Chemo and New Brother !

I had my 16^th week of chemo on March 9^th, my daddy took me since my mom just had a baby the week before. I did really well and had so much fun with my dad. He let me play with his phone and we used the “funny face” app and it made me laugh a lot. My dad spent a long time talked to my doctors about my most recent issues. I have been having trouble with my hands and feet. They told my dad it’s because of the Chemo drug Vincristine that is causing Neuropathy (nerve damage). I have lost a lot of function in my hands and have a hard time hold things, picking up, opening doors, and don’t have much strength. My feet and legs are very weak, I slap my feet when I walk and I have lost a lot of strength in my legs as well. My doctor tells me that my nerves have been damaged and we need to stop the drug and start physically therapy to help. 2 weeks ago I started going to PT every week. I really like it, my PT is Rachael she is super fun. We do exercises for my legs and feet and play games and do fun activities.

My new baby brother was born on Feb. 27^th, his name is Liam. He is sooooooo cute and I just adore him! I always want to hold him and feed him and rock him. I am a big helper for my mom and she really likes that. My grandma Turner got to come and stay with us when my mom had the baby. It was so fun, and my aunt Rischel surprised us by coming as well, she even brought my cousin Nora with her! We had so much fun playing and aunt Rischel painted my nails and took me to the park. My grandma got to sleep in my bed and I slept on the air mattress, I thought that was super fun! Grandma took us to the Zoo one day with our friends Whitney and Lindsey. We also got to go see a new movie called ZooTopia! I just loved it and came home and told my mom all about how funny it was.

(Mom) The past 4 weeks have been very adventurous to say the least! After Liam was born I had some complications and had a minor surgery 5 days post partum L it was not well and the recovery was very difficult. I was so glad my mom was able to stay and help out for the 2 weeks after. Now I am almost fully recovered and we are back to normal life and running around. I will say that 3 kids is easier than 2 as my first 2 were so close in age. Reece and Turner are such a huge help and just adore little Liam. He is by far such a good baby and has made my life easy. Reece is doing pretty well from what we can see. She is upbeat and happy, she seems to be taking all the major changes very well and hasn’t been sick or felt yucky for a while.

Yesterday March 30^th I went to chemo…. This was my 19^th week at chemo. I was pretty good about going and didn’t get sad or upset. When we got to the port room I started feeling nausea's and started throwing up. The saline and heparin flushes are making me sick and make me throw up, this has happened before. I really don’t like the taste of the flushes and it makes me super sick and that’s why I throw up. I tried to be really brave and not get scared or anxious but it was hard since I was throwing up both times they put medicine in my port. During chemo my child life specialist got me a fun craft to paint, I really enjoying painting. 

(Mom) during clinic yesterday we talked about how Reece’s neuropathy in her hands and feet have been doing since we stopped the Vincristine. I have seen some improvement but it’s very little as they said it would be. We also talked about her eye lid drooping and noticed it has improved a lot. After discussing with the Dr’s we decided to give half dose and see how she does. If she gets worse then we will stop again and re-valuate. After missing 2 doses of the Vincristine the Dr was worried about skipping again, as this drug is very effective and we don’t want to risk the cancer cells re-growing. It’s hard yet again as you want to treat the cancer but what you’re using can cause other issues. I talked with our social worker as we were waiting and she mentioned that it can be very challenging and tough to see these changes. Although it was difficult and still is to watch Reece struggle doing tasks that she has easily done for the past 3-4 years of her life I try and see it in a different perspective. Although the nerve damage should reverse itself, or if it does not, I thought that nerve damage is a lot better scenario than her cancer coming back. If I’ve learned one thing throughout this whole thing is that “things are not always what they seem to be”. Science and medicine is not perfect. I thought that we we’re smooth sailing through this and it was going so well. In reality I feel that it has gone very well, these few set backs were not a surprise, it’s just that we didn’t see them coming as we didn’t want them to happen. Reece is such a strong girl and she amazes me always. I don’t know how we continue to tread through this battle. I’m positive it’s because God doesn’t give us anything we can handle. That is something that has helped me through this all. As much as I like to say “why” I have to think it could be harder or maybe this is the hardest thing we will face and after this is over we will be sailing smoothly!!! Haha probably not.

This week at school my class gave me a very special quilt they all made together. All the kids in my class drew a picture and one of the room moms put the patches together to make a blanket. It was really neat and I felt very special. I really enjoy my class and my teach Mrs. Brun is so much fun.