Normal days

Mollie is really enjoying being normal. Now that her hair is growing back, people sometimes think she's a boy (yes, even when she's wearing dresses). It doesn't seem to bother her if it is adults, but she does NOT want her friends to think she looks like a boy. Luckily, she's got some great friends, a great attitude, and fast growing hair!

Last week, the child life specialist and two interns did a special presentation/project with Mollie's class to help the kids become a little more aware of Mollie's special needs. Mollie loved it! They didn't single her out or talk about cancer, they just talked about medicine in general and some of the side effects of "strong medicine." The child life staff people are awesome!


Mollie is very excited to have her grandparents (both sets) and aunts and uncles visiting this weekend for Lucy's baptism. She said, "Maybe when all of them come you and daddy can have a vacation?" Um, yeah right. But it will be great to see everyone, especially Uncle Sam who has just arrived home from Iraq.

Love...

to all our friends and family this St. Valentine's day. This might just be Mollie's favorite holiday. She is working on a story called, "The Girl Who Loved Valentines."

She had a great Valentine party at school yesterday. We made a special mailbox to hold all her goodies. Today will be low-key; the weather is bad so we're going to have some play time and take it easy.

Hope everyone has a happy weekend!

Zofran rocks!

Mollie's weekly, at home drug/chemo regimen goes like this:

6-MP- every single day (for the next 2 years!)
Methotrexate (MTX) - Tuesdays (unless she has spinal chemo)
Septra- Fri, Sat, Sun
Oral/Mouthcare- everyday (we have to get better about doing this!)
Dexamethasone- 5 days every 4 weeks

That is a lot of drugs. The steroids are difficult- no way around that. The only other drug that has caused any side effects is the methotrexate; it makes Mollie feel nauseated.

That's where the Zofran comes in to play. Mollie was upset this morning because she felt like throwing up, but she really was hungry and wanted to go to school. One Zofran and 20 minutes later, she was dressed and ready to go! We got to school a little late, but she jumped right in to the funky scarf-dancing session with her friends!

Playhouse

The weekend was okay; Saturday was the last steroid day for a while. We worked (moving furniture) around the house, but we did make it to Teresia's for a German lesson (and some delicious treats) on Sunday.

Mollie spent some time looking at playhouse ideas... I found one that she really likes (on this blog). What do you think? I love it! We're hoping that Make-a-Wish can build something along these lines. We will keep you updated on the progress.

Mollie had a great day at school today and asked me why she can't stay for afterschool care. She is looking forward to Valentine's day (her favorite holiday, I think). We will work on her special Valentine mail box tomorrow after school.

Not too bad

Surprisingly, this week on steroids has not been as bad as I thought. Since clinic on Tuesday, Mollie stayed home from school Wednesday, went to school Thursday, and stayed home Friday. I think she could (or maybe should?) have gone to school Weds and maybe yesterday. The effects of the steroids are cumulative, so today she was definitely feeling them more.

Weds morning, she woke up and wanted to go to school. So, I sent her up to her room to get dressed and when she finally came down she was teary and emotional. "I was just trying to be a big girl. I'm really sorry." Hmmm... turns out she tried to paint her own fingernails while she was up there (at 7:30 AM) and spilled some nail polish on the rug. It wasn't too bad, and I certainly wasn't angry, but she still didn't feel like going to school. Instead, we ran errands, went to lunch, and went Build-a-bear to make a special bear for my cousin Katie's baby-to-be. Mollie had a great time and then took a 4 hour nap when we got home.

Today we went to the library and then ate lunch. The cafe in the library, where we ate, is a family business. The owner put in a special gumball machine in honor of Mollie- most of the proceeds go to cancer research. Mollie and I were surprised and touched. Afterwards, we went to a children's resale shop to get small treats for Lucy and Mollie. We scored big! Some brand new bear slippers (Mollie's been wanting new, bigger slippers for a while) for $2.99, a Valentine's nightgown with hearts on it, a free Little Red Riding Hood storybook with a CD, and a toy purse (for Lucy).

Last night, both girls went to bed at 7:30. Today is Mollie's last day of steroids until next month. The dark circles under her eyes will go away and she'll have more energy. We are all looking forward to that!!

And so it begins...

The steroids have hit hard and Mollie is home from school today. She has already had breakfast, two snack refills and she's been asking to go the grocery store and then to Panera. I'm glad she prefers Panera to McDonalds, but it is not kind to the pocketbook!

Clinic Update

Mollie had to go to clinic today for chemo. All went smoothly (hurray!) and her ANC was a perfect 1400. During maintenance, they try to keep the ANC between 1000 and 1500; this assures that the chemo dose is high enough to cause bone marrow suppression, but not so high that it causes neutropenia (and greater infection risk).

Mollie also got a cardiac echo today, to check her heart function (remember, the doxorubicin can be damaging to the heart in some patients). Her SF was 35.3%- anything about 30% is normal, so she won't need another scan until next year.

We had to wait a long time for the chemo (vincristine), but it finally came and she got it through her port, no problem. Then it was off to have pizza will Courson and Zachary. Mollie had a great time at lunch, but she ate pasta since she doesn't like pizza She really enjoyed playing in the arcade and getting prizes with all her tickets. She said she had a lot of fun-- pretty impressive for a chemo/clinic day!

She is starting a 5-day steroid pulse so she will probably stay home from school some this week. Maybe we'll do Valentine crafts.