We Are Still Home!!!

Sorry for the lack of posts. I think it is mainly due to the fact that my camera isn't really working anymore and usually my motivation for a post has to do with my having a cute picture that I want to post. I am afraid that I will have to suck it up and buy a new camera, I sure wish it was in our budget!! As you will see from the pictures below, the quality has gotten really poor and it won't take any pictures using the flash which of course is all pictures taken in the house.

Yes, we are still home. Ella's blood counts still weren't high enough as of our visit to the outpatient clinic last Wednesday. There is a certain number they look at called the ANC (absolute neutrophil count) which has to do with the immune system. That number is suppose to be 1000 for us to start the next round of chemo. She has gone from 534 when we left the hospital to 764 four days later and then down to 595 another four days later and then finally this past Wednesday when it was 525. So basically she is just bouncing around all over the place. According to Heather (Zoey's mom) this isn't unusual for our kiddos. And I really can't complain because it has given us an extra week at home already. I am suppose to get her blood drawn again tomorrow (monday) and if her numbers are high enough, then we will go back in the hospital either tuesday or wednesday. The good thing is that all of her other counts such as platelets and hemoglobin have looked great so thankfully we haven't needed any transfusions or anything.

Today, I put my older girls on a plane to Dallas, TX by themselves. We have tried to plan a lot of things over the summer to keep them occupied so we aren't having to stress about who has them each day. Since we used to live in TX (and love visiting whenever we can) I thought it would be fun for the girls to spend some time there visiting old friends. I was doing fine with them boarding the plane but it was watching the plane take off and rise up into the air that actually got to me. It was the strangest thing to know that my kids were up in the air without me. Thankfully they arrived safely into the arms of one of my oldest childhood friends, Michelle. Another mom of the year moment.....after borrowing my sisters camera so I could capture this first solo flight, the camera stayed conveniently in the bottom of my purse the whole time. Bummer!!

As for Ella.....the child is a human tornado!!! Seriously. She was at my mom's house last night while I took the girl's out to dinner and did a little last minute shopping. When we got back to my mom's, it truly looked like a tornado had struck. Then, today, while I took Abbey and Emma to the airport, she stayed with my sister.....same story, different address!! So, you can imagine what my house looks like daily. But, alas, I tell myself that none of this matters...be thankful that she is SOOOO full of energy.

You may be wondering why I have not mentioned anything about Father's Day today. Well, we kind of celebrated on Friday because daddy had to work today and the girls were leaving. So today was just another day for us. But Happy Father's Day to all the great Daddy's out there.

Here are a few (crummy) pictures of Dr. Ella. She got to bring her stethescope home from the hospital and the child seriously cruises around the house all day with it around her neck. It drags on the floor but she doesn't seem to mind.

And finally, a video taken by Abbey of Emma showing Ella how to do some karate moves. My favorite is the kick at the end.

Make video montages at www.OneTrueMedia.com

A Quick Visit With Jax And His Family

This past Thursday, we had invited Jax and his family to come to our house for a visit. They were doing Disneyland for the week but since Ella happened to be home from the hospital right now, we weren't able to hook up with them there. So they headed out around 5pm to come and visit for dinner. The problem......we live in Southern California and that is rush hour time. With no traffic, it takes an hour to get to our house!! So you can only imagine how long it took them! Traffic was unusually heavy so we finally decided that we would go and meet them to save them some time. We chose a place that wouldn't be busy, especially since it was now about 7:30 pm, so that Ella wouldn't be exposed to a crowd of people. It was just a little burger joint but we pretty much had the place to ourselves for a couple hours.

We just love spending time with this family. They are so genuine and their boys are just to die for. Tanner is Ella's special friend. Before we got there, Lacey said that he washed his hands at least 3 times so he could hold her.....so sweet. The other kids took a few minutes to get comfortable with each other again and then had a great time playing. I am pretty sure there was a food fight involving french fries at some point. The pictures aren't great as my camera flash is acting up so I am having trouble getting indoor pictures. We can't wait until the next time we see them as they should have their new baby Makayla home from Eastern Europe by then!!

Tanner and Lacey with Jax hiding in the background

Ella and her boys

Jax finally woke up!!

The kids....the brown haired girl in the front is a

friend of one of my daughters.

Moms and their special kiddos....don't think Jax was happy

A Day For Abbey and Remission!!!

Yesterday was Abbey's promotion to Middle school. It was a nice simple ceremony but still very touching. They also had a 5th grade pool party at the community pool as part of their many festivities!! We are very proud of you, Abbey, our honor roll student!!

Before I move on to the many pictures of the day, I wanted to let you know that the bone marrow biopsy showed that Ella's leukemia is in remission!! Yay!!! We still have to do 5 more rounds of chemo,however, because they want to be sure and get every last bad cell in her body and sometimes they hide in obscure places. We won't be starting round 2 on Monday like we originally thought as her blood counts haven't reached the level they want yet. So, it's nice because we get a few more days at home but just means it will be that much longer until we finish treatment. I guess God knew I needed a few more days to try and get my house caught up as well as a few days to sleep in now that school is over!!

Now for the onslaught of pictures, most of which need no explanation!

Abbey with her teacher who took off her shoes to see

if Abbey was taller....she was!!!

At the Japanese Teppan restaurant after graduation

And here is what Ella spent the day doing with grandma!!

Bone Marrow Aspiration...Check!!!

Isn't my little sleeping beauty just precious??? This is what you look like when you have been given a little extra "feel good" juice. I am probably a terrible mom for saying this, but I can't help but laugh every time they sedate her because she giggles and smiles so cute as she is starting to get loopy. I can't tell you what a different experience this bone marrow aspiration was from all of the ones prior to the broviac line. In the past, we have spent at least an hour trying to get an IV in her arm BEFORE even getting to the bone marrow. This time, we just walked in, undid Ella's onesie and she sat there while the nurse injected drugs into her line. I HATE that we have to do this but anything to make it easier is simply wonderful. They had to give her a little extra sedation because the Dr. ended up having to do a second needle stick to access a better spot in the bone marrow and this took a little longer. All total, she was probably only out for about 20 minutes. It definitely took her a little longer to wake up this time. And then for the first 30 minutes or so, she is very wobbly. She would try to sit up and kind of fall over in the bed. Award winning mom that I am, I allowed her to hit her head on the side rail one time as she tipped over, resulting in a nice bruise next to her eye! It will be a few days before we get the results on the bone marrow but the good news is that her peripheral blood looks real good. Her immunities are building back up nicely and she continues to make platelets and hemoglobin on her own which means that the bone marrow is working as it should. Now we just wait to make sure that they don't see any more leukemia cells in that bone marrow. Please pray hard the next few days for REMISSION!!! Thanks.

Also, here is a video that I forgot to put on last night's post. We call this her strength pose. Usually she makes a grunting sound when she does it but of course wasn't doing it for the video.

Make an on-line slide show at www.OneTrueMedia.com

What Have We Been Doing At Home???

We have been playing the drums

Playing with the ball blower

Walking the babies


Oh, and a little bit of standing!!


Opening gifts from special friends

Look....it's my friend Chloe



And saying "Elmo", who by the way is now my favorite!!!

Make an on-line slide show at www.OneTrueMedia.com

What we haven't been doing is going to bed early...or even a little late!! Nope, the earliest time Ella's eyes have closed yet is 11:30pm!!! I don't know what the deal is but this child is not tired at night. I even tried not doing naps the last few days so she would be tired...but no luck. She took a 2 1/2 hour nap in her crib today so we will see if tonight is any better. But the good news is that she doesn't wake up until 9:30am. I am trying really hard not to complain here but boy had I so quickly forgotten what a mess this little angel can make!! I have not been able to get a grip on the house since she came home. She has found everything to get into that she possibly can. I think we had gotten a little slack in some of our childproofing while she was gone and it has caught up to us. SHE HAS BEEN ONE LITTLE STINKER!!! But I will take it any day if it means we are ALL home!!

She is also freaking out if I leave her!! If daddy or my mom come in the room, she panics and finds me as quickly as possible. I can't figure it out other than the fact that they are the two people who would relieve me the most at the hospital and she is afraid that I will leave her if either of them come in the room. Poor daddy, he keeps trying to win her over. He usually will at some point each day but then the next day it's back to her strange reaction. I feel badly for her but at the same time I feel like I can't go anywhere. It is hard because she can't leave the house and go to the store with me so I have to go without her. I know she gets over me leaving but I still feel bad torturing her like that. I think she is just trying to get readjusted to being home. The sad thing is that she will probably just get adjusted and then we will have to go back in to the hospital. Boy am I dreading that day!!!! But I am not thinking about it....hopefully it is still a week away. For now, Ella has been incredibly happy and feeling great. I have to flush her broviac line once a day with heparin so that it won't clot. In the hospital she would wiggle and squirm and whine whenever the nurses did it but I have found that what makes her the most nervous is when I lay her down on her back to do it. I think she associates this with people messing with her. So the last two days I have just let her sit up on the couch and we just sit there and do it and she doesn't mind at all. She even tries to help by pretending to wipe the line down with alcohol.

Tomorrow we go back to the outpatient clinic to have the bone marrow biopsy done. I am hoping that this will be a fairly easy procedure now that she has her line in and we won't have to mess with putting an IV in. Then we just wait a few days for results and PRAY, PRAY, PRAY that she has already gone into remission and they see no leukemia cells!!! (NO, this doesn't mean that we would get to stop treatment).

Surprise!!!!!

WE ARE AT HOME!!! Not just me, but all of us!! Including Ella!!! I am as shocked as you are. I didn't get a chance to post yesterday to tell you that her numbers had jumped back up from the day before and at that point the doctors thought that we should be home by Monday. But Ella didn't want to wait. I was still at home and my mom called me about 12:30 pm and said "Come and get us!" I said "Huh??", and she said "Come and get us!!" Her blood had come back with a nice big jump and we hit that magic number that allows us to go home. We made it home about 5:30pm and Ella jumped right into doing all of her favorite things. She cruised around playing with her toys for about an hour and half and then I think she kind of pooped out. She got whiny and only wanted mommy. As I type this, she is sitting with me so I will probably keep this very short.

We have to go back to the outpatient clinic on Monday for a bone marrow biopsy and they will check her blood then. I asked if we would be able to stay home through the week as it is the last week of school and Abbey will have her promotion to middle school etc. They said we should be able to wait to start up again with the next round (assuming she reaches the next magic number) the following Monday (June 14) so that will give us a total of 10 days at home!!! Heaven!!! So what if she can't leave the house....we will so enjoy just being home.

Of course the battery on my camera is dying so I was having trouble getting pictures but these are the few that I have from her arrival home. It is funny because before leukemia, I probably wouldn't have even found these photos worthy of making it to the blog as they seem so "regular". But they sure seem special to me now!!!

Hanging In There!!

Sorry that it has been a few days since I updated but I was at the hospital for the last 4 days straight and have a hard time doing them there. Needless to say, I am mentally exhausted from being there that long with no break but it was just the way the chips fell. Thankfully, my mom was able to come and fill in for me tonight and tomorrow so I am home getting a much needed breather. Thank goodness for friends (Debbie, Geraldine and Erica) who came and visited at various times over the 3 day holiday and brought with them friendship and, more importantly, FOOD!!! Erica was even kind enough to take a load of Ella's laundry home to wash and bring it back the next day as we were running out of clean things since I hadn't been home in a while. THANK YOU, THANK YOU, THANK YOU!!

Today was a hard day!! I think mostly because I was ready for a break. We had to move rooms because they needed ours in the Oncology ICU for a more fragile patient. We were actually moved out to the regular oncology unit. Thankfully we still have our own room but it is MUCH SMALLER!! This is where I start to feel as though I am whining. Believe me, more than anything, I am so thankful that we do not have to share a room because I can't imagine having to do so. For example, my little Angel likes to stay up until midnight as she seems to get her second wind then. When I finally say lights out and climb in bed myself, she cries until she finally gives up and falls asleep. Usually it is only for a few minutes but last night, it was for an hour. Finally at 1 am, I gave in and gave her another bottle and she was finally OUT!! How would you like to be roommates with a kid like that???? So again, I am very thankful for our own room, even though it is smaller. It is just that basically, we had been spoiled and didn't realize it. All we knew was our big room and you know how hard it is to downsize. As I packed up all of our things, I couldn't believe how much we have accumulated this past 3 1/2 weeks. I couldn't imagine where we would put everything in our new, smaller room. Ella did not take well to the transition. They wheeled her to her new room in her crib and she screamed the whole way. Then my mom arrived to relieve me as we were getting in to our new room and I think that Ella sensed that I was leaving. So here we are with a crying kid, piles of things in our new room and me quickly trying to find some sort of order before I have to head out to get home in time to pick the other kids up from school...not a fun day but at least I get to be home tonight in my own bed!!

The other reason that today was hard is that Ella's blood count went down again. Since my last post, Ella was at O and then the last few days her neutrophil counts (immune system) had been steadily going up. So much so that the Dr. told us not to do too much unpacking as we may get to go home in the next few days. Not 5 minutes later, he came in and said that today's blood count had come back and her counts were back to O!!! It is completely normal for them to do this but we were really hoping that we were on the upward climb. The good news is that she is making her own platelets and hemoglobin as those numbers are climbing on their own so we know that the bone marrow is working in the right direction. We just have to continue to be patient and play the numbers game.

Ella continues to appear to feel really good. She is starting to become really mischievious again. When she is in her crib and suppose to be falling asleep, she plays with all the important cords on the wall, knocks the phone off the shelf, tries to tamper with her IV pole...you name it, she gets her hands on it. She has been full of smiles for all the staff as they come in. We haven't left her room in over a week ever since her counts bottomed out but last night when the nurse was weighing her, she had the door open and Ella was sitting on the baby scale right inside the doorway. I think she was in heaven!! She was able to wave and talk to the people who walked by and loved it!! I felt bad because I know she wanted to go out but the little stinker won't keep a mask on for anything....so no go!!

Here are a few pictures from the past few days. As you can imagine there isn't a lot to take pictures of, but I try.

I gave Ella a haircut so that the shedding didn't seem so

extreme.....this was her first haircut EVER and the first

time I have ever cut any of my kids hair. Here is the

front view

And the back.....

Here is a before picture showing the length

of her hair before :(

My friend, Debbie is a Physical Therapist who works with

Special Education kiddos in the school district. She loves

to get her hands on Ella whenever possible. Ella didn't

think that she should have to work out during the holiday

weekend, but Debbie had other plans!!

I thnk she had fun though...don't you???


Cute little doggy that they bring around to visit the kids.
It took Ella a bit to want to touch her but eventually
really enjoyed it.




I knew that when we went home in between
rounds that I would have to take down Ella's
photo wall. In fact I had already decided that I woul
put it on poster board during our break so it would be
real easy to put up each time. Unfortunately, with our room
change, I had to take it down prematurely! But here it
is so far....(minus the few pics I received since I have been
at the hospital or a few that need to be printed off the computer). I can't
tell you what joy I get just looking at all these faces...they seriously
brighten my day...everyday!!


A few of our nurses have this cool button and I wanted to take
a picture of it so I can try to find one for myself...I think
it sums up my feelings perfectly!!!