Ready to go home!!!!

Tessa us is getting a blood transfusion now which will be done around 2pm then they say we can go home .It will only mean one day at home but I will take what I can!! I am anxious to see the other children and Mike. Will post more later.
Dana

Sat at St Judes

It is looking like we will be able to go home until Tuesday. They will test her blood in the am and see how it is doing and then we will leave and come back. Her counts likely won't fall until probably Wed or Thursday so they feel like she will be ok. She will go home on fluids still but at least it is home and I can see the other kids. I may be brave and bring one or two back we will just have to see how she is doing. It is very difficult to take care of her when she is sick and anyone else!
Her Dr has been out of the country and will be back on Tuesday so it will be nice to see what he has to say about the rest of her chemo and radiation treatment.
Dana

Chemo....

Tessa is sleeping now as a result of the Chem.That is a good thing though since she isen't feeling well. She isen't eatting now and one of the Dr's came in and told me that Tessa is very sensitive to the Chemo based on her blood work...I am not sure if that is a good thing or not...who knows. I will update more later.
Dana

update from St Judes

Tonite Tessa and I were invited over to one of the dr's home for dinner with him and his family. It was so nice of them. The food was excellent and they were so gracious. We had a nice time.
We are now back in the hospital and recieving her chemo. Hopefully this time it won't be as bad. Please continue to pray for her.
Dana

First Day back at St Judes....

Well, we have had our blood work and her counts are good enough to go ahead with Chemo on Thursday. It seems like we just did this!! Her hgb is still low at 8.4 so I would guess that pretty quick she will get transfused..we will see. Tomarrow she has her eye exam which they put her to sleep for and I will update the blog after I know some-thing.
We have really appreciated all of the nice things that others have done and are doing for us they include doing chores for us,putting up hay for us, praying for us, cooking for us, helping us pay for gas for all of our trips up here, working on our addition , the list goes on and on .THANK YOU!!! I haven't had time to send anyone thankyou notes as I had two days home and really wanted to just spend it with my family but I promise I will get caught up!
I will update tomarrow
Dana

We are released!!!

Tessa's counts are finally up and we are discharged. We are waiting for transportation to go home. We then come back Tuesday and it all begins again!
Thanks to everyone who has prayed,sent packages and called us. You can't imagine how good that makes us feel.
Dana

We are released!!!

YEA!!!!

Tessa's counts are starting to come up!!! I will post more later after I speak with the Dr.
I am using a lap-top that Dia and John Sawyer have lent to me. It is wonderful as I can sit here in the room with her and send updates! Thanks of course it will take me a little while to figure it out :)

Update on Tessa for Tuesday

Today was a hard day for little Tessa. Her counts are still "o" and she had to have another Platelet transfusion. She is still running fevers but all of her cultures are negative. The Dr's have said that if she continues tomarrow to run fever they will begin treating her for Fungus infection. I will be going to St Judes tomarrow so I will know more......
Please keep her in your prayers, we know that God is an Awesome God!

Update for Monday from St Judes

Well, unfortunately it isen't good news. Tessa's counts are still "O" and her HGB is under 8. I am not sure if they will transfuse her again today or not. I will post later, she still is having a fever...
I recieved an email from a friend , Melonie and her son Justin passed away last nite. Please keep that family in your prayers.
Dana

Guess Who????????

This was one of the photo's that was taken of us with the "Duchess of York" She is very friendly,caring and personable! I thought this would be a welcome change to our blog. I am going to try to catch up on the other girls to!

Dana

Update from St Judes....

Well, Mike is at the hospital and I am now at home for a few days!! This morning Tessa's counts were still "O" and her platelets had fallen so they are going to give her more platelets today. They say with this Chemo that this is common but it is sooo scary! She is basically fighting for her life . Please continue to pray for her to recover and that this harsh treatment will STOP the cancer...
Dana

Sat. Update 8.16.08

Tessa developed a fever over the night and we ended up taking cultures and blood earlier than expected. Unfortunately, her counts came back at ZERO and anything under 20 requires a blood transfusion. In other words, her counts weren't even beginning to increase!

We're getting a blood and platelet transfusion today. They're admitting her back to the hospital and the dr. said we'll be here at least 4 more days. He's worried about the abdominal pain she's been having and this fever. Hopefully, the cultures will show exactly what's going on.

Please pray for Tessa! Also, pray that we'll have wisdom to develop a plan for arranging the logistics of needing to be at the hospital AND at home.

Friday Update 8/15

Tess is still not eating and her color is pale. She is feeling a little more active today than yesterday. Tessa doesn't weigh much to begin with and has lost 2 lbs. this week alone. That's a lot for a little body!

She will get shots at 9am in the morning and then they'll draw her blood. If her counts have begun to rise we'll get to go home. If they're too low we'll be getting a transfusion and not coming home till they come up.

Home health is set up and will be coming twice a week to draw her blood at home. She'll still be receiving daily shots (OUCH!) We don't look forward to that at home! Lucky Me!

Please keep her in your prayers!

Thursday Update 8/14/08

Tessa's counts are very low and she's at a high risk for infection. She's been wearing a mask and I'm trying to keep her away from lots of people. She's not eating and has been lethargic. This is all very normal and goes hand in hand with this kind of intense chemo.

Until her counts begin to come back up we won't be able to come home. They'll draw labs again on Sat. and if they're raising we can come home then!
Keep us in your prayers,
Dana

Home-School....

Tessa and I went out to a store called " The Knowledge Tree" they had so much cool stuff I was pretty over whelmed! Of course I bought some things and now look forward to the new year. This year I have arranged for a Professor from the College to teach spanish , so we are looking forward to that. I have bought the stuff to do a unit study on Butterflies including the kit to see the life stages (in real life)....well, hope all of you are ready for school and if you have any free sites please share!!
Dana

Update for Wed.....

Well, today we just get the shot to help her blood cells mature. Hopefully tomorrow's labs will be good! Tessa is still not eatting well but at least is drinking...I have found possibly some housing options here in case Mike or another care-giver can come with some of the kids. We shall see....
Will update more tomarrow.

Update for Tuesday at St judes...

Well, Tessa is now off of IV fluids and starting to eat.(if you call 5 m&m's and one sausage eating). But praise the Lord she is really getting back to her old self. Tonite though she vomited again, I think that it is from some medicine she is taking because that is exactly when she vomited last nite to!!
We now wait for her blood counts to finish going down and start their way up before we can come home. Dr Galindo said probably not until Monday...:( we will see. It seems like everywhere I look today I see either a parent or a child crying. Some days it is really hard to watch and then you also have your own child that is critically ill on top of it. I comforted one mother who was crying because she was for the first time reading what her child had in print. It was just really sinking in. Some-times you just can't really believe it but when you read it , it is real. Please pray for all these children here...

Update for Sat from St Jude's...

Well, last nite was much better for both of us and we actually got some sleep! They have been able to control her vomiting with meds so that is good. She isen't really eating or drinking very well... I spoke with the Dr last nite and basically he told me that she will have a 80-85% cure rate if we do the radiation also. If we didn't do radiation therapy it would only be a 60% cure rate. He also did say that these are just estimates because of how agressive her cancer is , they have not had a child that has presented like her... I hope to be coming home a week from Monday but I am going to try to figure out a way for Mike to bring some of the kids . This is hard to be away from the other children especially the babies....I am sure that we will get everything figured out before the next round of chemo. Tessa has been a trouper and has a tenacious personality, which will help her get through all of this.It will be tough next week as I have to give her daily shots!! YIKES
Thanks again for the thoughts and prayers
Dana

update on Thursday....

We have been admitted to the hospital and Tessa has begun the meds that they give before Chemo...she will start Chemo at 6pm...she had a little bit of pain from the bone marrow aspiration and so they gave her some pain meds which gave me the time to come out and write an update. I can see that I really am going to want a lap-top...
I think I am beginning to get emotional now as the time grows nearer to the chemo starting.Frankly it really scares me. I know we are in good hands..(God's and St judes) but it is still the unknown.
The Dr's have said that they are going to want to do radiation therapy also at the end of chemo, if they do that would mean staying here for 5 wks. We will see how the therapy goes they said.
I will update as often as I can and thanks to everyone for their prayers, show of concern and calls.
Dana

Praise the Lord!!!!!!!!!

Tessa's bone scan came back negative....Yea!!! I did speak with her Dr and he said he is leaning toward admitting her for the stronger chemo....we will see.

We went and got her some new glasses today they are cute and I will post later.

Madeline and Katie are taking their chickens to the fair tonite and the judging will be done tomarrow. Marie is taking them and will take pictures....thank goodness for her . I don't know what we would do with out her.

Well, again thanks to everyone for all of the prayer's

Update for Tuesday

Well, we are at St Judes and I have met with Tessa's oncologist. The news is really not as good as we first thought...(is that possible the news wasn't good anyway). Tessa's cancer has left the eye and they now know it is in the eye orbit. She still has to have all of the tests done and we will know more then but her treatment might be a little bit different now. They are talking about some real aggressive chemo that she will have to be hospitalized for and radiation at the end of it. It is all real scary . I hate that Mike is at home with all of the kids but we both know that I can handle the "medical" stuff the best. If she has to be hospitalized my hope is that Mike can come and bring three kids with him for me to visit with while he is at the hospital....we will see...
Tomorrow is the bone scan, I will keep updating as I can.
The big girls will be taking their chickens to the county fair tomorrow, I hate that I am missing their first fair but I know that Marie will take pictures.

Birthday, Birthday, Birthday!!!!!

Today we celebrated two birthdays. Annie Grace will be 4 on August 6th and Ella was 1 on July 26th. I won't be here for Annies so we just did a party today. They had a good time!

The Bad News....

I guess I just couldn't bring myself to sit down at the computor for a few days to update everyone on Tessa, I guess I just had to let the "dust settle".
We will return to St Judes on Tuesday and on Wed. they will do a bone scan,bone marrow aspiration, spinal tap , get a line placed and then Chemo on Thursday. Dr Galindo in his call to me last week said that he believed that the chance of dissemination (spreading) would be very minimal because the time between exams was only three weeks but he said that there is always a chance of course.He said that he was not comfortable with just removing the eye. She will have to have Chemo for 6 Mo's...it seems like an eternity when I think of it. I hope that she tolerates it as well as she did the first time around. They will be doing some switching around of the drugs t hey are going to use this time , so she may react differently.
I can't tell you guys how much comfort we have just knowing that so many people are praying for her to be well and for the well being of our family. This will be a stressful time for us so please excuse me (in advance) if I don't stay in contact as much as usual or seem short...
Thanks again to everyone who has prayed for Tessa and please continue. I know that God is smiling when he looks down upon Tessa, after all her middle name is Joy!!!