Hello all - Happy Wednesday. Taylor went into the clinic today for her bone marrow aspiration and lumbar puncture. Her lumbar puncture came back clean with no evidence of leukemia cells. She received a large dose of chemotherapy today in her spine again as a precaution. Her bone marrow aspiration showed less than 3 percent "blast" (leukemia) cells which means that she is able to start Round 4 next Wednesday. This is great news. Last round, it took her bone marrow 3 1/2 weeks to be at an acceptable level, so this time she recovered much faster. She is scheduled for admission at PCH on October 14th at 3:00. Round 4 is the toughest round of chemotherapy she will receive. They say the average length of stay for this round is around 50 days....my goal is to have her out in 40 days!!! She will be in the hospital for her birthday which stinks!!! But.......we are just excited that she recovered quickly this round. I am anxious to get back in (who would have ever thought I would say that) and get this next round over!!!

She had a tough day today. She threw up a couple of times after her procedures and had a hard time waking up. She was really stiff and in pain this afternoon. I hated to do it, but I made her get up and walk around quite a bit. They say that moving around is the best thing to prevent soreness. I gave her a dose of pain medicine at bedtime so hopefully she will feel better in the AM.

Grandma is staying with the girls tomorrow....I am going back to work for the next 3 days!!!

I will post more later. Thank you for your prayers!!

Kristen

Great News.....Taylor got home yesterday!!! We were so surprised. Her counts did come up......they were technically a littler lower than they normally allow for discharge but they let her go anyway!!! She was so excited and couldn't wait to see Harley and Savannah. I will post a couple of pictures of Taylor and Savannah playing together again....what a beautiful sight!!!

We had to say goodbye to our great friend Aleeya. This is Aleeya's last round of treatment.....YEAH!!! She will not be allowed to visit Taylor at PCH due to flu season so we can't wait to see her again when Taylor is done with treatment. We absolutely will miss her and her parents so much. They were amazing to us and are great friends. We pray that Aleeya will stay in remission!!!!

For the 1st time since June 18th (day Taylor was diagnosed), I actually got out of the house last night. Grandma came over to watch the girls and Sean and I went to the ASU game. We had a great time with the Novacks and Crusher....too much fun!! It really was nice to do something "normal" again!!

Taylor goes back to the clinic on Wednesday for her bone marrow aspiration and lumbar puncture. I will post once we get the results. Right now she is scheduled for re-admission for Round 4 on October 14th.

Please put the prayers in full force....Wednesday is a big day!!!

Love,
Kristen

Taylor and I woke up to disappointing news....her counts did not rise today.....she did not get to go home. She was very disappointed but was in good spirits by the end of the day. The RN's at PCH are amazing....every second they aren't working, they come in to play and talk to Taylor. She now paints all of the staff's nails.....she is actually getting really good at it.

I came home this afternoon to see Savannah and will go back to PCH tomorrow. Hopefully her counts will go up and she will be home by the end of the weekend.

Have a great weekend.
Love,
Kristen

Another quick post...I apologize for this. I am just having such a difficult time getting Taylor to get any rest. She refuses to nap and will not go to sleep. Tonight she is complaining that her leg hurts....this is a common side effect of the chemo and of leukemia. So....I am taking a quick break to post and will go back to massaging her legs.

We woke up to day to a nice surprise....her counts doubled!!! If she continues to go up quickly, we should be home this weekend. I have spent the majority of the day dealing with our health insurance....that is a another LONG story......insurance is a big pain!!!

Gotta go.....she is doing well and hanging in there. Please pray for Taylor to get out of here!!!

XOXO
Kristen