On the mend

Mollie had a great day at school on Friday, and then a play date with Bella. She's definitely feeling better, although the cough is hanging on.

Have a great weekend!

Crafty Day

Mollie stayed home from school today due to 1) yesterday's fever and 2) big time antibiotics. Other than the cough, she felt pretty good and did not want to just stay home and rest. So... we picked up some bagels and cream cheese and headed over to the park for a picnic. Mollie and Lucy had a great time playing in the water park, but the play structure was just too hot, so we didn't stay for long.

Mollie missed art class (her favorite) at school today, so we had our own art class at home. She has been learning to recognize all the color words, so I made a color wheel for her to paint. The learning experience was two fold: she had to recognize the colors that I wrote on the wheel and then we talked about primary and secondary colors and color mixing. Definitely a success!

After a little down time, I took Mollie to her first Girl Scout (Daisy) meeting. The troop made paper bead necklaces, a craft right up Mollie's alley! Lucy also had a fun time scooting around on the floor in the gym, where the meeting was held.

Today definitely made up for yesterday! I plan to send Mollie to school tomorrow since her cough seems to be getting better and she's tolerating the antibiotics well.

Clinic Update

Have I mentioned the spontaneous nature our lives have taken since Mollie's cancer diagnosis?

Today, I planned to pick Mollie up from school, take her to clinic for counts, and return her to school. After school, she was to attend the first meeting of a Nature Club for K-2nd graders at a local park.

As you may have already guessed, it didn't go that way at all. It started with Mollie coughing and wheezing in the middle of the night. At one point, she had such a hard time breathing that we almost went to the ER. But the pediatric ER was closed and it would only be a few more hours until the clinic opened, so we decided to try to hold out until morning. We fixed Mollie a spot on the sofa, and she calmed down enough to go to sleep. The coughing subsided somewhat and we all got a little (a very little) rest.

We headed to the clinic as soon as it opened, and Matt postponed some meetings so he wouldn't have to go out of town. It was a struggle to get Mollie to wear a mask (to protect the other patients), but Miss Kym walked by at just the right time; within minutes, Mollie was wearing the mask.

Mollie had a low grade fever, but her lungs sounded pretty clear, and her ANC was 3400. She was a trooper for her port access this time. She was scared and said it hurt, but she stayed very calm and was even laughing when she tried to drink water through her face mask. She recieved an IV antibiotic (rocephin) and a prescription for another antibiotic (Zithromax) and we got sent home. We'll skip the Bactrim (Septra) for the next two weeks (with all the other antibiotics, I'm not concerned) and stay on 100% dose of oral chemo.

We ended up being in clinic until about 2, but don't think I'm complaining. She could have been admitted to the hospital, and I'm so glad she wasn't! She is still in good spirits, but we will keep her home from school tomorrow so she can rest a bit more and we can see how she's reacting to the new meds. Hopefully, she'll be back to school on Friday and ready for the weekend!

The Story of Mollie's First Lost Tooth

Too excited to hold still for a picture!

See that gap? Mollie's wiggly tooth came out last Weds. night!

She was brushing her teeth when she started screaming, "Mama! My tooth is GONE!" I thought it had gone down the drain or something, but there it was in the sink (she meant gone from her mouth!)


So the tooth fairy came and brought her a silver dollar and a certificate; after school, she got a flower delivery! She was also the first in her class to lose a tooth, so she brought her certificate in for show and tell.


Losing the first tooth is definitely a major milestone in growing up. Time is really flying, but it makes me so happy to see Mollie experiencing these normal phases.

Mollie goes to clinic to have her counts checked tomorrow. Two more weeks until the next spinal tap. She has developed a cough over the last week, so we will be sure to mention that tomorrow and see if they want to do anything. She has not had a fever, but she is pretty congested. I'm expecting that to have some effect on her ANC, but hopefully not enough to reduce her dose of chemo.

Zoo & Baby!

The last few days have been great! Mollie is back to enjoying school without being too tired. She has a loose tooth (and I mean LOOSE), so the tooth fairy is preparing to make a visit sometime soon.

Mollie wanted to celebrate being off steroids by going to the zoo on Sunday, so off we went. It was hot and Mollie and Lucy both seemed a little subdued, but I think they had a nice time anyway. The best part was how Mollie spent her "Safari bucks" at the souvenir shop. She spent forever in the store trying to pick something for Lucy and herself, but "they just didn't have that many baby things that Lucy would like". She finally settled on some glow-in-the-dark frogs and they were both pleased. She's such a good big sister.

So, things are back to normal around here. Mollie goes in for a routine hearing and vision test tomorrow afternoon and then back to clinic for a count check next week (she is back on Septra, so Beth wants to make sure it is not suppressing her ANC).

In other exciting news (and if I know you in real life you probably already know this), we are expecting a baby, due in January! Mollie has really been expressing a lot of interest in holding & feeding the baby and wondering if it is going to be smaller than Lucy (I hope so!).

Here's a picture of Mollie in the school outfit that her chemo angel sent her:

Kindergarten on Steroids

Well, we have reached the end of Mollie's second week of school, her first on steroids. She has done great! Each day, she was smiling and happy when I picked her up. She has had a tough time waking up in the morning and she has been ready for bed by 7:30 PM, but she has handled all of it very well.

Mollie had school pictures yesterday-- not sure how those are going to turn out since she has big circles under her eyes.

Today she was off to the Y with Bella. She will get her last dose of steroids for this pulse tonight so tomorrow she should start feeling better and more energetic.

Off to enjoy the rest of the weekend...

Steroids, Day 2

It's been interesting.

I know that Mollie behaves differently around me, especially when she's on steroids. She's clingy and needy ("But I just want you, mama.") and very emotional. She did NOT want to go to school this morning, but we really thought she should go. I never want her to use cancer as an excuse to get out of doing something she doesn't want to do, but it is so hard to tell whether she's looking for an excuse or she's really not feeling well.

So, the morning was rough. She didn't want to get up, didn't want to eat breakfast, didn't want to get on the bus. But, I convinced her that she could make it through half the day, wrote a note to her teacher, and she agreed to go. I picked her up shortly after lunch and Mrs. S (her teacher) told me that she had had a great day!

At home, there were a lot of ups and downs; Lucy was really annoying her (very unusual since they usually get along great). She said she was feeling gloomy like Eeyore. Around 2 she took a long nap and went to bed at 7:30 tonight. No doubt she was tired.

We're going to try the same thing again tomorrow, except I'll let her stay at school a little longer because tomorrow the art teacher comes and Mollie LOVES art. Mrs. S said she'll call if she thinks Mollie needs to go home earlier.

I'm hoping for a good day; she does very well with structured, organized activities, as long as she gets enough time for rest.





This picture is from the last time she was on steroids, but I haven't busted out the camera this week so it will have to do.