Chemo - Round 2

After a quiet Christmas at home, we are back at Medical City for the second round of chemo. Her counts were pretty low yesterday when we arrived, but not low enough to put off this cycle of chemo which is good news. She had a blood transfusion right before day #1 of chemo yesterday and then she will have four more days of chemo which means we will most likely be here through New Years Day.

It was a tough three weeks at home. On one hand I was happy that she could be home (and stay home) to recover but she spent the majority of the time sleeping on the couch which is so very out of character for her. She didn't want to leave the house, she didn't want to see any friends, and she was not feeling well enough to work on her school work. She did watch ALL of the Christmas movies so at least there is that! We were able to meet with her teachers before the winter break and they will start coming to the house once school starts back in January. It was very important to Madeline to stay in all of her classes, so that is what we are going to try to do. Her teachers were all on board so I am hoping she will feel well enough to keep up. She has already lost so much, I want her to be able to reclaim her life when she beats this again and have a reason to fight through all of this one more time.

Emotionally this is a tough one. She knows exactly what she has lost and the list is endless. She also knows the timeline from the first time about how long it takes to feel better, to regrow your hair, the long physical recovery from surgery, and ALL the other things. She just wants to be normal and cancer makes that just about impossible. Normal is so important when you are 15...it just breaks my heart.

The last time we went through this it was easy to share all of the ups and downs with everyone, and this time because she is 15 and I need to respect her privacy it is much harder. So many friends have reached out with prayers for our sweet girl. If you would, pray that she can find some sort of peace with all of this, and that she can find the emotional strength to get through it. I know she has the motivation to live and to fight but the day-to-day things are tough. There is way too much time to think about the current situation and wish you were just a normal 15 year old going to school and being with your friends.

Thank you for all of the messages, Christmas treats, gifts, cards and support. I know everyone wants to help and support our family and we are very grateful. I think Madeline is very overwhelmed by all of the attention. If she hasn't returned your daughter's text messages please know that she is doing the best she can and that she just misses her normal life. We all are.

12/14 Madeline Update

Madeline was so happy to get home on Monday night! We all were - six days is a very long time to be in the hospital. She had a rough couple of days on Tuesday and Wednesday but woke up on Thursday feeling a bit more like herself. This afternoon we had a quick follow-up appointment with her oncologists. Her blood counts are very low, but that is to be expected 8 days after chemo and they should start to go back up over the weekend. She will be home for the next two weeks, and then the second round of chemo will be on December 27th as long as her counts are back where they need to be.

My mom is here through next week keeping an eye on Madeline during the day so that Brad and I can work. Thank you for all the sweet texts, emails, cards, thoughtful gifts, and prayers. We are so grateful for all of the people that are thinking of our family.

Chemo Round 1

Thank you so much for all the calls, texts, prayers and good thoughts. You are literally carrying us through these very long days. Madeline just finished day #3 of chemo - two more days to go. She is feeling horrible and the doctors are scrambling to try something new so the nausea is at least somewhat manageable. As of now, they have just been able to pretty much give her meds to keep her asleep and at least if she's resting she is not miserable.

Once we get to go home, these drugs are supposed to really knock her out and they've already warned us to expect to be back here a few more times as her immune system will be so weak. She will have a few weeks (2 to 4 weeks) to rest, depending on her counts.  Then she will have another five days of in-patient chemo and another few weeks to rest. Once her body is recovered, she will have surgery to remove the tumor on her tibia, and depending on the necrosis rate (how dead the tumor is) will determine how many more rounds of the five-day chemo she will have to endure. They are hoping for two rounds, but most people can only handle one more.

She is still having some significant pain in her leg when she stands up - we are hoping that will subside soon, and she's already not wanting to eat or drink, although she did eat most of the Starbuck's banana bread I brought her this morning, so that is some good news.

We really don't need anything. My mom is at the house taking care of Oliver and "supervising" Ben.
Please pray that the doctors can get her nausea under control, that she can rest, that she can go home as soon as possible, and that once we are home, we can stay at home. I have some legitimate concerns about coordinated care and our health care system, so pray for efficient and effective care.

I have a few messages about t-shirts, bracelets, meals, etc and honestly, I just don't know right now. We do appreciate the love and support and we promise to ask for help if and when we need it. For now, please just pray she can endure this treatment. You know it is BAD when she doesn't even look at her phone for hours...

Oh, and if you plan to visit our home or the hospital, please make sure you have had your flu shot.

GO ARMY, beat navy!!

12/6/18 Madeline Update

We are heartbroken to share that Madeline’s cancer has returned. She started having pain in her left leg a few weeks ago and unfortunately, the scans and biopsy confirm osteosarcoma in her tibia. We are at Medical City-Dallas where she had a port surgically implanted on Wednesday morning and she will start chemo later this morning. They said to plan to be here for about a week. Please pray for Madeline - we are just devastated that she must endure all of this again. No person, especially a child, should have to go through this and especially not a second time.

Our family is so blessed to have so many people praying for Madeline. Thank you for all of the texts, Emails, and offers of support. We are so thankful to have so many people thinking of our girl and of our family. Brad's mom is already here and my mom will arrive tomorrow. I promise we will let everyone know how to support us, but for now we just need to get through this hospital stay. Madeline is in good spirits but of course, devastated to have to go through all of this again and probably the most upset about missing school. I think the anticipation of knowing what is to come makes this time that much harder on all of us. The treatment plan is to have two rounds of chemo, surgery to remove the tumor, and then a few rounds of chemo after the surgery once they see her response. We have heard these chemo drugs are quite difficult so please pray that she doesn't get sick and that her counts can stay high enough to let her be at home to recover, rather than back here at the hospital. 

It was really nice to wake up and see so many texts and posts of people wearing their shirts and bracelets from the last time. It really made us feel loved. Thank you!