Hi everyone!!! Sorry it has been so long since I have posted anything, I didn't think everyone was still reading them but I have received a lot of angry comments that I have not done it in a while so I guess I need to start giving updates again. First of all Mckael is doing fantastic, we all are doing much better! Mckael only needs to go to the doctor for Chemo once a month now and we are loving it! I am not sure if I said in my last entry but the doctor put a port ( a small plastic thing that just sits right under the skin) in her chest that they access when giving her chemo, it is a lot more convinient than her pic line that was in her arm because we don't have to change the dressing, she was able to swim this summer (and beleive me she swam like a fish) and I can bathe her without worrying about getting the dressing wet. The bad side of her having the port is when they have to access it for a blood draw or to give chemo- they have to stick a huge needle into it and Mckeal hates it! She freaks out every time it needs to be accessed but luckily it only needs to be done once a month now. Mckael is a big first grader now! She has gone back to school and is doing great, She is the only kid in the whole school that can wear a hat! Kaelie and Mckael are in the same class and they have made lots of new friends this year and are loving school and learing a lot. We also have some exciting news- I emailed the "make a wish" foundation to see if Mckael was eligible to receive a wish, they called me and told me that they had talked to her physicians and the social worker at the hospital and Mckael is eligible for a wish!!! They sent her a little castle in the mail with a key inside so she can go to the "wish room" and make her wish. We are not totally sure what she is going to wish for but for now she is dead set on going on a Disney cruise, where she will have VIP everything and is able to bring Kaelie, Me and one other adult. We are also now considered a "wish family" which means that we can go to the events that they plan twice a year in Utah and also opportunitys to get tickets and other things that people donate to the foundation, they send out an email when things are donated and if we would like the tickets or whatever was donated we just email back. Mckael is so excited to get a wish and we are so grateful for being able to do this but we are mostly grateful for Mckael getting strong and healthy again. Thanks for everyone's support with everything that has gone on, we could not have done it without all the love, prayers and support of everyone. WE LOVE YOU!!!

I know I have not done this every week but not a lot has changed until this last appt yesterday- The doctor has decided to close the colostomy!!! He looked at her bottom yesterday and said "Good Job Mom!!! It looks great" And yes I am taking ALL the credit, kidding but you do not know how hard it is to keep dressings on that stubborn girls bottom and it is at least an all day fight to do it- I have to tell her at least an hour in advance and keep reminding her I have to do it and then of course it takes at least a half hour to do something that should take 3 minutes if I conked her on the head and did it while she was out- HAHA totally kidding!!! Well kinda?? Anyway so Dr. Downey (who I think is just an awesome surgeon and an awesome guy) is going to close it up may 5th!! We are so excited!! No more changing pooh bags- works for me. She will be in the hospital for about a week if everything goes as planned. They are also going to put in her central port (she now has a pic line but the port is on the chest, just under the skin so for the next 2 years she can be a normal kid and swim and take baths without a plastic bag on her arm) but they can't do it at the same time as closing the colostomy because of contamination or some medical stuff I don't understand so it will be a seperate procedure and a seperate hospital stay. Also her appts are no longer every week, they are every 3 weeks now, then move to once a month then every 3 months so we are just well on our way to just being a normal kid!! Her hair has started to grow back a little but in a couple months she will be hit again with another intense chemo month and after that it is smoooooooth sailing and she will be in a period called "maintenance" where her hair will grow back and we can start getting back to school and work and it will be like this never even happened- once agian, kidding, I will never in a million years forget this experience. It has taught me a lot and I will never forget the support Mckeal, myself and my family has received from everyone. Not to mention how absolutely awesome my Mom and Matt have been, there is just no way that we could possibly have done this without them. So thanks again everyone- I will blog again if anything interesting happends in the next couple weeks.

There is not a whole lot that has changed since the last time I wrote. I took Mckael to the hospital early last Thursday morning at around 2am for a fever, they gave her antibiotics and sent us home, we were there until about 7am, at around 4pm that same day the fever was back up so I took her back in and they took blood to do tests and sent us home again (they only sent us home because her blood counts were really good.) Friday her fever was at 102.9 so I took her back and we were in the ER from about 5pm til midnight, they could not find anything wrong with her- they did a bunch of tests, did another CT scan and nothing, they finally decided to admit her and took us up to our room. We stayed the night and until 4pm Sat and let us go home, we decided it was probably just a virus. She is feeling better today and she is happier and things are looking up again! We just had the minor set back with what I think was a touch of the flu. Easter was really good, the girls got a ton of candy and toys- they were spoiled! Sorry this last entry was so boring, I will tell Mckael to spice things up a little bit for our next entry. Thanks everyone for everything, we LOVE you!!!! Lex

We went to the hospital yesterday for her Chemotherapy and Lumbar puncture. The doctor informed us of how she responded to the chemo the first month and where we are going from here. There are 3 groups- a high risk group(kids that don't respond well to chemo) a standard risk group (kids that respond good to the chemo) and a low risk group(kids that respond well and quickly to the chemo). Mckael is in the LOW RISK GROUP!!! she responded very quickly to the chemo and she is doing great!! We are very pleased and optomistic talking to the doctor yesterday. She will be doing chemo every monday still and having Lumbar Punctures every week but she is doing so good. She is feeling much better too- yesterday after we got home from the hospital I thought she would be tired and just want to sleep all day but she was very active, Kaelie went outside to ride her scooter and Mckael insisted that she goes out and rides hers too, so she did. I will post pics of that. It is unbelievable the progress she has made, she is now very mobile and does not lay around in bed all day. The doctor took her off the steroids last week so her chubby cheeks and tummy is going back down the the skinny little shrimp she has always been and yesterday the doctor took her off her IV antibiotics!!! I am most excited about that because now I don't have to set my alarm for midnight and then again at seven in the morning, and be up for about an hour to give her the antibiotic through her line. She is down to just taking Zinc in the morning and at night and then right before bed she has to take a pill that is part of her chemo and that is all the meds she is currently taking. The surgeon came in to the RTU yesterday while she was getting her lumbar puncture and changed her wound dressing while she was sedated for me which was much appreciated (It is such a pain for her to let me do it, they actually prescribed valium that I give her before I do it at home) anyway he looked at the wound and came out to talk to us and told me I was doing a good job which made me feel good because I need some recognition for all my hard work lately darnit!!! anyway he said it is looking very good and very clean so he wants to go in in the next few weeks when her counts are up and close it up- he was very pleased with the way it is healing. So all in all she is doing great and I am and have been from the begining 100% sure that she is going to do fine and make a full recovery, it is just going to be a matter of time- don't get me wrong it has been hard and is not going to be easy but I could never allow myself to doubt her full recovery, not even for a second- that is unexceptable and don't any of you doubt it ethier!!! I love you all and hope you know how much I appreciate all the help, donations, time, thoughts and prayers that has got her to this point in her recovery- It is just awesome. Thanks so very much!! Lex

If you know Mckael then you know she is one strong willed little girl, she is stubborn and determined-especially now which I am very grateful for. Mckael has a twin sister and Best friend named Kaelie- since Mckael has been in the hospital it is the logest the girls have ever been seperated and they missed each other so much. Now that we are back home Kaelie is such a big help with Mckael, anything Mckael needs Kaelie is on it! Kaelie's concern for Mckael is very cute. I am going to do a weekly blog to let everyone know how she is doing and where she is in her treatment. We are now on week 4 of Chemotherapy, she has lost her hair but that is the only physical sign of chemo, besides her cute chubby cheeks because of the steroids she has to take daily. Mckael has had to have a pic line inserted into her arm that goes directly to her heart where she recieves medication as well as her chemotherapy, but soon they will insert what is called a central port under her skin in her chest and the pic line in her arm will be taken out when the doctor feels like she is well enough to have another procedure to have the central port put in. she has also had to have a colostomy (her intestine redirected to her stomach) because of a wound that will not heal as a result of her low white blood cell count. Whe has had bone marrow samples taken, blood transfusions, lumbar puntures, and many other procedures, she is so used to going down to the Rapid Treatment Unit, the OR and clinic that they all know us by name I have had to be taught many things to the point of being overwhelmed. I have had to learn how to change her wound dressing which we were having to take her into the hospital monday, wednesday and friday to have changed under sedation but I talked her surgeon into letting me do that at home so we didn't have to come in and be sedated so often I don't like it and can't imagine it is good for her. I have also had to learn how to change her colostomy bag and change her pic line dressing (that one makes me the most nervous because that line goes right to her heart) and then also keeping all her MANY medications in order and what time and quanity- it's all really confusing but I am getting the hang of it! She is doing much better since we were able to come home, we spent a week in the hospital the first go round, then came home for a day and a half and were back in the hospital for a fever. THat is when the doctor decided to do the reconstruction and colostomy bag so we were there for another 2 weeks. We have been home for a week now and she is doing a lot better- being home helps with her anxiety which in turn helps with her pain. So stay tuned and I am hoping that I will have time to update weekly, thanks everyone for your donations, but most of all thank you for your concern for Mckael and your thoughts and Prayers, we rely on them getting us through Lex I have learned how to draft 3/8/08 by mckael Delete 1 – 1 of 1