As Promised

Hi, today is my last day of being eight months old.

I'm getting better at standing. I'm very sure I can do this on my own, but mama is not so sure.



My eyes used to be bluer than mama's, but this month they really turned a brownish greenish hazel.


Mama left the room for three seconds and I figured out how to be a snail!


These are pictures of Mad's room. It's my favorite room of the house and maybe the only part of this house that I will miss when we move. Yellow is definitely not my favorite color, so we took a big chance when we painted the walls. If the new tenants are who I think they are, the twenty-one year old male that will inhabit this room will not appreciate the yellow walls. Sorry!

Madeleine's counts on Friday were at 330 (ANC), but her white blood cells, hemoglobin, and platelets are all up from last Monday so I'm pretty sure she is on her way back up. We have clinic again on Friday, and nothing (!) at all this week until then. wahoo!

Beautiful Girls

Audrey, Sofie, Madeleine, Kassidy

Star Wars

Comic Con is in town this weekend. This picture was taken at clinic where a couple of these Storm Trooper Star Wars guys were visiting the kids. I think it's funny, Madeleine is all, "Eh. Whatevs. You never know what is going to happen in this place."

On the Move

Are most parents this excited when their baby starts crawling? I don't know. She's really crawling now. I was worried for a long time because I thought that her leg would stop her from being able to get around, but she's figured out a way of half dragging it that works surprisingly well. The only down side is that she now has carpet burn on her knee...

Clinic never called with her counts yesterday, so I'll try to call them today. I guess if they didn't call it's a good thing, and means that she doesn't need blood. Hopefully it means that she's on her way back up. I need to call regardless though because they didn't give me an appointment for next week. We have NOTHING scheduled for next week and I don't know what I would do with a whole week with no doctors appointments!

My new camera arrived yesterday so look out for new pictures later today or tomorrow.

Healing

I meant to say in the last post that we are not too worried about the echo results. It is rare (according to the cardio nurse practitioner) that they find any problem in kids with cancer that are getting these tests due to chemotherapy. We probably won't be informed of any results at all unless of course there is a problem. So, I'm sure there is nothing to worry about on that front.

Madeleine is using her right leg more and more. She is starting to crawl forward now, a little at a time. I think it takes a lot of effort because she gets frustrated pretty quickly. Ryan and I have both seen her move her right leg forward in the last couple of days, which is a huge improvement. She is also becoming more interested in it, she tries to grab it with her hands and pull it up to her mouth. So, I think she is doing well with recovery for the leg.

Clinic tomorrow for counts. Hopefully she's on her way up, but I kind of have my doubts about that.

Counts and Echo

Madeleine's counts are low, but not super low. Her ANC is 650. Under 500 is considered super low (that's my own fancy terminology, the more medical term is "neutropenic.") She has been much lower than this before, so we aren't too worried. The clinic wants to see us again on Friday to see if her counts are rising or falling.

She was sedated this morning for her echocardiogram with something called chloral hydrate. It was given orally and was a little rougher than her normal sedation (propofol) for the MRIs. Propofol is given through her line and knocks her out within seconds. Chloral Hydrate made her very sleepy, but also very agitated. She hated the taste, and probably the sensation. Once she was asleep though everything was fine. It lasts about six hours so I have to keep waking her up every 30 minutes just to make sure she's still okay. She was awake for a couple of hours earlier today but was acting pretty loopy - very little head and neck control, very wobbly. It's sort of like having a newborn again.

All the babies

We survived all of our doctor's appointments this morning and Madeleine is now taking a well deserved nap. I don't know yet what her counts are from her blood labs, they'll probably call later this afternoon.

We took a chance on Madeleine's immune system being healthy this weekend (She is typically okay the first week after chemo, and then drops in the second week) and had a great time visiting with friends from out of town, and in-town friends too. In total there are four girls ages three and a half, twenty one months, nineteen months and our eight month old.
Sofia can't decide whether she wants to hug Madeleine, or hit her on the head - such is the life of a toddler. We had a fun trip to the zoo on Sunday with everyone. It's fun to see the older girls excited about seeing animals. It's weird to see friends from college and realize that there are all these little people around now. I was so excited about getting pictures of all the kids, but unfortunately my camera has died. So, until I can get a new camera, I won't be able to post any new pictures.

In other news, we've decided to move to a house much closer to work for Ryan. He's commuting over an hour now. With Madeleine's continuing treatment it looks like we will be in San Diego for at least another year. We want to remain with the same doctors for as long as possible, especially while she is in active treatment. This is our fifth move in just over six years. I'm not looking forward to packing and moving, but it will be nice for Ryan to be home earlier, and for us to be in a better neighborhood.

Echocardiogram tomorrow. I hate having her be sedated, but I suppose these are important tests.