Jade's Journey

Last Monday Jade FINALLY made counts!!! Jade was yelling in the clinic saying “woohoo I get to go to the hospital!” Yes I know you all must be thinking what?! Why would a kid want to go to the hospital?! lol Well when we got there she jumped out of the car and started running through the parking garage with me chasing her because obviously the last thing we need is for her to get run over by a car!

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!

The test results came back on her bone marrow extraction last week. It showed that she is still in remission and that the Philadelphia Chromosome is still gone!

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!