Hello Everyone! I wanted to share some encouraging news with all of you in regards to little Malia! It's wonderful to see this progress before they start the chemo - which should start this week!(The pictures I am posting are, of course, before she went into the hopsital)
From Malia's Mom:
SUNDAY, JULY 20, 2008 11:51 PM, CDT
Another good day! Malia is still doing well even though she started the day off in a bad mood. She was sound asleep when the nurses came to tell us that they were coming to get her for her surgery and she needed a sponge bath before. So we had to wake her up to bathe her and she was not at all happy with that!
The procedure to implant the port-a-cath went great. It only took about an hour and after Malia woke up from the anesthesia she was very talkative and interactive (I wasn’t really expecting that). She was still a little loopy from some of the “happy” drug and once the anesthesia fully wore off she was in a very touch and go mood before she finally conked out and took a long nap.
The drainage tube as well as the IV in her neck (I forgot the name of it) have been taken out so all she has is the IV fluids running into the port; so only one “tubey” as we refer to them – definite progress! Hopefully we’ll find out more about when they’ll start chemo tomorrow and all the details of the treatment. I know they are really just waiting on Malia to see her showing all the signs that she’s ready. Since it’s going to zap her energy and health they want to make sure that she has enough energy to start with. We’ll keep you all posted.
BTW – I’ve shown Malia all the cards that we’ve received and she loves them all. She loves to “read” them – really she just inspects them as she thinks they are all very pretty. She’s always admiring the pictures that other kiddos drew for her like the ones from Ryan Walters and Daylia Garland. She also loves her balloon bouquets and gets upset if anything is blocking her view of them. While she was in the OR today, one of the Child Life Specialists on our floor took her balloons to the gift shop and had them top them off with helium so they are all flying high again! One of her friends, Izzy Bombard, and her family sent some beautiful balloons and one has a picture of a little girl on it. She says it’s Izzy bringing her the bouquet. All the gifts and cards really brighten Malia’s days; thank you all for that!
SATURDAY, JULY 19, 2008 04:58 PM, CDT
Wow, the power of the popsicle; Holy Cow! Okay, so I had seen a very positive change in Malia’s demeanor last night when she showed me a glimpse of the old Malia (or as close as we’ve seen in a week). Over the last week, she’s been understandably withdrawn and kind of depressed but last night she became more talkative and started asking all the same 3 yr old questions that you would expect i.e. why this and what’s that etc.
Today was a little more of the same old same old with the exception of a few occasions when she smiled or talked a little more. She was a little more receptive to juice and I finally got her to eat some Jello. Then she ultimately agreed to have a popsicle (this has been day 7 of no food). I don’t know what was in that popsicle but soon after she had her fill, she said she wanted to go to the playroom and what’s more is she wanted to walk. So we grabbed Wall-E (that’s what we’ve named her I.V. pole) and got her jammy jams on and she walked to the playroom all by herself. We played for a little bit (Daddy, Grandma and me) and then she walked back to the room. Now that she’s in bed she’s being her goofy self and wants to go back to the playroom when they reopen in a couple of hours.
Her surgery to insert the port-a-cath was rescheduled for tomorrow at 11:00 and if she continues to improve the way she has these last 24 hours then I imagine they’ll start her chemotherapy within a few days so we can go home.
We’ll keep you posted and once again, we can’t thank you enough for all the support and encouragement.
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If you are interested in sending Malia a card, please see the post from the other day - I've included her mailing address there!
Many Stampin' Thanks!!
Many Stampin' Thanks!!
4 comments:
I am going to get a card in the mail to Miss Malia... Poor honey, sounds like her prognosis is good though?
My card was mailed today. So happy I can do this tiny little bit for her. Please keep us updated.
I'm going to make a card for little Malia. My 6 year old son was diagnosed with leukemia when he was 18 months old. It was so bad at the time that the doctors didn't think he'd survive. He's now almost 3 years cancer free!
She's in my thoughts and prayers. What a doll!
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