Week's End

Mollie has been real sweetie this week.

She and I had fun making Valentine cards for her class party.
She happily ate the broccoli cheddar impossible pie I made for dinner.
She raved about the delicious cherry chocolate chip cookies I made.
She thanked me for all of the above.
She put away the utensils from the dishwasher without complaining.

Thankfully, she has stayed fever-free.

She played at Bella's house all day yesterday; it started with a tea party and ended with snow!

Wishing you a Happy St. Valentine's Day!

Bald is Beautiful

Matt's friend and coworker Frank is awesome! For the second year in a row, he's honoring Mollie and shaving his head to raise money to support pediatric cancer research through the St. Baldrick's Foundation (link here).

Research funding for pediatric cancer is scarce and the St. Baldrick's Foundation funds more in childhood cancer research grants than any other organization except for the government. Plus, it's cool to see people shave their heads in solidarity with kids who lose their hair to chemo. Please consider supporting Frank & St. Baldrick's if you can.

Fever-free

Mollie woke up this morning with no fever! She still had a low-grade fever last night, but now she's upstairs singing and playing fever-free.

Kat- we have a whole bunch of thermometers, but the one I trust most is a Vicks. It's quick and accurate. And ours needs a new battery. Do you have one that you recommend?

Fever

Mollie woke up this morning with a low-grade fever. By the time we got to clinic, it was 103.1! Since she was neutropenic (ANC 615) last week, we thought she would end up in the hospital.

Her ANC was 6800, so we got a pass! She got a dose of rocephin (antibiotic) and Tylenol and ibuprofin and got sent home with strict instructions to come back if she seems worse or still has fever tomorrow morning.

She won't be going to school tomorrow, but if she's better (and we hope she is!), she will go back on Weds.

Our "good" thermometer broke and I think the one we're using now reads on the low side so I may need to go out for a new one. I'm off to take her temp right now...

Weekend Round-Up

So far, so good. Mollie hasn't gotten sick (well, she has a runny nose/cough, but no fever) and Lucy is on the mend.

The big event for this weekend was Girl Scouts' 'Thinking Day'. Thinking Day has a global theme; girls participate in activities and projects to honor their sister Girl Scouts/Girl Guides around the world. The theme this year was "together we can end extreme poverty and hunger". Mollie's troop chose to honor the country of Kenya. They learned a little about the country and its people and even learned a few words in Swahili. Other troops chose different countries that are affected by extreme poverty. Overall, it was a good learning experience. The last part of the day was a the drum circle. A group came in with drums and percussion instruments for all the girl scouts and leaders. They taught a few different rhythms, the history of drumming, and how different instruments and individuals can work together to create some neat sounds. They called it 'empowerment' drumming and it really was a positive, team-building experience. And Liam slept through the whole thing!

Back to school tomorrow... hoping for a healthy week ahead.

Almost Done

So... how is everybody?

Well, Lucy is still sick. She's very subdued and we can tell she's miserable. I'm going to take her to the doctor this afternoon because she has a fever now- I think she might have an ear or sinus infection. Update: She does have an ear infection, so now she's on antibiotics.

Mollie has been doing very well. She went to school on Wednesday and yesterday she stayed for the whole school day plus the girl scout meeting afterwards! She's going for half day today and then she gets her last dose of dexamethasone tonight. The month the steroid pulse has been so much better than last month. Who knows why? She does have a runny nose and I've heard there is a stomach bug going around school, so I'm steeling myself in preparation for Mollie getting sick, but still hoping that these bugs skip over her.

The rest of us are doing fine at the moment; we're trying to figure out a schedule and we're doing a lot of handwashing! The weather lately has been dreary-- some sunshine would be wonderful so we can get out of the house!

Clinic Update

We have all the ingredients for a perfect storm:
- neutropenic cancer patient on steroids
- sick 2-year old
- newborn baby
- tired mama

All we can do is hope for the best and use lots of hand sanitizer!

Mollie had clinic today and her ANC is 700 (that is the automated count- we're still waiting for the manual count). So, she's probably neutropenic & susceptible to infections. Her platelet and hemoglobin numbers are normal though, so the low white count is probably just a sign that she is fighting off a bug. She got her monthly IV vincristine today and we are waiting to find out if she will continue her oral chemo. If her manual ANC is between 500 and 750, her chemo will be cut back to a 50% dose; if her ANC is <500, she will stop chemo until it recovers. She is on dexamethasone (steroids) this week, so that should help her counts recover.

Unfortunately, Lucy is sick with something. She is feverish and lethargic. Trying to get her to cover her mouth, wash her hands, and be careful about spreading germs is just about impossible, but we are trying our best.

We had a nice day yesterday, though. We went out for lunch and then to the local art museum. Mollie brought a notepad and colored pencils (thanks GCW for the supplies and Matt for the idea) and made a few sketches of some of the paintings. Note to self: sign Mollie up for art class!