Friday, August 31, 2007

Just a quick update from Pennsylvania! Hannah went to clinic on Wednesday and all was good, so we decided on a quick trip to Pennsylvania before school started. Her counts on Wednesday were the best I have seen in quite a while, she is feeling good! Today we went to Bushkill Falls, it's a state park with amazing falls and did some hiking. We just arrived at Aunt Rosemary's house in Mechanicsburg and will still here for two nights. Tomorrow we will hit Hershey Park for the day. Then it's back home on Sunday.

Colby has a pretty bad sore throat, so we are keeping her isolated until she starts to feel a bit better, doc said it's a virus. Hopefully she'll feel good in time for Hershey tomorrow.

Hannah also wants everyone to know that she lost another baby tooth this week (with a little help from Dr. Hoeg.) The tooth fairy arrived overnight with $5 and stickers.

Hope everyone is having a great Labor Day weekend,

xoxo Kim

Sunday, August 26, 2007

Happy to report that we are home from the hospital. Hannah's ANC shot up to 5,900 (some sort of miracle I think) so we already had our bags packed when the doctors came around in the early afternoon. I had to give Hannah one more shot at home tonight, to ensure her white count wouldn't crash again. We go back to clinic on Wednesday for a follow up check on everything, then her next round of chemo starts on the following Tuesday, two days before school starts.

This week we are going to try and get in some rest and relaxation before school starts. We have to go to clinic, go in for an audiogram, dentist, pediatrician for annual physicals, meet with Hannah's teacher and between all of that, maybe a little time at the beach if the weather cooperates.

Glad to be home! xoxo Kim

Some Old Photos

For those of you that didn't know Hannah "before" I thought I would post some old pictures. I have seen other websites with older pictures and it's interesting to look at the kids and their wide array of photos.

One of Colby's creative pictures, here is Hannah in the back seat of the car, 2006


Hannah and Colby, first day of school, 2006. Hannah saw this photo the other day and said she looks "so cute in pigtails"
Hannah at a 4H Horse show with Mystery, November 2006

Hannah in Brownies, making her graham cracker gingerbread house. Before she was diagnosed, she often wore hats, and now we wonder if it was due to the tumor

Saturday, August 25, 2007

We are still here at least for another night. Hannah is feeling well with no fever, however her counts are still too low for her to go home. She is still receiving the antibiotics, due to her low counts and chance of infection and still receives the daily shots to boost her ANC (which is now up to 150). We have to get up to 500 to be discharged, so we are hoping for tomorrow, but chances are still pretty slim.

We spent 2 1/2 hours in the playroom this morning doing crafts. Dave and Colby came up and spent the afternoon with us. The girls finally got to see Jaws, the movie in the hospital this afternoon. We had not let them watch it up until now, but they happened upon it and watched it with us. I had forgotten how boring it was in between the "good" parts.

Hannah said "one more day was ok" so hopefully it will be tomorrow. We'll keep you posted.

xoxo Kim

Friday, August 24, 2007

Last night Hannah's counts all bottomed out, so now everything is low. Her hemoglobin dropped so much in less than 24 hours, that I had them run another blood check to be sure the results were correct. They came up a little bit, but she still needed a blood transfusion today. She just finished with that, it takes 4 hours, and she is doing well. She is acting fine and looks good, just not eating very well. Her first 24 culture showed no bacteria, so we have to wait for one more to come back negative before we can go home. I asked the doctor today if she was negative for bacteria but her counts were still low if we could go home, and he would not answer me, just saying that he wanted to be sure we didn't have to come back in the middle of the night. So, I'm not at all sure that we will be leaving tomorrow. Her ANC probably has to come up to 500 at least, and she is at 10 right now.

We were able to see the folks from Smiles for Scott Foundation today. They came around with the candy cart and Hannah and I were so happy to give them a check for $400 from the bake sale proceeds (Grandma and Grandpa rounded it up to $400 for Hannah.) Scott's Aunt and Grandmother were here with the cart, and they were so appreciative and happy to receive the donation. It was a great moment and Hannah was very proud.

xoxo Kim

Thursday, August 23, 2007

Hello from the hospital. Hannah awoke this morning with a temp of 100.7. Doesn't seem high, but anything over 100.4 and it's an issue for chemo kids. I waited awhile and tried to get it to come down, but it seemed to hover around 100.5-100.7. She really didn't feel well, was complaining of stomach pain, and wasn't eating. Knowing that her ANC to fight off infections was only at 50 on Tuesday, I called and they said to bring her in right away. When we arrived at clinic about 2pm, she didn't have a temperature! I was ready to walk out the door, until they brough in her new counts, her ANC is now only 8! It might as well be zero, she has no ability at all right now to fight off anything. I tried to convince them to let us go since she had no fever, but with counts that low, they said she would almost surely be admitted through the ER in the middle of the night. We didn't want that, so here we are.

It took us about 6 hours to get up onto the floor and into her bed. She is now sleeping, and it's a good thing because it's about 20 degrees in our room-our roommate likes it cold! We will most likely move tomorrow if we can arrange it. We have to wait for 2 negative cultures in a row, they take one every 24 hours. So, if nothing shows up the earliest we can leave is Saturday evening. Her temp did go back up tonight slightly, so we'll see what happens. The one positive is that her hemoglobin is still not under 8, although it's lower than it was on Tuesday, and her platelets are lower too, but on the very low end of the range. So, that means she still does not need a blood or platelet transfusion, which we are thankful for.

One other positive to mention is now that we will be in the hospital for the Friday afternoon candy cart rounds from Smiles for Scott, we will be able to present them with the donation in person from Hannah's bake sale. I hope Scott's mom will be here, so Hannah can give the money directly to her. We're both looking forward to it.

We'll check in again when we have some more information.

xoxo Kim

Wednesday, August 22, 2007

Hannah completed her last day of summer tutoring today. I can't believe it's nearly the end of summer here. Her teacher said she is very well prepared for next year, so she will start the year off on a very good note. She is excited to be in Mrs. Wheaton's class (and we all love her too, Colby had her for third grade.) I will meet with her next week to go over some issues. I have prepared some information for her regarding side effects from radiation and surgery, what some of Hannah's needs and strengths are as well as give her a history of the situation, and an idea of where Hannah is now. Hannah will continue to miss school for chemo, doctors appointments, etc. but hopefully less than last year. She will be attending all day for the most part when she is there (last year when she returned, she was only able to do half days.)

Hannah will have a full time one-on-one aide for school to help her physically and academically while she is still on treatment for the rest of the year and then we'll go from there based on what her needs are. That makes me feel much more comfortable leaving her at school, knowing that someone will be with her at all times for support. School can be very fasted paced at times, so it ensures Hannah is safe and secure. We had the company come and pick up Hannah's wheelchair last week since she no longer needs it, yeh!

We're laying low today, trying to stay away from germs and most people! We're hoping the weather gets nicer so that we can enjoy a few beach days before we start back in September. We are also now working on getting Hannah's Cans 4 Cancer up and running. We have our first $3.20 in our collection, Hannah went tonight with Dave to the recycle center. I'm working on some artwork with Hannah and we will have more information on the blog soon about how you can donate your cans locally, or recycle where you live and donate to the cause also.

xoxo Kim