Week 40 complete

Cheyenne has completed week 40 this past weekend.  We went for her bloodwork and physical on thursday morning.  Her neutrophils jumped from 0.6 to 3.2.  Cheyenne was admitted to the floor thursday night and chemo on friday.  She handled it very well this past round.  Minimal sickness friday evening, and her usual car sickness on the way home saturday. 
We head back in for counts and chemo this coming friday.  Hopefully Cheyenne will feel chipper enough to go to school for a day this week, although I think she is enjoying hanging around home just fine.

Just waking up from her nap

Update April 23

Just a quick little update.  They kids have been enjoying the fresh air and sunshine the last couple days (they loved the snow too!) and I have been procrastinating the blog update.
Yesterday Cheyenne had a clinic appointment and fingerpoke.  It was a quick appointment because her counts weren't quite high enough yet to proceed with chemo.  We head back on Thursday and if her blood is over 0.75 she will be admitted at night for chemo on Friday.  Her blood was 0.6 and usually once she starts going up she goes up quickly.

Update April 19

Headed out bright and early (okay maybe not quite so early by the time you dress and herd 4 kids out the door) to the hospital for Cheyenne's bloodwork and physical.  Cheyenne's blood was 0.9 on tuesday and they were hopeful that it would be higher today and we could start chemo a couple days earlier.  Not only had it dropped, she was neutropenic today so we are now on alert for any fevers.  We head back next monday for fingerpoke again and depending on how her blood has recovered will result in when she will be admitted. 
Lesson #1:  Don't plan further ahead than a day, so if you all think I am disorganized just know it saves me from disappointment when my plans change hour by hour.

Lately Cheyenne has been creeping up and walking on her tiptoes.  I chalked this up to her 'copying' Wyatt and 'wanting' braces.  I have reminded her to 'heel strike' and have even starting doing the exercises to stretch her muscles.  Today in clinic the nurse practitioner watched Cheyenne and was concerned because it was continual and when she does step flat foot she has to over compensate and rolls onto the side of her foot.  So we had to see a physiotherapist and the long and short of it is that is is one of the side effects of her vincristine chemo.  Cheyenne will be referred back to Dr Burrows, the pediatric orthopedic surgeon.  The vincristine drug has a lot of nasty side effects.  The most common of which is neuropathy.  This can sometimes linger for years after chemo has finished.  So far it has effected Cheyenne's bowels, and now her feet(because she has no feeling in her heel she wont touch it to the ground, in turn her muscle shortens and she can't).  For alot of kids they cant feel(numb/tingling) their feet so they 'slap' their feet and have a very distinguished gait.  This was one of the first things I noticed when we were in the clinic with the other kids.  Cheyenne is also getting a speech assessment.  They feel that this is another side effect of neuropathy.  Her speech has never been that great, she has a vast vocabulary but her prenounciation has always suffered.  Since diagnosis this has slowly gotten worse.  I can usually understand her but if she gets really excited or upset she is generally harded to understand.
Please pray that her counts will recover over the weekend, that she will be fever free and we can continue with her chemo at the beginning of the week. 

For those who have been following Collin's story, he came out of surgery with excellent results.  What an amazing answer to prayer.  I believe they are planning on closing up his tummy tomorrow if the swelling has subsided. 

A little Sunshine for you!

I have been trying to upload this for a bit now.  For some reason pictures wont upload that easily for me.
For those of you who ask, the girls match Wyatt.  This is the only way we can get him to wear purple.  That being said he told me to never ever buy him girl clothes.  He forgives Grammie!

Those who have been following and praying for Collin.  He has come out of surgery and is doing well.

Week 39 / Prayer request for Collin

We are slowly nearing the end.  Although Cheyenne has 9 weeks reamining in her protocol, she only has 7 weeks of chemo remaining.  The other 2 weeks are scan weeks and she will be receiving a CT and MRI.  Cheyenne went yesterday for fingerpoke and her chemo in clinic.  Her counts were great at 12 days and were already at 0.9.  Because the have to be above 0.75 plus there has to be so many days between chemo we left with an appointment for monday morning and then be admitted monday night for chemo tuesday.  This would take 2 days off of her cycle.  But when we got home the doctors had discussed and we are heading back friday foe a physical and more bloodwork (to make sure she is high enough) and we will be admitted sunday night for chemo monday.  She will return to clinic friday and be back on her original schedule.  Please pray that she continue to be able to recover her counts post chemo without injections.  God has been good to us.  Cheyenne fights everything and this would have been very hard to do with her.  We have been able to avoid it thus far.

Please join us in praying for Collin Anderson.  He will be going in to surgery around 7:30 this am to have his tumour removed.  He lives in Wisconsin and is the same age as Cheyenne.  His cancer is neuroblastoma and is surrounding his major organs.  He will be in surgery most of the day.  For his parents it will be a long day.  We were told 5 hours for Cheyenne and it turned into 9.  They were given a 6-12hour window.

Thank you for all who continue to pray for Cheyenne and our family.

Week 38 complete

Just a quick note.  We headed to clinic this morning for fingerpoke and chemo.  We were able to get in and done relatively quickly.  Her counts were good but will bottom out by the end of the week.  Cheyenne was able to go to school yesterday, and a little trip to the mall with Aunt Sarah today.  I have hardly took her in grocery stores lately so she was so excited, until we got into the store and she realized people were looking at her.  She becomes very self conscious of her bald head, once she is comfortable around people she doesnt care.  Just as we were ready to leave a elderly gentleman came over to Cheyenne.  She was expecting the usual questions and staring so she tried to hide behind Sarah.  It brings tears to my eyes just writing this, he leaned over and said to her 'you are such a beautiful girl and one day you break many hearts' and as he turned and walked away I could see the scars he bore from cancer.
As we left clinic today I thought, its only Tuesday I can get a lot accomplished in the next few days aeeing as my appointments are done for the week.  And then we came home and somehow Brielle ripped out the NG tube........  So at some point we are headed back, and unless I find some trick to get meds into her it will be sooner than later.

Week 37 and scan results

I have tried to write this post 3 times unsuccessfully.  I cant seem to put my thoughts into words so I apologize if my thoughts dont make sense.  We were admitted last night for hydration and chemo today.  The ward seems unusually busy.  And by busy I mean crazy.   Yesterday was too busy in clinic to get Cheyenne's scan results so I was told I would get them today.  It was a long, agonizing wait and finally at 5 o'clock tonight we were seen by the oncologist.  The reason we had to wait so long was because the MRI hadn't been read, and when they called to have it read they weren't able to read the head MRI so they had to call someone in to read it.  Both MRI and CT have come back clear with no evidence of disease.  NED, three little letters that have come to be the coveted results of so many oncology parents.  Although we are very grateful for all that the doctors and nurses have done for Cheyenne, we give God the glory.  Thank you to all those who have prayed and continue to keep Cheyenne and our family in your prayers.    Cheyenne has 11 weeks of treatment left and will continue to be scanned frequently.  Well its off to sleep (if the neighbouring rooms sleep tonight).