Doing Great!

Sorry that we have been neglecting everyone for so long. Hannah is doing very well with her treatments. So, what have we been up to? let’s back up a little bit… As you probably know, there was a big fundraiser organized for Hannah at Maggies Pub late last month. It was a HUGE success! A ton of people turned out in support. There were even some of the Laker Girls there! We would like to thank everybody that volunteered their time for the event and want everyone to know that we (mom and dad) had almost nothing to go with it. We cannot thank everyone enough for their help and support.

Second Chemo… Hannah had her second treatment late June. As you will recall she got very ill the first treatment and we were very afraid she would have the same reaction. The Doctor changed her meds from Zofran to Emmend. What a difference! No nausea whatsoever! Just a little tired. Boy were we relieved about that. Thanks to all of you who recommended Emend, it is a godsend.

Fourth of July… We decided to take the kids away for the weekend. So we all went to San Diego, our favorite getaway place (not that we get away much). Friday we all went to Sea World and saw Shamu and friends. Saturday we went to a baseball game to watch our favorite team the Dodgers play. It was JJ’s first game and he slept most of it. After the game we went to our hotel room, freshened up and went to Seaport Village. A very nice little tourist trap pretty much on the water. We had a nice dinner and watched the fireworks from our table.

Last weekend… Hannahs Auntie Leah got married (FINALLY!) Her and Uncle Jordon had been together for like a thousand years. Mom was the maid of honor, dad was a groomsman, JJ was the ringbearer pulled down the isle in a pink wagon and Hannah was a junior bridesmaid. So we all had our hands full getting ready. Hannah wore a wig for the ceremony and about 30 seconds after the “I do’s” off it came. She probably danced more than anyone there. We were just glad that she felt well enough to participate at all.

Third treatment… Today was Hannahs third treatment (one more to go!). I usually takes about three to four hours from start to finish. But not today, it took almost SEVEN hours! The office hadn’t recieved Hannahs blood test results so they had to draw more blood and wait for the results. After that, they started the chemo. She got very dizzy for some reason and her blood pressure jumped. So she had to be monitored until she was stable before she was allowed to go home. She has felt fine since then so we are happy about that.

Hannahs next treatment is August third. After that we are all going to sit down with the oncologist and the surgeon to figure out if there will be any follow up treatments. There is talk of another surgery to remove two phases of lymph nodes but we will see about that later.

That’s about all that has been going on. Again… Sorry for not posting more often, we will try harder to keep everyone up to speed.

Took A Break

Sorry we have been lazy lately. The family took a break for a while just to get away from everything. So…. Hannah’s hair finally started falling out on the fifteenth day. We were a little afraid that she shaved it for not. She still just about refuses to wear a wig because she says they are itchy. Dad tried one on and agrees that they are very itchy.

We felt like the family was being neglected so we decided to do something as a family. So we took a trip to the Aquarium of the Pacific in Long Beach, CA. Hannah had been there a couple of times on field trips but neither of us had been there. We were so impressed that we bought a family annual pass. That way, when we want to go again we won’t have to wait in line. We assumed that there was a walk that day because there were a ton of people wearing matching cancer awareness shirts. It made Hannah feel more comfortable to go hatless seeing other patients walking around. Brother JJ had a blast petting the stingrays and sharks and seeing all the different types of sealife.

That evening we dropped the kids off with Nana and Papa, got all dressed up and went on a date. That had been the first time we had ever done anything like that in years… if ever. Even though we felt a little guilty about leaving the kids, we really needed to get away. Even if for just one night.

Today was Hannah’s fifth grade promotion (graduation). She was supposed to have chemo today but the doctor pushed it out one day so she could be with her class. Hannah waited patiently for about an hour and a half for everyone to be called. Naturally, she was almost last. She was wearing a wig and we could tell that it was really bothering her, but she was a good girl. As soon as the students were released… off came the wig! I think she was counting the seconds until she could get that darned thing off. Anyways, it went very well and Hannah is moving on to the sixth grade. Boy how time flies. It seems like it was only yesterday that we were walking her up to her kindergarten class.

As I mentioned earlier… Hannah’s treatment was pushed out one day (tomorrow). She is all amped up right now due to the steroids and probably won’t sleep much tonight. We were (are) a tad bit concerned that she will get sick again so we had her meds changed from Zofran to Emend. It came very highly recommended to ease the nausea, so hopefully it does the trick. There is nothing worse than seeing your own child in pain and there is nothing you can do about it. We will let you know how well this new med works in the next few days.

Thursday is Hannah’s birthday. Yup the big one one. We are not planning on having a party until she feels up to it. Who would want a bunch of people around them when all they want to do is sleep? We will play it by ear and see how she feels. We were only planning on having a small family party anyways.

We should be back into the swing of things now that we have gotten somewhat back to a routine. Anybody who knows us knows how routine we were. Lately it is like we get to it when we get to it.

That’s about all for now, until next time….

Not A Great Day

As you all know, Hannah had her first chemo treatment yesterday. We were under the impression that it would take a few days, if at all that she would get ill. Well… She was up most of the night sick to her stomach. Mom tried giving her some anti-nausea medication, but that doesn’t help if you can’t keep anything down. We called the doctor to ask if it was normal for her to get so sick so fast. And they said everybody reacts differently. Hannah slept most of the day, ate a little soup and kept that down. When dad got home from work she said she wanted a grilled cheese sammich and a steak. So she got…. a grilled cheese sammich and a steak (I’m not gonna argue with her). She only ate about a third of it and she kept it down. She seems to be feeling better now, just tired.

Did anybody ever have weird dreams while on chemo?  She’s coming up with some off the wall stuff. Anyways…  We are hoping that she got sick so early maybe it won’t last as long. It is probably wishful thinking though. We will see how she is in the next few days. I am going to keep it short because we are spent and need to go to bed.

Good night