An Update for Miss Malia

Hello Everyone!!

I just wanted to pass along the latest in regards to Miss Malia from her parents:

This week was definitely a better one. Malia was in great spirits, she was keeping formula feeds down, going big potty J, and even eating a few nibbles by mouth each day. We had a good week. She was admitted on Monday afternoon after her scheduled clinic visit in the morning for the 2nd round of chemo and as long as things continue as planned we will be home late this afternoon. Since she had a little bit of a runny nose, she can't go to the 2nd floor (our normal home with the other Hem/Onc patients, renal patients, and bone marrow transplant patients) so we have been on the 3rd floor. She has a private room and a chemo certified nurse has been brought up when the chemo needs to be administered but it's still not the same. We would much rather be on our normal floor with our friends. She's not on contact precautions but if she wants to leave the room, she needs to wear a mask but she still can't go to the 2nd floor playroom. Luckily there is a playroom on the 4th floor but it's not the same. Hopefully we'll be on our regular floor during her next round in September. After her Cisplatin infusion (the chemo through her IV) on Monday night, she was doing fairly well and we were managing her nausea and such pretty good until yesterday evening when she vomited once and then once again early this morning. She’s acting as though she’s feeling fine right now so hopefully, we are out of the dark zone with that. Her red blood cells are a little low and since they know that they will continue to drop from the chemo they are going to do a blood transfusion today before they give her the last two chemo drug pushes and then we can go home.

During this past week, we said goodbye to all of Malia’s “sick hair”, and the remaining stubble has thinned more so this round may wipe it out completely. She understands that we had to get rid of all the sick hair in order for her new healthy hair to come in. She has received so many cute hats from so many friends and she is having fun wearing them…usually only outside because she knows we have to protect her scalp from the sun since her hair hasn’t come back yet. We have pictures that I will upload later this week so you can see how big her already beautiful eyes appear now.

If it was possible to send thank you cards to each individual that has sent gifts, money, cards, postcards, well wishes, positive thoughts, and so much love - I certainly would. Since that would take hours upon hours (time that I cannot seem to find right now as I’m sure you all understand) I will simply have to say thank you here. Once again, I can’t even begin to tell you all how lucky we are to have you in our lives. There are not enough words (actually I don’t even think there is a word in existence) to accurately express how truly grateful and appreciative we are of all your support. We love you all!

I'm still posting pictures of little Malia before she got sick. As soon as we receive pics of her since her haircut I'll post those with updates too ~

Thanks Everyone!!!