Help Us Celebrate!!

Lincoln Park
8603 Fauntleroy Way, Seattle, WA



This Sunday the 19th at Lincoln Park in West Seattle.  We are having a BIG party to celebrate Hannah being cancer free! Everyone who wants to be there is invited.  I have the spot reserved from 10am till 10 pm (not sure we will be there that late) but, come on by! There will be food, fun, a magician, and tons of other stuff. The party is at the playground area near the Vashon Ferry.

*I have a map in PDF that I would like to attach.  Anyone know how to attach that to a blog post?

So, is the Cancer Gone?

YES!!!!! HANNAH BEAT CANCER! (I don't want to stop typing that!)

Hannah, at Friday's appointment.

That is the phone call I had yesterday with Hannah's doctor.  Hannah had her June chemo on Friday the 1st.  It was chemo in her spinal column.  She also, had a BMA, which is a test to check her whole body for cancer.

 I wasn't expecting the news until Wednesday. Her Dr. said when they saw the tests come back in yesterday afternoon, they knew they had to call. I was sitting in my office when I saw Children's Hospital come up on my phone.

 My heart hit my stomach.  This was it.  Early results usually mean bad news.  I was bracing myself and trying to say hello at the same time. Her Dr. started the conversation with, "The tests are back.  I have good news!"  I'm not that sure what all I said, I just know it wasn't the screaming and jumping I thought I would do.  I was crying.  I hung up and Barb, my co-worker walked by.  I told her I got the results.  I couldn't speak or stop crying.  She thought it was bad news!

 All I could think was "She did it! Two and half years of hard fighting and she won."  I shared the news as much as I could but I just kept crying when I talked.  I wanted out of there.   I wanted to get to Hannah as fast as I could. 

Telling Hannah was the most fun.  As soon as I got to Anna's house, (Anna and family are our close friends who, are also, our daycare), and raced in to find Hannah.

 I told her I had big news.  We got the results from the test on Friday, the one that made her back hurt, the one that would show if the cancer was all gone.  I said, "You did it baby, you beat cancer.  It is all gone.  No, more cancer in your body!"

 Hannah jumped up, arms above her head and screamed!  From behind us, in the other room, all of the other kids, Andrew, Aaron, Maddie, Taylor, Katie, Megan, and Gracie, who were all listening in, all screamed and jumped around!  It was a cool echo of happy yells and shouts.  Everyone was hugging and congratulating Hannah.

This is what it looked like when I told her!

I am SO proud of her and excited and overwhelmed and in shock.  My head is still spinning.  Hannah's last day of chemo will be August 2nd.  After that we can book the surgery to have her port- a-cath removed from her chest wall.  She will be a normal girl, who isn't nauseous all the time, doesn't have to take chemo, and can play soccer!  Soccer has to wait till the port is out, but she wants signed up as soon as she can.

Thank you all so much for being a wonderful support to us through this.  I love all of you and don't know how I would have managed without you. Thank you!!!

Wonderful Family; Extremely Rare Condition

http://www.giveforward.com/casenpcifund

CJ Buswell, is a guy I have known for years now.  He works for one of my customers and is the nicest guy you could meet.  Every time I would see him, he would ask how Hannah was doing.  He has a daughter near to her age.

  I remember hearing that he and his wife were having another baby. I was so excited for them.  Just 12 weeks ago they had a beautiful baby boy named, Casen.  They knew right away something was wrong. 

Their gorgeous baby had a cluster of very obvious blood vessels around his chest.  After months of agonizing trips to Children's with very puzzled doctors, they found out why. 

Casen suffers from a rare condition known as Plaque Type Glomuvenous Malformations, which is caused by a missing gene. He is only one of 14 people in the world to have it.

 Doctors here don't even know how to treat it.  There is a doctor in Belgium with some experience and they are hoping to get there.

 I am posting a link to a fund raising web site.  It also has updates on how Casen is doing, as well as a better explanation of his condition.

 CJ and his wife Jenna are wonderful people.  If you can help, please do.

Pesky Blood Counts

It is now May, and we are still struggling with blood counts (ANC) that are too high.  Hannah has been running about 2000 too high for several months. Her doctors keep increasing her chemo amounts trying to bring that number back down.

 Last month, Hannah had a bit of a break through, in that her ANC came down 1000, but with still a 1000 to go. For us, that was great news because it meant we didn't need to increase her chemo again.  She is already on over 100 % dosing for all her different chemo medications.  She suffers so much with the nausea. I just couldn't imagine giving her even more.

At Children's, waiting for labs.

 We also, got some good news in April about her liver.  We found out in March, that her liver was starting to under perform. Hannah's lab work showed a liver function number that was much higher than it should be.  Liver issues make giving chemo difficult.  We need that to kill the cancer!  So, I was worried.  However, at her check up in April, her liver function numbers had gone back down to normal. Definite improvement! Her next check is June, 1st. I am very hopeful that the downward trend of counts, continues!

2 Years Today

Today, April, 8th marks the day I found out Hannah has cancer.  This could easily be a very sad day.  Infact, the day before it, April 7th, is the real day, I found out.  Only because that is the day I took her to the ER.  Nothing has ever been the same.  They told me in the night, technically, the 8th, that she had blasts (Leukemia cells) in her blood sample.  I can feel the 7th coming.  I will look at the calender for something routine and see April 7th, staring at me. That day is hard.

Hannah sledding this Spring Break.  Always living life to the fullest!

April 8th, however, is the day the fight began.  We celebrate that day.  Our Hannah Grage, has been kicking cancer's behind for two years today!!! Her opponent is viscous, tricky, and smart.  Hannah is ten million times better.  Today, we toast to our own hero.  I couldn't even begin to tell you what I have watched her endure and I wouldn't want to.  She is tough as nails and I am so, so proud of her.  Earlier in the day, her dad  had a fantastic party for her, with her Nana and Opa there.  They had cake and presents, all the things a celebration needs.  Tonight, Rian and I took her and the crew along with our dear friends Anna, Aiden, and kids to her favorite restaurant to party it up. She got her presents and strawberry margarita (virgin, of course!).  It was a blast. I have some news about her counts that will wait until tomorrow.  Today, we are concentrating on the awesomeness that is our baby girl.

My Baby Girl

Those Disney pictures took a really long time to download. After four months, they are finally in and I can update the blog.  Soo, how has everyone been?  Hee hee. Just kidding.

 Our lives have been a bit hectic since coming home from DisneyWorld. I had foot surgery when we got back and was on crutches for around a month.  The very day I got off crutches a piece of my hot water pipe broke and flooded my house. We moved back into our house February 12th.

However, those pictures have been like a procrastination road block to updating Hannah's blog for me!  Mainly, because my upload speed makes snails look like they are moving at a breakneck pace. Also, because there is so much to tell you all about the trip.  The time to do it justice just couldn't be found.  So, I'm not.  I am going to update the blog with the here and now.  The Make A Wish trip details will have to arrive to the blog randomly as time allows. On to the here and now.

First things first. Doesn't her hair look great?? It is back to her original hair color and growing in thick and pretty.  Not fast enough for her, of course.  She constantly wants me to try and french braid her hair.  Yep. At that length. She is agitated quite quickly at easily given responses like "Oh, baby it is still too short for that", so, I try.  We give up usually after mere moments of trying and instead go for small clips or headbands. For whatever her reasons, she feels better if we attempt it.

School for Hannah is going impressively well.  She got student of the month in January!! She got to except her award in front of the an all school assembly. I am SO proud of her.  She had suffered some damage as a result of the chemo.   Initially, when kindergarten started, she didn't know her alphabet, couldn't write her name, didn't know her numbers, and got Parkinson's like shakes when trying to cut a circle out with scissors.  Now, she is writing her name and many other things.  She loves to write real words and always wants to know how something is spelled.  She is reading small books, is great with math, and can cut paper into a myriad of shapes without a single shake.  Infact, I do believe she is the main culprit in my constantly missing printer paper. 

We are still in the thick of the cancer fight. She has been having some ups and downs with her ANC counts.  At this stage of the game, they like to see her counts steady, between 750 and 1500.  For both November and December her counts were between 4,000 and 5,000. We upped her chemo doses. Some of them to at or a bit above 100%.  That's high. In January, her counts came back down, around 1200.  It was a short lived sigh of relief as February had her counts at over 4,000 again.  We upped her chemo. We go Friday to Children's for a back poke, (chemo in her spinal column) and to check her counts.  I'm not sure what the bouncing counts are from, exactly. They are worrisome altogether and attempting to steal the peace I had gained.  I am trying to remember we are in this for the long, bumpy road.  Crazy counts might just be one of the bumps! Whatever may come, God has a plan and I have to trust.

We Are Back From DisneyWorld!

I have so many photos and stories that I can't wait to share.   We have 129 photos coming from Disney, but it takes two days.  Some of those are amazing.

This is Hannah driving her own car in Tomorrow Land.  She was so cute! She kept saying "My car; I'm driving!"

Hannah Gets A Wish!!

Make A Wish has granted Hannah a wish.  When they asked her what one thing she would want, she didn't even pause.  "To see the princesses!"  She didn't know of Disneyland or Disneyworld, then, she was just four years old when first asked.  MAW decided that would best be done at Disney World.  We get to stay in the Give Kids The World resort, which is set up for MAW kids.  They serve dessert any time, so you can literally have ice cream for breakfast!

Hannah at her Make A Wish Party

We leave Saturday morning for a week in Florida.  Hello sunshine!! The kids and I have never been to Disneyworld and we are SO excited!  I will take a ton of pictures!

The best part is that Hannah's birthday is on Sunday and we get to celebrate it at Disneyworld with her favorite princess!  For Hannah, this is the best thing in the entire world to happen to her.  After the hell on earth this summer's chemo was, it actually makes me tear up thinking of how happy she is going to be.  The Make A Wish people are angels.

School Troubles

Hannah has started Kindergarten! She was so excited! Big kid school like her brothers. Finally, getting to play with little kids again. There was so much talk about what friends she would have and if she could invite friends for sleep overs. I was struggling a bit with having my baby go to school. I now have all school age children. Weird.

Hannah's hair has grown in so much in such a short time. I think it looks like an adorable pixie cut. It has also grown a different color! It is far lighter. She used to have hair so dark brown that is sometimes looked black. Now, she seems to have a light ash brown color.

Unfortunately, for Hannah, what the kids at school noticed most was, she has very short hair. She was coming home every day telling me of something else a child had either done and said to her that was hurtful or mean. The chants of "Look, it's a boy in a dress" hurt the most. Luckily, the teacher we have this year, is just fantastic. She has been very helpful. Hannah is learning to trust her, that if she tells, it can be made better. I called the Leukemia & Lymphoma Society and they sent an information packet with a Charlie Brown video for the kids to watch.

We watched the video in class with the kids. It was short but effective. In the video you see a little girl discover she has leukemia. When she is able to come back to school, she is bald. A boy on the playground starts making fun of her and the other children come to her aid.

We had a discussion afterward where the kids could ask questions. I was so pleased to see what an impact the show had made. There where lots of questions about why hair falls out. One boy raised his hand to tell me, he thought the mean boy in the video was a bully. That got other kids asking why someone would do that. This gave me a chance to tell them how some people react to new or different things by making fun of it. I explained that it is important to think about how someone might feel about the things you say or do to them. That same little boy ( thank god for this kid!) said, "Just like when the kids tease Hannah?". After I responded, yes just like that, he looked around the room and said "Well, I hope they don't do that anymore!" Ahem!

This was just last week, so I will have to wait and see if this was enough to help. Hannah does have a some friends in class regardless of the other issues and hopefully now, a little more understanding.

Little Bits Of Sunshine

That title could easily describe our summer. Tonight is, after all, the finally of our summer. Here in Seattle, we only had bits of hot weather for the entire thing. Very maddening, especially if you feel warm only when it reaches 80 degrees. We struggled to have days hotter than 73.

However, I am not referring to the day time temperature in that title. The Sunshine Kids (http://www.sunshinekids.org) is an organization dedicated to helping cancer kids get rid of the dreary that clouds their lives and feel some fun. They arranged a night out to the 5th Avenue Theater here in Seattle to see Aladdin. Hannah and I were invited to go.

Hannah had such a fantastic time. She got all dressed up, gel in the hair and mom's perfume. She used her best manners and really was so perfectly polite. After the show, the Sunshine Kids got to go down and meet the cast. They were all wonderful. Hannah's eyes filled right up when the Sultan asked if she wanted to meet Princess Jasmine. She had been admiring her earlier, exclaiming that it was a "real live" princess. It was one of those nights you hope you remember forever.

I am going to write another post in the morning, or add on to this one, about how Hannah has been feeling, but for now, I am going to bed. First day of school tomorrow!

Long Term Maintenance

Striking a pose!

LTM is a whole lotta pills! She can't swallow pills yet, so there is quite a bit of cutting, crushing, and mixing. I am pretty sure I could be a full fledged pharmacist!

The fact that all this is done at home has changed everything. Our time is not broken up between hospital and home. We spend less time talking or thinking about needle pokes, hard chemo, and navigating side effects.

This freedom is so alluring. We can't help but feel done with cancer. Yet, everytime I turn around, I am still having to tell Hannah, No. We can't do that, yet. She still has a port to protect and she still has to watch for germs.

Which, is why Rick, at Metro Parks is our new rock star. We discovered an awesome splashground park right next to (so close, how did I miss it before?) our house. It looks new and so enticing. Big grass area, new playground equipment, a zip line, and finally a huge section with different things spraying water. Hannah went nuts. I sighed. I had to tell her we might not be able to do that. Depending on how they treat the water, it might be a, No. She handles these disappointments so well, it makes my heart hurt for her. I promised I would find out.

I called Metro Parks the very next morning. It was a Friday. After some shuffling around I was transferred to Rick. I explained our situation. All said and done, he called back three separate times within about a half an hour. He got me every single detail about how the water is cycled and treated. With every chemical by name, amount, and time it is used. He gave his personal cell just in case Hannah's doctors had questions. Guess what? It was safe enough to go in. We played all Saturday. Thank you. So much.




Aaron in the middle with the mohawk.


Hannah and Andrew

Greener Pastures ahead!

Hannah completed all four doses of the high dose methotrexate. Given that she didn't start this phase of aggressive chemo until she was already a year into an already blistering chemo schedule, it is quite amazing! Several times in the course of this we thought she would not be able to continue. The side effects threatened to be almost too toxic to bare. However, each time, right at the crucial moment, she would pull through.

We are now done with scheduled inpatient stays at Children's. The next phase of treatment is called Long Term Maintenance. Ahhhh...sounds so good. For us cancer mom's, that is the one you are waiting to hear. Next to all done, of course. This phase involves chemo taken by mouth every night and a once a month visit to Children's for chemo in the spinal column (back poke).

Once a month did you say??? Yep, sounds like heaven to me too!

LTM will last a little over a year, but is supposed to be far easier. Our lives should, I am told, go back to semi-normal. It is enough to make you cry.

She will start this phase tomorrow if she makes counts. I'm not entirely sure she will. Which would just mean another week no chemo while her body recovers.

Hannah is in great spirits. She is still my miss sassy pants. Most of the time I would swear she was entering her teen years. Super lovey one minute, all drama the next.

She has discovered her box of summer clothes and collection of bathing suits. Now, all of a sudden, her swimsuits are all she wants to wear. We are in Seattle. It is not exactly warm here just yet.

The other morning, at 6am, she comes in my room, bathing suit on, and asks me to set up the sprinkler in the front yard. "Now??" I ask. She replies with nothing but a "Yes". I just can't imagine what she is thinking. It was cold in the house, let alone outside, in water! So, I say, "Baby, it is raining, and it is six o'clock in the morning, not exactly outside time." She looked stunned, shouted "FINE!!", stomped to her room, and slammed the door.

Aahhh, teenagers. Wait, what? Oh yeah. She is just five.
Wouldn't change a thing. (If you could see me, I'm smiling, big.)

Overdue Update

We are in Children's for her 4th and last dose of the High Dose Methotrexate. This treatment phase has been really rough. Every single time we are in the hospital there are new and old challenges that kick our butt. Also, living between the hospital and home week on and off is unsettling and stressful for everyone. I can't wait to unpack, with the knowledge that I don't have to repack a week later. These are the times that I wish for a giant STOP button to push. It would be great if work, family, life, and cancer fighting could all take a time out, for just a moment, so that we could breathe.

That complaining aside, this dose is proceeding along. She got a slight fever this afternoon and is battling nausea something fierce. She mostly wants to lie still with no noise. We are roommates with an infant this stay, so it is difficult to give her the quiet part. He is a super cute baby, though, and the family couldn't be nicer.

Hopefully, we will be done with this round Monday or Tuesday and able to go home. Almost there. One day at a time.

2nd Dose Done

Say that title three times fast! Ok, wait, I just did it and it was easy. Nevermind.

This is going to be a long post. If you do not want the play by play, here is a summary. She finished the 2nd dose of Mtx. It went horrible, but she did it. She did not get mouth sores again this time and we actually had a hospital free weekend for memorial day!

So, last Friday Hannah started the 2nd dose of high dose methotrexate. I was nervous to start it again so soon. She hadn't even been home for a week from the last hospital stay. That one was just from the side effects of the first dose!

The first day went perfect. They hooked her up to a saline drip and she quickly produced the necessary amount of pee to start her methotrexate 24 hour drip. This time, Hannah was finally not in isolation. That means we were able to come out of her room. The cancer floor has a mini playroom and a bike riding area. It is really pretty cute to see little kids riding around the hallway's. Hannah loves to see into other kid's rooms. She doesn't care at all about privacy!

She woke up on Saturday really grumpy. We made it passed that and then I did the unthinkable.

Hannah is hooked up to three different tubes that all go to a big medical tower on wheels. It holds the medicine bags and syringes that get pumped into her tubes. The tubes attach to the needle that goes into the port in her chest. We constantly tell her to be careful of her tubes. For the most part she is. If they pull a little too much, like if she is moving faster than you are moving her tower, or if she rolls on them in her sleep, they pull and it hurts.

Keeping this in mind, here is what I did. Hannah was sitting in a chair and raised her arms for me to pick her up. I did. What I didn't see was her tubes were caught in the crook of the chair. I lifted her up and the needle pulled right out of her chest. Luckily, two nurses were walking in at that moment. Methotrexate, not a drug you want anywhere on your skin or in surrounding veins or tissue, was spilling down her tummy into her belly button. It is really important that the needle pulled right out, instead of half out, half in. I didn't know this at the time. Our nurse was checking that out. I thought we should be stopping the Mtx from spilling down her bare skin. I yelled at our poor nurse. She yelled back. We were all scared.

Hannah was screaming "It's a bummer, it's a bummer!" over and over. It was such a mix of the cutest thing you ever heard and the saddest. She had a small cut from the needle underneath her port. We got that and the chemo drug cleaned up. The next hurdle was getting a new needle back in and the chemo, which is a timed deal, back on schedule! They determined the needle came out clean and gave us the go ahead. The problem was how to put the needle back in without numbing cream, as it takes at least a full hour to numb and 30 minutes for the fast stuff. The decided to do a lidocaine shot. It doesn't have a needle. You just press it down, it lets off a compressor sound, and boom; area numb! Hannah was a bit scared, but braved through it. Infact, she did better than me the whole thing through. I cried like a baby for about an hour after that. Tears just wouldn't stop. I felt so damn bad. You should have seen how great Hannah did, though. What an amazing girl.

Unfortunately, our stay did not get any easier from there. The last time Hannah was in the hospital she was on a morphine drip. She was still in the weaning process during this hospital stay. Based on Hannah's reaction to a narcotic they gave her previously, for back poke's, and the behaviour we saw during the last two hospital stays, we think Hannah might have adverse reactions to narcotics. Not having tied it all together yet, it was hard to see what we had coming.

Hannah had an almost base line of anger. Even if she could be distracted or had some good moments, almost any little thing would set her off. She wouldn't just get angry, she seemed crazy. You could have offered her all of Toy R Us during the middle of a fit and it wouldn't have mattered. She was lost to us. She would get so mad, she would be kicking and hitting and throwing anything or anybody. This happened several times a day and into the nights. The psych team was called down. They determined she needed less people around her and to give her space with nothing to throw near her. Without that, she started to pull her tubes, tried to tip over her tower, oh, and literally splash pee at her nurse. After the second day of this crazy, to protect her from herself, they strapped her arms to her bed. It only lasted two hours. It wasn't anyone's best plan and I think her nurses were as upset as me! However, her doctors are going over it all to have a real plan ready if she has a reaction like that again.

Because of the mouth sores, the gave Hannah extra of the rescue drug, Leucovorin. It helps the methotrexate to exist the body faster. On Sunday, they drew her labs and her Mtx level was at .79. It has to be .01 to go home. Monday they took labs and I though, why bother? She came back at .08! After the h. e. double hockey sticks the day before had been, I was SO excited to go home.

What I was really dreading was whether or not she would get those mouth sores. I don't know how we could have done another week on a morphine drip! Thank god a million times over, she did not get them very bad this time. A few on her tongue, but nothing hospital worthy.

As much fun as that was, you will be excited to hear that on Friday, if she makes counts we get to do it all over again. We are glass half full kind of girls, so I will say this; It is going to be better this time! So there, cancer! (I am sticking my tongue out in a very juvenile fashion)


Some of the better moments.

Back home for a bit

Hannah got to come home this weekend. She is doing better. Still tired but healing. Starting this chemo after a year of heavy duty front line treatment is just punishing on already worn out bone marrow. However, we made it through the first round of HD Mtx. Friday morning, if her counts are good, she will be admitted for the second dose.

I knew this would be tough and it is. We are going to push through and get this done. She needs this chemo, as awful as it is.

I can't really elaborate more than this. I just break right down if I think about how things are going. I'm just going to concentrate on the goal. Please, pray for us going through the next round. Love you all!

Post Removed

I updated about Hannah yesterday and now the entire post is missing. I don't have time to figure it out, but if anyone knows how to fix it, please let me know!

Hannah is still in the hospital. The mouth sores, which are little ulcers, have covered her tongue, gone down her throat and are throughout her GI tract. She has been in horrible pain and we have struggled to figure out where her behaviour is a reaction to pain medicine or an indication that she needs more. After several days it became clear she needed much more.

She is actually doing better today. Still a little cranky, but doesn't seem to be in as much pain.

Thank you all for your support.

She is still @ Children's

I have to make this brief and will try to give more details later. Hannah is still in the hospital. She has really been struggling this week. We have had days too bad to talk about. The mouth sores (which are little ulcers) are covering her tongue, gone down her throat, and through her GI tract. It is horrifically painful.

Half our trouble is because she is so young. When in pain, she doesn't always vocalize, she goes a little crazy. She screams, kicks, hits, spits, pulls at her tubes, anything to change what is happening inside. She also has that reaction as a side effect to some of the pain medicine they give her. Figuring out how much pain medicine and which one to use has been a trial and error at her expense. This is going to sound crude but it fits on the most basic level. This all SUCKS!

The good news is her fever is gone. Also, she seems to be stabilizing on pain and erratic behavior today. Her counts look like they are trending upward so hopefully she is on the mend.

Thank you all so much for your continued support and prayers. We have needed them!

Heading Back to Children's

Hannah has been struggling with stomach pain and mouth sores that cover the inside of her mouth and have traveled down her throat. Last night was so hard.

It is a common side effect of the methotrexate. The real name for it is mucositis and the sores are little ulcers that can occur anywhere in the GI tract.

It can be an extremely painful thing and if pain cannot be controlled by oxycodone, then she will need to be readmitted for a morphine drip. Her stomach pains could also be mucositis that have traveled down to her stomach. Sigh.

We are both exhausted. Hopefully, this will be resolved soon and she will be pain free. It is so miserable to watch.

Awesome News!

Hannah passed the high dose methotrexate out of her system a day earlier than even her doctors expected! That is awesome news for Hannah, as the risk of side effects greatly increases the longer it takes to clear the drug. I am extremely excited about this!

Yeah Hannah!!!!!

I will do a proper post with more details this evening. Thank you all for your prayers and support.

Preparing For HD Mtx

It is going to be ugly. Now that Hannah has finished DI 2, she will begin the new phase. Remember back in February when I was debating putting Hannah on the aggressive chemo that would give her a better prognosis but had all the nasty side effects? That's the one we are starting.

If she had made counts she would have started last Saturday. It is a five day stay as inpatients at the hospital until she clears the 5000 mg dose of Methotrexate. For once, I was actually very happy she didn't make counts!

From everything I have read, the kids who make it out of this with the least side effects have are the ones who process the drug quickly. There are some tricks, I found, to help Hannah do that. She needs to have good electrolyte levels, and her kidney and liver functions need to be up. At Friday's appointment, Hannah was a little dehydrated and her liver function was lower than normal. So, we gave her an hour of IV fluids right then and have been spending the week forcing Gatorade in her!

This dose of Methotrexate is also known to cause painful mouth sores. Having a super clean mouth can help lessen the amount so Hannah also got to go to the dentist this week. The only thing is that Hannah has to have good counts and an antibiotic an hour before going. There was a crazy whirl of doctors, pharmacists, and phone calls to make it happen! We did it, though, and Hannah was fantastic! She kept telling them she wanted SPARKLE teeth. Her dentist, started out with a normal tooth brush. Hannah told her that if she wanted to make her teeth sparkle she would need to use that, and pointed to the polisher!



Tomorrow we go in to check counts. If she is above 750 ANC, she will have a back poke, or spinal tap, with IT Methotrexate into her spinal column and then check into the hospital Saturday morning for the high dose stuff. I think we are as prepared as you can be. I am scared out of my mind and confident she will do well all at the same time.

I have been meaning to post these cute pictures of Hannah at the hospital when she had the virus. So, here you go, two weeks late!


Hanging in the ER, not so happy


Heading to our room


Playing


Oh man. So beautiful, makes my heart hurt.


Going home!!