Keep Calm and Carry On

The last round of chemo hit very hard.  16 days of severe sore throat - couldn't hardly get anything down - a sip here or there every few days, and then lots of pain.  It changed her taste buds - everything tasted gross!  Even water was nasty.  23 shots (one a day) to stimulate immunity - it is called her ANC (Absolute Neutrophil Count).  One of our nurses that had had cancer said their ANC never fell below 120.  River's was 0 for weeks.  0 immunity.  0 ability to fight of germs. Normal is around 10,000.  She needs to be around 700 to start chemo.  River had 3 platelet transfusions and a blood transfusion along with fever spikes. With cancer kids - a fever or sick can spiral pretty quick - a temp of over 101 and they need to get her to emergency room pronto!  She was on antibiotics for 2 weeks to kick anything down that could have flared - because of running temps.  

What a blessing one of the platelet transfusions ended up being - Platelets were dangerously low - so River and I drove over to St George about 6:00 pm one night.  We were pretty bummed because we were just going to have dinner and have a movie night with Daddy and the sisters...and had to head to hospital again!  In Hurricane (half hour from hospital) fever spiked to over 101.  We were already on our way!  She went downhill really fast.  She started shaking by the time we got to the hospital and barely made it across the parking lot. She couldn't walk and was shaking so hard.  Wheeled her up to her room and the doctor looked at her and gently touched her tummy.  SEVERE pain!  We needed to do xrays and a CT scan to see if everything was okay internally with that much pain.  It was pure agony for her to get into the wheelchair and have to turn to the side and put her arms up for xrays. CT scan at midnight.  They kept her for 5 days with pain and fever and never found anything - and the kind of chemo that she is on can inflame the lining of the whole GI tract - severe sore throat and intense tummy pain.  

She recovered last Thursday and was feeling pretty good.  Her throat stopped hurting so intensely and she started eating again.  We went to Zions as a family - she went hiking and walked and played!  Even in the hospital she was up for walks and up stairs and around.  We headed up to Primary's prepared to spend several weeks/months of lung surgery, recovery and then more chemo.  We met with the surgeon Monday to go over scan results and got such great news!  The surgeon was so excited for the results!!  She pulled up the first scans from September and started going through and showing us the cancer nodules - there were well over 50. She then showed us this weeks scans:  Now there are 4-8!!

Because the cancer had spread from the liver to the lungs, we needed to see if lungs were going to be able to be cleared or at least see if they would get down to few enough that they could cut out a few remaining nodules.  We also needed to have a good response of chemo just melting away the cancer to justify putting her through major liver surgery.  The surgery was to remove the 3 nodules in left lung and biopsy tissue - she says I don't need to biopsy it to see that this is a great response. The lungs were so much improved that no surgery needed right now.  It is preferable to remove the cancer with chemo as opposed to surgery - surgery is hard for recovery - giving other cancer in the body a chance to grow during the time that body is recovering.  Plus surgery leaves scars - in future scans it is hard to see if they are scars or cancer.

She was spared having to go through lung surgery right now!!

Road Map from here:  Chemo - then go to liver surgery.  Then bat cleanup on lungs after that with anything still remaining.

River with Hillary - Child Life Specialist at Primary's 

She is a cancer survivor herself that comes in and explains what is going to happen during procedures, where you will go, what you will see, what it will feel like.  

Here River and Hillary are doing the "Beads of Courage" River gets a bead for each procedure that she has done.  She has quite the collection of beads - for each shot - for each chemo for each CT scan, for each admission to the hospital, etc.

River running down the Ronald McDonald Hall.  River does the absolute best that she can.  Sometimes that looks like walking to the door and back to the bed.  Sometimes it looks like walking down the hall, or walking down the stairs, or here she was running down the hall - trying to beat her time.

Clay with sisters!

Tanzi - ice cream cone

Summer and Silver with their ice cream.

We had just gone to the dentist and Silver was SO cute!  She had 3 cavities that needed work - so they had numbed the top and bottom on one side of her face - she only could smile with half of her mouth!!

But ice cream fixes most everything!

Summer - they were laughing SO hard!

Tanz and Mom.

River - St George hospital.  Part of the reason why she ran a fever could be dehydration.  With nothing going in by mouth - and nausea for anything going in the tube - she needed fluid.  They dosed her up with a lot of IV water.  She says "mom!  My face looks different!" 

The nurse kept telling her what options they had in their craft cupboard and what could she bring her?  River thought and thought - for about 1/2 an hour - and then asked for a cardboard box, scissors, tape, crayons, and colored paper.  She made a boardgame - a fishing boardgame complete with movable board tiles so each game is completely different.  Pretty creative!

Hospital is just across from the temple.  

It was very neat to be able to see the temple and remember our covenants and that our Family is Forever!

Cousins waiting for birthday cake :)

Tanz is trying to figure out what they are all doing with their bowls ?

Another St George hospital trip!

River made this right before this all happened!  

She picked out the pictures of the Savior and the sayings.

Silver and River

Daddy, Silver, Summer, River

Skipping rocks

Curtsies

River with Rick Schwartz - of the San Diego Zoo channel.  They have live cams in the zoo enclosures, and specials all about the zoo animals - with Rick in a lot of them as their handler.  They asked River to film with Rick about watching the zoo channel in her room at Ronald McDonald House and Primary's.  It was especially neat because River has been to the San Diego Zoo twice and especially loved the polar bears.  

Link to River's San Diego Zoo Clip:

Look up on You Tube:
San Diego Zoo Kids Channel Brings Healing to Children

Click here for Video:  San Diego Zoo Kids

Making Aunt Star's special applesauce pancakes

1 Nephi 3:7

7 And it came to pass that I, Nephi, said unto my father: I will go and do the things which the Lord hath commanded, for I know that the Lord giveth no commandments unto the children of men, save he shall prepare a way for them that they may accomplish the thing which he commandeth them.

Song:  Laura Story:  Blessings

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1CSVqHcdhXQ

Lyrics:
We pray for blessings, we pray for peace
Comfort for family, protection while we sleep
We pray for healing, for prosperity
We pray for Your mighty hand to ease our suffering
And all the while, You hear each spoken need
Yet love us way too much to give us lesser things

Cause what if Your blessings come through raindrops
What if Your healing comes through tears
What if a thousand sleepless nights are what it takes to know You're near
What if trials of this life are Your mercies in disguise?

We pray for wisdom, Your voice to hear
And we cry in anger when we cannot feel you near
We doubt your goodness, we doubt your love
As if each promise from Your Word is not enough
And all the while, You hear each desperate plea
And long that we'd have faith to believe

Cause what if Your blessings come through raindrops
What if Your healing comes through tears
What if a thousand sleepless nights are what it takes to know You're near
What if trials of this life are Your mercies in disguise?

When friends betray us
When darkness seems to win, we know
That pain reminds this hearts,
That this is not, this is not our home.....
It's not our home

Cause what if Your blessings come through raindrops
What if Your healing comes through tears
What if a thousand sleepless nights are what it takes to know You're near
What if trials of this life are Your mercies in disguise?

What if my greatest disappointments,
Or the aching of this life,
Is the revealing of a greater thirst this world can't satisfy.
What if trials of this life,
The rain, the storms, the hardest nights
Are your mercies in disguise?