Lazy Sunday

Nothing much happening today. Chloe's ANC is back down to 300. She hasn't been feeling as well today and I'm having a hard time getting her to eat or drink much. We had a nice game of Apples to Apples and Sorry with the nurse and she beat Chloe and me both times. Hopefully tomorrow she'll feel a little better.

Saturday is a Special Day.

nothing really exciting happened today. Chloe was feeling well, but a little tired because of all the fun she had with Kinsey yesterday. Her ANC is back up again, but after talking to the Doc it is next week they are concerned about. The counts usually drop off around the 10th day after chemo. So i guess we'll wait and see how it goes. But i think it is a good sign that they went from 300 yesterday to 1500 today. Hopefully she will recover from the second round of chemo as quickly.

Chloe was excited to see 6-8" of snow outside the window this morning, but sad at the same time because she wants to go skiing but can't. She looks forward to teaching her little brother how one day when she is all better.

Have a good Sabbath everyone.

me and kinsey had a girls day today. we read books lots and lots of books. And we watched movies and playd apples to apples and painted again. I had a slushy a purple one. I had macaroni for dinnr and painted an elf building a toy and a holly jolly wreath and mistletoe. and kinsey painted a Christmas tree. my nurse is Brittne and my tech is angie. I got my nupogen shot and my Bandege changed too. and brittne told us that a nurse asked brittne to change my picc line cause she whanted to watch a little longer before she Changed other bandeges. It was funny. We watched high school musical and mickey mouse's Christmes. I got my platelets so I got hooked up to my pole. every time I spell two words I have to take a drink because I am not drinking enough. we read the magic school bus. merry Christmes, from chloe

Snow Day.

This morning it was snowing so Chloe and I decided to bust out of this joint and carve some turns while the white stuff was light and fluffy. Chloe bridged an epic gap with a huge dinner roll and carved some intense lines down steep, rocky shutes up at Snowbird. While skiing the back country we had a lot of time to contemplate our purpose in life and our relationship with mother earth, and one another. It was a great day that we will remember for the rest of our lives. We made it back just in time for her Nupogen shots and platelets transfusion.

Chloe's ANC dropped to 300 today and she started having nupogen shots to try and help her system bounce back. Hopefully they won't go too much lower tonight. Tonight she has been complaining of pain in her bum. She complained of this same pain for a couple of days back when she had all kinds of infections. Hopefully it is unrelated.

Kinsey came today and spent most of the day with Chloe so i could get out for some fresh air for a bit. I went to run a couple of errands and got lost - well, i knew where i was i just couldn't find the right exit. I realized once again why I like living where we do - some days I complain about how busy Logan's main street is thinking I'd prefer a smaller town. Here it seems like every street is busy. Anyway, Chloe was really looking forward to having Kinsey come and doesn't want her to leave tonight. She and Kins are buddies. They had a lot of fun doing girl stuff together.

Have a good weekend everyone. Chloe and I are going to live it up while we're out of town.

From Chlo-Pie

this is chloe. I am not hoked up to my chemo pole today. it is nice I painted a barne and animals. and i read books about the magic scool bus. i got a purse whith a dog to go in it for a prise. i miss my family merry Christmes everyone and to all a good night.

Up and Back Down

We got Chloe's blood counts last night and her anc was 1300 which is fairly decent. I was glad they were that high because the chemo that she just got will knock them right back down. Her ANC today is 900. I spoke to her doctor and he said to keep my fingers crossed because he expects her to bottom out real soon and we really don't want her to get an infection or fevers. I really hope she doesn't catch anything. The staph infection, C-dif, crypto and infections she had in her intestines were miserable for her and caused other problems too. We'll just pray she doesn't get a fever and rebounds quickly.

On the bright side, Chloe was feeling great today and has not been in her bed much at all. We did a lot of coloring, painting, puzzles, games, reading of books and just messing around. It's frustrating being here when she is feeling well, but with her ANC declining fast it's best that we stay until she recovers.

I ate an atomic fireball today. It was stinkin' hot, hence the name i guess.

New Blog Stuff

Stacie has been after me for a while to make our blog a little more festive because she has been a little short on time. We weren't able to get a family picture or anything to send out. So, I busted out the Santa suit and killed to birds with one stone here. I'm standing over there by myself because my gut is in the way and the girls kept bouncing off of it. A picture won't come to you in the mail, but you can see it here as many times a day as you would like. Seriously though... take some time to be with your families cause looking at us for that long can be a little weird.

Today was just ok. Chloe woke up feeling pretty lousy and nausiated. The chemo was a little rough on her and she had to vomit a few times this morning and hasn't felt like eating anything. She's finally sitting up now (it's about 4) but is not real excited about much.

Despite that, Chloe has been pretty popular today. She has had visits from her nurse every hour or more of course, the Tech nurse, her oncology doc, bone marrow doc, nurse practitioner, child life specialist, sharps container specialist, volunteer, house keeping, hospital equipment inventory specialist, different tech nurse, volunteer, volunteer, volunteer again, yet another tech nurse, and volunteer again. And then a different volunteer. I was thinking maybe a door stop on the door to keep it open would have been nice; but i have no idea where to get a door stop. She usually doesn't have that many visits in one day unless she's having complications so it was a little odd. But, the volunteers came bearing gifts donated by someone so that was really nice. Chloe now has a bunch of pencils, a slinky, and some other little Christmas coloring books and such.

The bone marrow Doctor brought by some information about what lies ahead. He gave me a packet that listed the different drugs and their side effects which include everything that i listed yesterday with the addition of the possibility of seizures, kidney failure, liver failure, scarring of the lungs, stunted growth, learning disabilities, anemia, death, bleeding in the bladder, pains in the hands and feet, infertility, shortness of breath, shaking of the hands and so on. Of course those are just possible side effects that they have to tell us about and we hope Chloe has none of them. Although herbal enthusiasts would tell us we have other options, i think most people would chose the protocol that has the best proven cure rate - which is where we are. It's just real depressing to know what could happen. I really don't know how the Doctors and Nurses down here can do it everyday- but i'm glad they do.

Chloe got a chemo shot this afternoon which I think it is her last chemo until the week before her transplant. Last night I told her stories about Nephi and others that knew they had to do something even though they might have been scared; so they were brave and did it because they knew it was the only right choice. She loves to hear stories. Today as she got her chemo shot i reminded her of how tough Nephi was and she calmed down and did a lot better with it. She is a tough little girl.

Thats about it from down here - well, that and i have a knuckle that is kind of dry and could use some lotion.

Tuesdays are for turkeys.

So like Stacie mentioned, our visit that we thought was just a couple of days of chemo might end up being a couple of weeks or more. I was surprised, but i'm glad they are taking precautions and watching her close to make sure the staph infection doesn't come back. It's the best thing to do and maybe we'll get lucky and she'll rebound quickly.

Chloe has been doing well today. She felt pretty junky this morning, but after some meds and a good nap she felt better. She is just finishing her third 3 hr dose of Chemo called Ara-C and has one more at about 6 in the morning. Side effects of this one are nausia, diarehha, mouth sores, eye irritation, hair loss, abnormal liver function, loss of appetite, flu like symtoms and low blood counts for 1-3 weeks after treatment. We're shooting for one week, but it might be 3. She hasn't had too many side effects so far except some nausia and loss of appetite. Tomorrow she will also get a dose of another chemo (PEG) that has similar side effects. She usually handles it pretty well, she just hates getting the shot. She'll have to get used to them i guess. Sounds like she'll be having Neupogen shots every day until her blood counts rebound.

Ironically, while Chlo was home we all played a game called Apples to Apples where you are given a subject and then you choose from your cards that you think best matches that subject. The subject was "Horrible" and Chloe happened to have a card that said "getting shots" on it. We chose hers as the best match - she knows better than most of us.

The nurse told us today she drives a cruiser. Chloe thought that was pretty cool. I don't get why people like landcruisers, but whatever.

At about 3:27 Chloe water colored a house and then drew overtop to add all the detail. She worked on it for a couple of hours and everyone was impressed with her mad drawing skills. She says it's just like our house, except she forgot the doorbell. She also added a rose bush and a small plum tree, with hiking trails to the hill behind. It was glorious. All our girls are getting really good at drawing, we always have crayons on the table at our house because the girls love to color together. If they aren't doing that, Chloe's teaching them how to be nurses.

Spence and Tal (my bro and his lady) are coming to live at our house until we get home just in case Stacie goes into labor. Thanks Spence and Tal. We have tons of neighbors offering to help and we really appreciate that too, we might have to call on you. Really, we're doing Spence and Tal a favor 'cause they'll be having kids before Spence knows it. Being around Elsie and Addie will help them get ready. Actually, being with Stacie feeling so uncomfortable might convince Tal to hold off for a while. Probably not.

Addie is doing very well in school and loving it. She just told me tonight about a test she has tomorrow on the weather. She said Logan had mostly Cirrus clouds lately which indicate a possible storm and they were followed by Cumulus clouds. She really likes school, and has had fun preparing book reports with her freinds. She is also a huge help around the house which is very nice these days. Chloe got some fingernail polish and lipstick today. I asked her if she wanted to put on the lipstick, but she wanted to wait until she could do it with Addie. She is lucky to have such a good big sister to play with and look up to.

Elsie is the cutest little stinker. The last couple of weeks she has grown up all of the sudden. She started being more reverent at church which is nice - watch, Sunday she'll be out of control now that i said that. The poor girl has been a little sick over the weekend, but is feeling better now. You can tell when she is sick because she asks to go to bed and has the same amount of energy as a normal kid. She is always leaning in to listen to Stacie's tummy and talk her her little bro. She can't wait to see the baby and is already playing with (and breaking) his stuff. She'll teach him all about eating sugar out of the pantry bucket, sneaking candy, drawing on walls, how to jump the highest off the furniture etc.

I ate a burger with Telly who was down in SLC today. I only planned on a couple of days here so he brought me some clothes and whatnot. Thanks Telly. He probably didn't realize he was carrying my underwear. We didn't share a burger, maybe i should have specified that. The burgers were fairly decent, but not life changing like you might expect from the hospital cafeteria.

I've tried to make this post as long as possible. I'm sure there are plenty of other things i could write to make it longer; like the weather conditions, how many Trix balls Chloe at for breakfast, or phone calls I made. I'm a little tired though so I think I'll end it here. Maybe tomorrow I'll outdo this post with an excessivly long one. Just for fun.

3 day treatment? more like 3 week

Jake talked to the docotor yesterday and he said this round is going to knock her counts to rock bottom and since she had a staph infection they want to keep her 2 to 3 weeks until her counts recover. Just as a precaution. That was news to us. So I have Telli Longhurst bringing him more clothes cause he only brought 2 pair and I can't relieve him because of my big belly. He said her tummy was hurting alot after the first round yesterday, so I don't know how it will go. As for the baby if it comes I will have to call Jake and he will get someone to sit with Chloe and he will drive down as fast as he can, maybe I can have my brother in law give him a police escort so he can get here faster.(haha, no really that would be nice) Anyway that is the latest. I shouldn't say anymore cause I took this new hard and don't want to sound pesimestic!

Back again, Back Again, Jiggity Jog

We're back for another couple of days of chemo. Chloe is feeling pretty well today and just excited to be here - well, that might be a stretch. She just ordered a steak for lunch, which is odd because she hasn't eaten beef for a few years now. During her first round meat tasted metallic, so she hasn't wanted any. We'll see if she likes her lunch today. Stacie is home just wishing she was in labor so the baby would be here. She's a little tired of being pregnant.