Malia is Home ~ again!!

Hi Everyone ~

I just wanted to pass along the latest on Miss Malia ~ it sounds as though things are going as well as can be expected which is a huge relief and even a bigger blessing!! The following is what Malia's Mom posted tonight, 9-12:

Hooray, we’re home…just discharged yesterday (9/11) and only one more inpatient round left. We just need to finish out the remainder of this round (2 more clinic visits with Vincristin pushes, labs, yadda yadda yadda) and then we’ll be admitted on 9/30 for the last infusion of Cisplatin followed by the other two chemo drugs, two more weeks of clinic visits, and regular meds. And if all goes as planned, then she will move into the monitoring phase and out of the active chemotherapy phase J…it can’t get her soon enough!!

Malia is doing great (outside the normal apprehension to taking her many medications at home as well as the upcoming distress about the regular daily shots that we’ll have to start tomorrow…ughh!). All in all this admit went fairly smoothly - she had another CT Scan on Tuesday after we were admitted, they ran the AFP monitoring test on Tuesday at the clinic (both results I will ask the doctor about next week in clinic) and other than a couple of vomiting episodes in the hospital it was a typical inpatient stay. I made sure to take the camera with us and take pictures of her at all her favorite spots to visit at Phoenix Children’s: the train, the coyote, the car, the fish, the wall of lights, etc. so I can put in her scrapbook and document the more enjoyable things she experienced at the hospital.

We are so excited for Halloween! We had already picked up some ruby slippers for her and her Dorothy wig arrived just before this hospital stay. When we arrived home yesterday, the Dorothy costume had also arrived and HOLY COW does she just look absolutely adorable in it! She was so excited to see herself as Dorothy J and with the last inpatient chemo ending in the beginning of October, then the last two pushes of chemo (Vincristin) should be over and done with at least 2 weeks before Halloween and Makena’s birthday party. It will be a great time to start celebrating! We will just have to make sure that they don’t schedule her surgery to remove the port-a-cath before. Hopefully we can get it out that second week of November so that it will start becoming a memory by Thanksgiving – another reason to be thankful for!

Malia’s clinic visit is next Friday so I’ll be sure to post whatever info we receive about the CT scan, AFP test, etc. shortly thereafter.

Again, we want to thank everyone for all the continued support, cards (from all over – beautiful hand-made cards as well from Stampin’ Up friends around the country), gifts, meals (from friends and co-workers of friends that we haven’t even met!). It all means so much to us and it truly has helped tremendously.

Love to you all!

Thanks to all of you who have sent Miss Malia a card -- they are soo thankful to each and every one of you ;o) AND I soo appreciate it too!!!

Stampin' Huggs~
Teresa