Finally....

OK here it is, I had planned on doing this update late last week, but then we found out that our friend Sammy was not given much time to live as his leukemia had returned, very sad and heart breaking. Sammy gained his angle wings on Saturday. Please keep his parents in your prayers, they are amazing people!

So here is our little update. Amelia has been doing really well, she will be 9 months post transplant next week on the 27th. her counts are doing fairly well too. She is bored and wanting her counts to be high enough for her to be able to go back to school for at least half days, in secrete I want that for her too! she needs the socialization...she is a little butterfly. Her doctor here is extremely cautious, Amelia would say a little too Cautious!! She is planning on trying out for cheer leader at the end of March.

On the health front, Marshall has been leading the pack! He has an ear infection, and it doesn't want to clear up so we will be making an appointment with the ENT. He went to the dermatologist and had two moles removed and one of them came back precancerous, so next week he will go back and they will have to cut more cells out. We will need to check them out regularly now. He has also been having some issues with his liver levels coming back elevated, so we went to the hem/oc. He is sending us to a GI doctor. Marshall had an ultrasound of the abdomen and his gallbladder is still full of gallstones. They have been there since after transplant and for a few years it would flare up, but it hasn't flared up in pain since some time in 2006. I guess we will see what the GI doctor says. The hem/oc doctor feel that it is causing the increase in the liver functions test, so they are thinking that it will need to be removed. We will see in the upcoming weeks. We also have to go back to having his IVIG done monthly.
Ty will be having eye surgery one March 8th. They will be tightening his left eye muscle so it won't be wondering!
So there is a lot going on, so we will be very busy over the next few weeks!
Here are a few pictures of Amelia's hair it is getting thick and very curly! I will have to get one of how it is normally, there are from a day i talked her in to letting me use the flat iron on it




Well gotta run early day tomorrow as it is Mardi Gras here and I am going to take the kids to the parade for a little while tomorrow!!
Hopefully I will try to update of just plain ole blog a little more often!!
Blessings!!
Kelly

Update coming soon I promise!!

Is there really anyone out there who still even reads this? Well if you do I will be doing an update soon.... But would like to introduce you to the newest member of our family.......

Meet CoCo....

She is an 8 week old Yorkie and she is adorable!!!

Caps For Kids

OK so most of you have heard of Caps For Kids. Well if you haven't, you can read about it here Caps For Kids. What most of us know is that our kids pay a $1 to wear their favorite hat to school on a designated day, which is true. They also look for kids with terminal illnesses to honor with a signed cap from some one famous. Well Miss Amelia was nominated and chosen to be honored with a cap of her choice. Her first choice was Selena Gomez, but unfortunately they didn't have one by her, but they said they would work on getting her one signed by her. Since this was on a Monday that she chose and she was getting it on Thursday she went with a second choice that they had in stock. Here she is at the school board meeting waiting.



Here are the people from Caps For Kids! Super nice too I might add.

This is her principle presenting her hat to her!






and here is her cap! She watches/watched NCIS a lot with her papaw, especially during transplant and this is her absolute favorite character on the show.......

Pauley Perrette!!
She was super excited about it and has been showing off her hat all over! SHE LOVES IT!!

We had clinic on Monday and everything is still moving in the right direction. Counts are still doing awesome and we have one more week till we are completely off the CSA!! She should finish it up on Jan 26th (her daddy's Birthday). Then in a month after that we will test her immunity counts again and if they are good enough she will go back to school in March for half days.

Thanks for the Prayers...

Thanks every one for the prayers! Amelia is doing much better and thankfully it only lasted a day and a half. She did not have to be put in the hospital. We went to the clinic and saw the doctor and if she wasn't doing better by 5 she was going to the hospital. She had a clot that was stuck in the urethra tube that she was able to finally pass it and pee all on her own. Thankfully it passed and we went home that evening drinking a water bottle full of water every hour and half till bed time. Friday we went back for an ultrasound of the bladder and thankfully it was all clear. I am praying that it will stay that way for ever and that this stupid stuff NEVER rears it's ugly head again! Her counts are great, her hemoglobin is 12.7 and platelets are 138 and white cells were in the 4 point something. We will return to clinic on Jan 16th and she only has two weeks left to go on her immune suppressing medicine and then we will check to see how her immune system is doing and if it is better she will return to school for half days in the mornings. I think she is looking forward to doing this!
Again thanks so much for your prayers! She is a very tough cookie and keeps trucking a long!
Blessings,
Kelly

Welcome to the flipping New Year

Prayers, please! We are headed to the hospital with Amelia!! After 3 and half months with no blood, guess what reared it's ugly head again!!! Yep she is having blood in her urine and clots, we are all devastated. Please say a prayer or two for her! No body knows why this is happening! All I can do is beg for prayers!!!

A long over due update!!

Greetings,
So sorry that it has been so long since my last update! it has been non stop with doctors and everyday normal stuff! Amelia is doing AWESOME! At the beginning of December she had a really bad cough and nasty nose and stuff that had us rushing to the hemoc's office. Which thankfully did not bring any fever or a stay at the hospital, just a bad cold virus that was doing its best on her very weakened immune system. It took her a very long time to get over it, but her white cells and ANC count took a bit of a hit from the virus so we are keeping her away from crowds and such for the time being, meaning the plans to attend Christmas eve church services have been nixed as we are more than sure that it will be extremely crowded.
About a week after we went to the doctor she got to be an extra in a movie being filmed right here in New Orleans. The scene was at a fake children's hospital in New York. Amelia was a "patient" the stars of this film are: Mark Wahlberg, Russell Crowe and Catherine Zeta-Jones! The scene we were in was with Mark and Catherine Zeta-Jones, both of which were super nice and took time between takes to come over and talk with Amelia! (pictures to follow)
Ty had been home building back up his hemoglobin and iron level and waiting to have his scopes, which were finally done on the 9th of Dec. He has acid re-flux and a hiatal hernia, which we already knew from 3 years prior to this. The doctor said that there are some eroded area's in there and that these two area's can be susceptible to bleeding as the stress increases. Of course we didn't have much stress over the past 8 months now did we! But I am happy to say that after 6 weeks he finally returned to work on Monday.

This past Monday, we got to go to our states capitol for a Make a Wish function. We had lunch, met with Santa and the Governor too.(pictures below) We have been busy. Now we are ready for Christmas and the arrival of Jolly ole Saint Nick!
So as I am sure it will be a while before I get to update again, we just want to wish you all a very VERY Merry Christmas and a happy Healthy New Year. We are praying for a much less stressful 2012! I found a picture of myself taken a year ago and when I look at it and the ones taken here recently I can see how I have aged about 10 years in just one year!!


Here are the kids at my mom and dad's house making Italian seed cookies that we make every year for Santa. The kids love it, I am sad to say though we made them a little too early this year as there are no cookies left for Santa looks like we will be buying some store bought ones to leave for him, I better remember to do that tomorrow while we are out or he will be getting some celery instead of cookies!!


Here are the pictures of Amelia and Catherine Zeta-Jones!! Amelia just fell in love with her, she is so SUPER nice!!






We went to our state capitol with a Make A Wish function and we all had a blast!







Amelia and Nathan in front of the Christmas tree at the state capitol!




Nathan sitting on the floor....



Amelia and Nate with the Governor


The kids and I with Santa and the Louisiana Governor Bobby Jindal.
I want to Thank all of you who still stop by to check in on us and who are still praying for us too! It means a lot to us!

Merry Christmas,

Kelly

up date coming soon I promise!!