TREATMENT PLAN

We finished meeting with the Peds Oncology Dr. a bit ago and he mapped out her treatment plan. Since her lymphoma is localized, she doesn't have those "B" symptoms, and she doesn't have any in her Bone Marrow they are going to put her on an AV-PC Regimen which is fairly "easy" as treatments go - IT has lower doses of the 4 drugs and she may not have to have radiation therapy afterall. For those of you who like to read up the drugs are Doxorubincin, Vincristine, Prednisone, and Cyclophosphamide. She gets two doses (1 X 2 days in a row) of two of the drugs plus one day of a third, 7 days of prednisone orally, and on day eight a second dose of Vincristine. She will have 3 rounds with a PET/CT scan after round 1. IF she responds rapidly with the drugs they will put her thru the rapid responders protocol and she could be done after 3 rounds with no radiation. IF she's slower to respond she may have to do a few more rounds and a round of low dose localized radiation. We of course are praying for Rapid Response. The rounds will go every 21 days. She will start this afternoon. NO idea what time yet. Grandma is staying the night with Alyssa so Mom, Dad, Nik and Sue will go home for some rest and a little baby bonding time with the new herd additions - yes - I will post pics!!!!!
Praises - thank you again for the outpouring of generosity of everyone - meals have been outstanding and we have been well fed. Thank you R , and Nagy's for the yummy food last night saved us from eating hospital food, Thank the LORD for my mom and mother in law for filling in for us so we can get some rest and some "homefront" stuff done and Thank you for the visitors who brighten our spirits, The Sedillo Family for just taking control and making everything run smoothly, and my precious neighbor for playing goatie midwife and safely delivering the twins.
We'd be in trouble without all of you!!!!
Also - Thank you Val and Donna for all the information etc. you've collected for us!!!!
Prayer Request -That Alyssa's Chemo side effects will be mild so she can go home this weekend. She's more than ready to get back to life and not be stuck in the hospital anymore!Also pray for J - a sweet Christian lady who would love more than anything to be a wife and mother in HIS timing. She has been here for us and we just feel very close to her already. Also, that Alyssa; will feel up to the teen group tonight and get some much needed support - a place to talk to other kids about what shes experiencing.

PRAISE REPORT!!!!!!

Today was a great day - I can't post pics from here but I wanted to let everyone know that
our bone marrow biopsy came back NEGATIVE - Wahoo!!!!!!! She is at Stage 2 A....which means that she is fairly localized and has no 'bad" side symptoms such as night sweats, weight loss etc. and no cancer inthe bone marrow.
Narnia the goat gave birth to two babies around 1pm today - My neighbor heard a funny noise in our barn and came to check and then did her amazing goat midwifery. The first baby - boy is HUGE and was kind of stuck and the second is a beautiful little girl. I can't wait until I can post the pics. they are beautiful little Alpine/Boer crosses and they look more Boer that Alpine.
I can honestly say that today has been the best day of all this so far. We are so happy her bone marrow tests came back so good and all the Dr.s were throwing a party downstairs when they came back!!!!!
We also found out that the Lymphoma color is LIME GREEN (like breast cancer is pink) which is one of Alyssa's FAVORITE colors. YIPEE!!
LOTS to praise LORD about today.
Also, we were told that a young girl (my cousins' niece) has her whole class at Hope praying for Alyssa also - Thank you!!!!!
I'd say that this cancer doesn't stand a chance - That is worth some serious praise.
Prayer requests - Tomorrow we meet with Dr. Winter on the Cancer Treatment Plan and then she will start her treatment tomorrow as well so we are asking that the Chemo doesn't knock her down too much so she can go home earlier rather than later - She'd sure like to get home this weekend and see the babies. (So would mom) and she is really missing her dog.
We would reallly like to make it home BEFORE when they are saying - early next week.
UGH.
thank you LA, Dianne, and Rebecca for the food you sent us - we really appreciate it.

Update PM

Here is the first hat I made with the yarn from the Knit Nite Posse - Thanks Girls - it's a lovely hat. I will talk to the hospital folks about donating hats tomorrow.

This is the Uber cool waiting room in the Peds Surgery area. It also has a great view IF you don't look down (if you look down - it's the parking lot!)

Here is the view from Alyssa's room - LOVELY view of the Sandia - If I wasn't in such a hurry to get home to my other two kids today I would have gotten some lovely sunset photos - Another day!

Alyssa's suite - with a bed for mom or dad and the walls match her hair - REALLY!!! And we didn't even plan it that way - the kid's hair was a hit with the hospital staff too - they all thought is was great that we did a family hair dye to show our support of Alyssa.

This is the hall guardian - a super cute dinosaur with wings and poetry all over it. He's so cute. One of these days I'll get a photo with Alyssa and the other two kids.....

Praise - Thank you LORD for the awesome Dr.s, Nurses and staff in the surgical unit and in PSCU. When we went to surgery we saw Dr. Martin and Dr. Ingle who both made a point to come say HI to Alyssa - she sure felt special!!!!!Thank you for all the great food provided, visits from friends (T&A from church) bearing goodies and my other two kids being in a safe place today so mom didn't need to worry!!!!!

Prayer Requests: A new friend, CC is heavy on my heart. She is also battling cancer (Leukemia) yet she has the most awesome outlook and is just an incredible saint - Please pray for her and her precious family as they walk thru this trial too - she still (not even knowing us!) has made a point to let us know she's praying for us, is willing to be there if we need ANYTHING!!!! What a dear lady she is - I can't wait to meet her. Please also pray for the kiddos on the ward. There are some kids going thru some serious stuff there and my heart really aches for them and their families - this cancer is no respecter of gender, ethnicity, age, income level, religion - it's an equal opportunity aggressor and I pray that these dear families are given peace amidst the storm.

Thank you all for all of your care and concern and for your emails and calls - they mean so much to us!!!!

Alyssa made it thru surgery fine but very tired. She is resting comfy at the hospital with Grandma and Dad is going to spend the night with her. WE had a lovely dinner courtesy of Diane from Aaron's work (THANK YOU!) and LA who made us beans and gluten free brownies.

The kids did great with Lori and got most of their school work done (THANK YOU!)

She now has her port and her Bone Marrow Biopsy. According to Dr. Winter, she may be thru the worst of it now....WE HOPE!!!!

Tuesday Update - AM

We are sitting her waiting to go into surgery - we are 3rd on the docket. Dr. Lemon just came in and met us and said that it would be about an hour. My family said they were blessed with a VERY YUMMY meal by the Allen Family - the kids said especially the Rice Krispy Treats.
Alyssa was given a LOVELY gift basket from Marshall and Melissa that really made her night - I will try to get pics to post later of everything now that I have my camara!!! I felt a little out of sorts without it. Though Aly has requested no pics of her to be posted so if you want pics send me a private email and I will attach pics to send. She got a nice card from Sonny and Dick Traeger and their son who works here as a Physical Therapist (LISA - where is your PT at????)
came by last night.
Praise Reports: Alyssa's PCP Dr. Steward came by this morning to see her and let her know if she needed anything she was here for her - we only met her once and she remembered Alyssa. These Dr.s must have incredible memories. Dr. Rana/Dr. Lemon who are the surgeons this am are VERY nice. And we got one of the better rooms this time - with a real bed for whoever stays with her instead of a very uncomfortable chair to "sleep" in. The Laptop has been awesome for both of us - she has watched movies, emailed her cousins and let me use it to update blog and email friends!
Prayer Requests: Prayer for God's guiding hand over the surgery and they she recovers quickly, Also please pray for Nik and Suzy who are really feeling the stress of the situation - we know they are in good hands today (Thank you LA for taking care of them) and everyday.

Goat Update: Still no babies - Narnia is probably waiting until the middle of the night tonight
so I still don't get sleep - DARN goat!

Back in the Hospital and Z is for Zero!

Well, We are back in the hospital again for those of you wanting updates. This morning early we went to UNMH for a pulmonary function test - she did good. Then we went to my mom's for
homeschooling. When we finished we took off to run a few errands and then back to the hospital to check in for the week???(we hope) Tomorrow is our Port implant and Bone Marrow Biopsy scheduled for 10:25 am and of course she can't eat after midnight. After that it is back to waiting and then when the results come in they will administer her first chemo treatment watch her to see how she does and then they will release her - we are praying for the weekend but no promises from the Dr.

When I get my camara up here I'll try to post some photos of the hospital etc.,

Z is for Zero -Remember inthe beginning I said I was doing the Blog Alphabet Challenge to fill in time till the babies come? Well, the doe was supposed to be due March 1. ZERO -no babies. Today - still no babies. Well, I am done with the blog challenge I made it and Unfortunatley I was hoping for the last post to be about babies etc. but nope. So, I decided that I will do the challenge on my Fiber blog - IF you are interested, I will try to post as often as i can - I won't guarentee thru this little adventure we are having I will be regular - so check Fiber Phanatic to learn all about different aspects of Fiber thru a Blog Alphabet Challenge - my link is to the right
Thank you all for sticking with me thru this and for being here to check on Alyssa - I will post baby pics as soon as Narnia has them!!!!
B

YOU Glow girl!

One of Aly's requests for this little adventure was red hair. So my friend LS came over yesterday afternoon and we had a hair dying day. Yep - Cherry Red was the color of choice and now we are all (except my DH) sporting some sort of red highlights! LOL.

MOM too!!!

And Suzy and Nik too!!!!

Rinsing the dye out and getting conditioned. She also got her laptop but my camara batteries died and I was unable to find the charger and replacement batteries until late last night so I'll have to post that one later. Thank you J&S for the awesome laptop for Alyssa. She is actually not giving us too hard of a time about going in today since she can stay in touch with the world and have some fun while she's at the hospital this week. Also wanted to thank the M family for their delicious meal last night - YUMMY!!!! It was a big hit around her and we almost had to squirrel some away from the kids so dad would have a lunch today!!!!!

Off to the hospital this morning for the Pulmonary Function Test - she has to blow in a tube that measures her output an then we check back into the PSCUnit later today.

For those of you Goat folks wondering - the Doe who was due yesterday = she still hasn't kidded.

She standing out by the hay barn waiting to be fed. Go Figure. She's going to wait until no one is home. Thankfully we have the best goat midwife (our neighbor the Ob-Gyn nurse who is retired) in the world keeping an eye on her.

Thank You's

I have a few Thank you's to write but was so tired I couldn't remember to add them. I want to say Thank you to Pam H for the Lasagne's, salad, oranges and books. Thank you to Lori A for the delicious soup and the beautiful music box - need to get a picture and post it! Wow. Thank you J & S for buying Aly a laptop so she can have entertainment, contact with friends and family and that we never have to go thru 2 days of not being able to contact some of our dear friends again!!!!! And that we don't have to rely on the hospital to maybe or maybe not provide us with the computer access anymore!!!! Thank you to Linda and Tara for coordination meals and other necessaries for us. Thank you to all who offered child and animal care, to clean our house or do our laundry, prayer, and support. Thank you to Deb and Les for making Aly a quilt (what a blessing and labor of love) Thank you to my Fiber Posse for keeping me in yarn for making hats to donate for the kids/adults going thru chemo. Thank you to everyone for your advice - we are not in a good space for clear thinking sometimes and you all who have given us advice and shared tips for making this easier are awesome. Thank you to everyone who is praying and has sent us encouraging stories, scripture verses etc. we feel so loved and at peace right now.
Today is our last day of freedom for the next week. I think we are hoping to find a laptop today for Aly to take to the hospital (both places down here were out of the ones in our price range)
I've had a few people tell me they feel bad that they could only help a little bit - NO WAY - every little bit has served to hold us up in the process and we appreciate EVERYTHING - the meals, the prayers, the gifts, the hugs, the encouraging stories, EVERYTHING - no one has played too small a part in this!!!!!