She's back...

We just picked Mollie up after her week at camp. She had a fabulous time! According to her, she swam, went down the waterslide, caught 4 fish, panned for gold, rode a horse, did ceramics, archery, clay, make-overs, went canoeing, hiking (and saw a snake), rockclimbing, had a pajama party, went to a dance with a DJ, dressed in a freaky outfit for carnival.... She also played glow-in-the-dark golf, BINGO, and did gymnastics. Apparently the boys messed up the girls' cabin with string so they got them back by throwing bucketfulls of (fake) bugs in their cabin!!

She is completely worn out and a bit emotional; she's alternating between being very eager to tell us what she did and teary because she feels different than before she left. I'm hoping she will nap/rest this afternoon! She was happy to see us and ecstatic to see Lucy! She couldn't stop hugging her and holding her hand. So sweet.

Update: she's now feeling a lot less "different" and seems to be just fine.

It's nice to have her back!

And she's off!

Mollie is away at camp! She could hardly contain her excitement yesterday when we took her to the camp check-in. I wonder what she's doing right now? I hope the counselors take some pictures, otherwise I'm sure we'll have no idea what they really did!

We had a little scare Sat. night. I was getting Mollie's medicine ready for camp, so I decided to give her her evening medication (just an antibiotic since she's off chemo right now) and get her morning medication ready. As I was doing this, Matt brought Lucy in for a good night kiss. When I turned back to what I was doing, something seemed amiss. I asked Mollie if she took her medicine already and she proudly said, "Yep! Both of them." Oh, no! Both of them- she was only supposed to take one.

I got on the phone with Dr. Vega and it turns out it wasn't such a big deal. We just held her antibiotic doses for Sunday. This mistake was simply caused by a change in routine. Usually, we carry Mollie's meds to her after she is already in bed, because she needs to take the chemo more than two hours after she eats. Since she is off chemo right now and getting ready for camp, we didn't do the routine.

By my calculation, we have given Mollie >1500 pills in the last year! This is the first mistake- kind of amazing, actually.

Guess who's already missing her big sister?

Doing Just Fine

Mollie is doing well so far- we're actually kind of enjoying the chemo vacation. I have to remind myself NOT to give her pills every night!

So, we're going to start packing for camp! Mollie was starting to feel a bit apprehensive, but after seeing Abi and Emily (they are going to camp too) at the market today and hearing about the cool bus and camp carnival from Kelley, she's feeling better.

Low key day- we played a bit in the yard, picked up groceries, and went to the library- all with mucho handwashing.

No fevers! No fevers! No fevers!

Brief Clinic Update

Two weeks ago, Mollie's ANC was low so we had to go back today to have counts checked again. Well, we just got back from clinic and Mollie is neutropenic. Her ANC is 400 (normal range for her would be 1-2k). So, they are stopping chemo for 2 weeks to let her marrow recover and hopefully she'll be able to pick up where she left off.

Oh, the worries! I am concerned about her being totally off chemo and I am worried she'll spike a fever and end up in the hospital.

The timing of this stuff is crazy. She's just about to head off to camp and then we're headed for our family vacation in California. I am keeping my fingers crossed for no fevers!!

Additional Info:

Camp Rainbow, is a special camp for kids with cancer. It is run by the Child Life staff at MCG- the oncology staff and at least one of the doctors will be at the camp at all times. They have the medical needs covered. In fact, Beth (the NP) told me that kids go even if their counts are ZERO, as long as they don't have fever. So, I'm not at all worried about her, medically, while she's at camp. I'm just worried she won't be able to go!

Also, this neutropenia is totally expected for this point in her treatment. The chemo holds are written into the protocols. I've mentioned before that the goal of long term maintenance is to suppress the bone marrow without making the kids neutropenic (and much more susceptible to infection). The first time the ANC drops below 500, they will hold chemo. In the future, they will hold chemo if it drops below 750. They check counts after two weeks of no chemo and if the counts are back up, they start up the chemo again. They also may drop it to 50 or 75% normal dose if the counts continue to drop on the full dose. Hope that makes sense?

We are not under house arrest with the low ANC- just crowd avoidance and intense hand-washing and common sense. We went shoe shopping this afternoon because Mollie has outgrown all of her shoes and needed some for camp. Nothing like a little retail therapy!

Mollie Goes to Camp!

Next week Mollie goes to Camp Rainbow for the whole week! She is very excited that each cabin has its own mailbox.

If you would like to send her a letter or package, e mail me or leave me your e mail address in a comment and I'll send you her camp mailing address.

Letters need to go in the post this week in order for her to receive them while at camp.

More about our fun weekend in the next post...

End of June

This week was typical summer. Our time has been spent:

trying to beat the heat- drinking lemonade, running through the sprinklers, splashing in the wading pool

playing with friends- Mollie and Lucy played at Hannah's house on Monday night and yesterday Mollie played with Bella almost all day!

enjoying nature- found a tiny (3-inches across) turtle at a local nature park and a robin's nest in a tree just above our driveway

Quick Note

So happy that Mollie is off the steroids! It wasn't a terrible week, but it's just better when she's back to her normal self.

My mom is on her way home (or maybe already there) and we had a fun visit. It was great to have one more person around to help deal with the side effects.