Out of 3 daughters Mimi is our middle child, older sister Iza by 3 minutes and a younger sister Magi by 3 years. Mimi was diagnosed with Acute Lymphoblastic Leukemia (ALL) on August 12, 2009. After 2 years, 2 months and 26 days on November 6th, 2011 she took her last chemo pill and is considered OFF Treatment! This is our story of our journey through childhood cancer.

Saturday, December 25, 2010

Wednesday, December 22, 2010

Clinic Day.

This morning Mimi had her monthly Vincristine chemo (through her port) her counts look great, I don't remember them being that high in a long time! She is feeling good and has not been having any real issues. Some dry skin/rash on her face which for now we will just try to keep putting moisturizer on and see if that helps.

Today starts her 5 days of steroids, bummer that it is through Christmas break but there should be enough distraction that we will have it under control.

Today's Counts:
WBC - 5.1
Hgb - 12.4
Platelets - 222
Neutrophil - 3500

Tuesday, December 14, 2010

"Mommy, I need a haircut!"

Normally those words would not make a mom tear up. I did. I hugged Mimi trying to hold tears back. She thinks I am being "goofy". I love it!



Missing Teeth Buddies...

Thursday, December 9, 2010

Clinic Day (Yesterday)

We started the morning with Magi getting lots of shots and routine blood draws for three year old well child visit. She was a super star and had Mimi cheering her on. They switched roles when Mimi was getting her blood draw at the clinic. It was nice to see the two of them getting along. So all is well.

Counts:
WBC - 2.50
Neutrophils - 950ish

Wednesday, December 8, 2010

Special Guests at School.

December 3rd Iza and Mimi introduced some very special people to their whole kindergarten class. Annalise and Betsy, child life specialists from the hospital came to do a presentation about Leukemia. I have mentioned before Mimi wanted her friends to know what her port is and does. I contacted Child Life, first they spoke to Iza and Mimi asking them what they want to share, also how much I wanted to share. A letter was sent to the parents of their classmates letting them know who was coming and what they will be discussing.




After introductions and some background on what is Leukemia, in kindergarten terms, the kids asked lots of questions. Probably the most exiting part for everyone was Sam. He is a doll with a port, he was quite helpful way back when Mimi got diagnosed both to her and us. He has layers of "skin" as you peel the first layer off you can see a heart with a port that is removable. It shows the what the port looks like under the skin. The girls took him around to all the students and everyone got to feel the squishy part of the port where the needles go. After some more questions from all the kids they were separated into two groups. One group did some medical play by examining Sam, checking his blood pressure, giving him shots, giving him a name tag and so on. All the kids got to wear a mask and pretend they were doctors. The other group made art with things you might find at the hospital, such as band aids, gauze, medical tape and wooden tongue depressors. The kids were very creative with their artwork they just dove right into it and crated some great pieces.



I think everyone benefited form the presentation, all the questions were answered. Mimi is happy that everyone knows now what her port does and why she has it. Iza was a big helper showing Sam, I loved that Betsy and Annalise also mentioned how she is a great sister helping Mimi. I am happy the school was very open about having someone come in and talk. I am so thankful for such a great team of Child Life Specialists at Baystate, they have made some gloomy days a lot brighter, they will all hold a very special place in our hearts forever.





Playing with Sam the doll with the port.




Betsy's group doing some medical play with Sam, the kids were excited about keeping the masks and the name tags they got.


Annalise's group making some great art.

Monday, December 6, 2010

Clinic Day (12-01-10)

Last Wednesday Mimi saw how an EKG measures her heart's electrical activity, she also saw the chambers of her heart and the blood flowing in and out during an ECHO. Since she is still having random unexplained chest pains both tests were scheduled to make sure there is nothing abnormal with her heart. After the tests we headed over to clinic to recheck counts which did go up since the previous week. Then we went in for a chest x-ray to check if maybe it is the port causing pain or the cough. So miss Mimi was happy to see her chest x-ray and made sure her port is right on her ribs. So even though she did not go to school she sure got lots of knowledge that day. After a long day of tests we headed out for a fun afternoon at Kidcity and finding outfits for Birthday Free Dress day for school.

We got the results from the EKG and X-ray and both look fine. So I guess we will just watch it.

Counts:
WBC - 2.27
Hgb - 12.3
Platelets - 219
Neutrophil - 1030

Sunday, December 5, 2010

Attention... We have two 6 year olds!



I found 12 pictures of Iza and Mimi from January 2010 until December 2010. More often than not Iza is still on the left, it cracks me up because when they were babies and people could not tell them apart I always put Iza on the left in pictures, I think that stuck with them. Mimi went from having bangs in January to not having hair and having bangs again in December! Iza in each picture seems to have less teeth, the tooth fairy works overtime around here. I think this year they have changed so much more than previous years. They are doing alot on their own, they ask bigger questions, they have deep conversations. They went from recognizing letter sounds to full out reading books, as well as adding and subtracting numbers. It is amazing. They are amazing! Happy Sixth Birthday Iza and Mimi!!!