saturday).  I took Lilly and Gus with me and we went.  Lilly had fun with the bumper boats and the hayride.  It was good to get them out in the Sun.  Lilly wanted to stay much longer than we did, but we had to get back to pick up Mom and Sarah from clinic.

Unfortunately, Gus has a fever this evening.  We hope that Sarah hasn't picked up the sickness but chances are that we will end up in the hospital sometime in the next week.  Thanks for all the love and support that we receive.

Gus loves the bubbles at the picnic

Lilly's Cheesy Smile

Lilly in the Bumper boats

August 3rd update - One year in.

It has been a busy week for us.  Sarah's appointment on Tuesday showed that she was ready to start the next round of chemo.  While this is the last round of weekly chemo appointments, it is also one of the most intensive.  She has had chemo appointments Wednesday, Thursday, and Friday this week.  We have one on Saturday with Sunday off.  Then Monday through Friday next week, she has radiation appointments in the morning with Chemo appointments Wed-Saturday next week.  The following week is only the daily radiation appointments all week.  By the end of August we should be in maintenance, which should allow us to get back into a routine.

August 2nd marked the one year mark for Sarah's diagnoses.  A year ago, we were in Primary Children's not knowing what to expect.  It has been a crazy year.  We have been in the hospital/clinic around 1/3 of the days this year.  Sarah is gone through 6 rounds of Chemo with many stays in the hospital.  During this time, Lilly completed her first year of school, Gus has learned to walk and run, we moved into a house with a back yard, I got promoted into management, and we have grown a lot as a family and as children of God.  We have learned how to be Christlike recipients to the countless hours and acts of service.  I can't begin to name them all.  I understand more of how the Lord loves each of us and what it means to persevere through our trials.  I have learned to take joy in the many miracles that the Lord gives us each day.  His hand is truly guiding our lives in ways that we don't imagine.  I am grateful that I have been given the chance to learn through this experience.  I hope I can share some of the things that I have learned with others.

We have a few pictures of Gus to post since we haven't put any up in a while.  We are grateful for all the love and support that we receive each and every day.

Gus and His Daddy

Gus with his new haircut