We started our day out at the clinic to get Jade’s counts checked hoping (yes weird to say!) to go into the hospital for chemo. She did not make counts, but we will continue hope for higher counts which is more than I can say for some! When we were there we ran into a family that recently got some bad news. (Please pray for them, I cannot release their name as I don’t know they they would like that, so please pray for another of Jade’s friends…she is a teenager.) We then went on to visit Declan…our visit with Declan went very well! Jade has never been to a cemetery before. Declan had stuffed animals and a balloon shaped as the #1 for his first birthday. When we got there it was very calm and peaceful with no wind. Jade tapped her foot on the turned up dirt and asked “is this where Declan is?” I told her that she cannot step there because he was under there. As soon as I said that  the wind picked up and the balloon started to wrap around Jade! The rest of the time we were there the balloon kept following her. Now as most of you know I am the most religious person, but this was definitely Declan telling Jade he was there! I told her he was trying to give her hugs. When we left Jade grabbed the balloon and gave it a big hug and said “Goodbye Declan I love you and miss you and I will come back soon”. Of course I was in tears, but she acted like she had just seen him on any normal day!

To end our day I received a phone call from my aunt about her coworkers daughter who underwent a major surgery to remove a very large tumor that took over her entire lung and a piece of the tumor that had grown towards her heart. The news was GREAT!!!!! She had surgery on Monday and they are planning on releasing her tomorrow! I could not have ended this day on any better news than that!

Over the past 9 months Jade and I have become very close with a lot of families that are battling cancer. Although these kids are  not all battling the same cancer, they are all going through the same horrific events that no child should ever have to deal with! These children have to know so much that they shouldn’t know at their ages and become little adults way too fast! You don’t hear about these kids and their stories that much, most people turn the channel when the St. Jude’s commercials come on because lets face it…its extremely sad and depressing! The week Jade was diagnosed I ran to CVS to pick up some stuff and when I went to check out the man asked me if I would like to donate $1 to St. Jude’s and I burst into tears right there in CVS with 20 people behind me in line!!! I can look back now and kind of laugh, but the bottom line is no matter how depressing the thought of children with cancer is it will never compare to what these poor kids are going through!

I would like to give a special thanks to all of the researchers, doctors and most of all the PARENTS of children with cancer for doing what you do everyday, it’s not an easy job, but as we all know…KIDS CAN’T FIGHT CANCER ALONE!!!!

This is for all who are fighting, for all who have survived, and most importantly all who have lost their battle to cancer. (We will think of you always!!! xoxo)

Rest In Peace Declan Black Carmical…You are always in our hearts!

This past trip was really rough, but Jade toughed it out! She got to meet the real Spiderman!!! (The actual stunt man from the movie came for one of the kids Make a Wish.) Jade played a lot of basketball and on our way back she found one of the service dogs and attacked him in the hallway! (pictures below)

]]> http://www.jadesjourney.com/?feed=rss2&p=312 9 http://www.jadesjourney.com/?p=301 http://www.jadesjourney.com/?p=301#comments Fri, 28 May 2010 02:46:12 +0000 Linden http://www.jadesjourney.com/?p=301 Jade was released from the hospital on the 14th!!! Woohoo! She had a pretty good week. We had a few issues with her ankles acting up. We had x-rays done 4 weeks ago that came back with nothing, but we had an MRI done the day we left. (Jade’s first one and she did GREAT!) We waited all day and all night to get the MRI done and during that time Jade decided she would try to make water balloons to throw at Emil (the tech). When the water balloons didn’t pop Brooke (her nurse) decided it would be better to use syringes filled with water! We got the results back on the MRI last week and it showed that her marrow was slightly inflamed, but the doctors don’t think that it would cause as much pain as Jade has been having. So we are still trying to figure it out! Jade got to see some old friends and she met some new friends this week! She also got to see her favorite nurses!!! Her Aunt Susan came to visit and brought some fun little toys…one of which was an animal balloon making kit! We were pretty much scaring everyone because the balloons kept popping! Jade can now make a pretty awesome balloon dog! (See Below)

Today we went in to check her counts again because they were low on Friday and on Monday. Her hemoglobin is going back up on its own and so are her platelets! Her ANC was at 18,000 on Monday (from her neupogen shots) and it dropped to 1,020 today. Her immunoglobulin was really low so they had to give her an infusion of IVIG. This infuses infection-fighting antibodies to help her fight of infection. So far she has only had one side effect from it, nausea. We are hoping to make counts this upcoming Tuesday so that we can stay on track! This next trip will hopefully only be for 2 or 3 days, but last time she had this particular chemo it did not go so well! Crossing our fingers!!! We had a mini reunion at the clinic today…Jade got to see her BFFs Jack, Carson and Jordan! She was really happy to see them! She really misses her friends that have finished their treatments, but she is happy that they don’t have to go into the hospital anymore!

Oh one more thing…Jade came down stairs after taking her bath tonight and said “Mommy look at my hands!” Her hands were covered in hair! So we decided to shave it again. I gave her a mohawk as a joke and she really liked it, so she is now rocking a mohawk! She looks AWESOME! See the picture below!

I will let you know how things go next week!

Also, as I told you all before Jade was interviewed by ABC 7 news last month. Well today she was all over TV on commercials for Trevor’s Treasures!!! It will be on tomorrow evening at 5:00pm! She is pretty excited about it!

We went into the hospital for another round of chemo last Monday and got out on Thursday. She was so happy to see all of her nurses while she was in the hospital! While we were in there Jade was able to meet Declan. (Declan’s Auntie Cathie used to work with me back at Richmond American Homes) He is an absolute sweetheart!

We went to the clinic today to get a spinal tap and to go back to the hospital for a week, but she didn’t make counts. Her ANC is only at 410. (which means her immune system is not good) It needs to be at 750 to be able to do the treatments. One good thing is her platelets are good and so is her hemoglobin, so she didn’t need any platelet or blood transfusions!  She was also able to see some of her friends at the clinic that she hasn’t seen in a while. We will be trying again next Monday…so cross your fingers!!! I will let you know how things go!

The doctors had taken her off of her daily chemo (Gleevac) to try to help her counts come up. She was off it for two weeks and her hair started to come back!!! But it was not blonde…it is a dark brown! I told her she was going to look like Snow White with the dark hair and pale skin! Unfortunately, her hair will fall out again, but she is OK with it!

She had a very easy trip, no complications what so ever! The outside play room is now open, which is absolutely wonderful!!! Jade was able to get outside everyday to ride bikes and play basketball. I must say, she is one good bball player! She made about 8 shots into the 12ft. hoop! (Lets just hope she isn’t like me and get voted most likely to foul out of a game!) Jade made a new friend named Jordan she is 8 years old. Jade also got a wonderful surprise visit from her bff Lauren!! She was coming into the hospital for her radiation treatments. (Lauren is doing very well!)

On Friday Jade was lucky enough to build a bear all thanks to Trevor’s Treasures. Trevor is an 8 year old little boy that was diagnosed in 2007 with Hodgkins Lymphoma. He went into remission, then relapsed this past June, he is now back in remission and doing great! He started Trevor’s Treasures to brighten kids days while they are in the hospital. This trip he brought channel 7 news with him to video the event. There is going to be a news special sometime in May. (I will let you know once we figure out the exact date.) Jade and I were both interviewed on what it is like for her to have cancer and how it changes everything.

We went to the clinic today for a follow up visit. Everything seems to be good, her counts are still up! I had a conversation with the doctors in the beginning of last week because we are starting to notice that her short term memory is not all there. She has been having trouble remembering peoples names and is having trouble with her colors. At today’s appointment they referred us to a neuropsychologist for testing to see if it is something permanent or just (what the doctors call) chemo brain. The color issue could be an eye problem, so they are waiting to see what comes from the neuropsych testing. I will let you all know once we set the appointment!

Jade had another appointment today to check her counts to see if they were high enough to start her next round chemo. Unfortunately her counts weren’t high enough again. We will try again next Monday. If her counts aren’t high enough next week they will do another bone marrow extraction to make sure she is still in remission. (It will be 5 weeks past her original start date.) The doctors told us to keep her off her daily chemo for another week to try and help her counts get back to where they need to be. They seem pretty positive that her counts will be good to go next week. Crossing our fingers!!!

Other than her counts being too low she has been in very good spirits! She had a wonderful Easter and continues to say she “won” the Easter egg hunt, even though we keep telling her it wasn’t a competition!

Miss Jadey is trying to keep busy. She has been spending lots of time with her dog Tazzy. She really misses her teachers and her friends back at John B. Dey! She has been counting down the days until she can go back to school. Jade has also expanded her nail salon into a full service salon…she started shaving peoples heads so that they can be bald and beautiful like her! I will add pictures soon!

]]> http://www.jadesjourney.com/?feed=rss2&p=271 7 http://www.jadesjourney.com/?p=260 http://www.jadesjourney.com/?p=260#comments Wed, 03 Feb 2010 19:17:28 +0000 Linden http://www.jadesjourney.com/?p=260 Last Tuesday Jade took her test to get her white belt in Tae Kwon Do and she PASSED!!! She was really excited because she got to break a board with her foot!

Jade is currently in the hospital. She came in last Wednesday (Jan. 27th) and we were hoping to get her out by Saturday, but unfortunately she got a fever. We are now waiting for her counts to come back so we can break her out of here! She got to room with her buddy Lauren again. They had lots of fun painting lady bugs on their heads! Jade had 7 little ones and Lauren had one big one.

For some reason every time we come into the hospital it snows and Jade hasn’t been able to get out and play in it. So last night I decided to bring the snow to her! The nurses gave me a big bucket and I went out and got a bunch of snow! She made a little snow man with the help of some of the nurses! (Pictures below)