What happens when we are stuck at home with low counts

SUPER COOL people come to visit, including SWOOP from the Utah Utes! He chased the kids all around and even gave Millie his squirt gun. I wasn't thrilled, but she was! It's her new favorite toy. THANK YOU SWOOP!!!

We wash Millie's hair in the sink when her port is accessed. It can't get wet.



We sing Thanksgiving songs.


We make homemade masks to go get a redbox.

Even Austin gets one.

We give LOTS of doses of antibiotic at all hours of the night.

We color, mostly on paper, but not always.

Our home health nurse, Dylan comes over a lot to test blood levels. He has become a permanent fixture in our home.

We make potions out of colorful rocks.

Even I got a turn to access Millie's port. I was terrified, but it went great. I was surprised that I had to push with so much force to get it in. Kind of freaked me out.

We play dress up.

We build things and make LOTS of crafts. Thanks Grandpa Jager for bringing the nails. She made a bird house and a couple stools.

Millie teaches Austin the piano.


Last but not least Brady and I FINALLY painted our front entryway and upstairs. We love it!

We have had a crazy couple of weeks, but we are grateful for all the love and support we have been shown. Millie being hospitalized took us completely by surprise and was a huge wake up call. Sometimes we forget how fragile Millie's immune system is since she is such a tough cookie. Millie's had a very hard time rebounding this time when her counts plummeted, but we have finally reached an ANC of 800 and she will restart her chemo tonight.

Blood Counts over the past week and a half:

11/10/11 ANC 300- normal clinic, cancel chemo and wait for counts to rise.

11/17/11 ANC 100- fever of 104, start antibiotic and fluids every 4 hours, hospitalized.

11/18/11 ANC 100- slight fever, continue antibiotic, stay at hospital again.

11/19/11 ANC 100- no fever, change antibiotic to every 8 hours, get to go home!

11/21/11 ANC 100, continue antibiotic every 4 hours

11/23//11 ANC 200, stop antibiotic, watch for fevers

11/28/11- ANC 800!!!! Amelia is good to go. Restart all chemo at a 50% dose, and retest in a week.

I am so proud of my Millie Bug. It has been very hard to be trapped in the house for so long, but she handled it very well most of the time.

Thank you again to everyone who called, brought meals, and came to visit. We love you!

Clinic November 2011

We had a visitor with us today at clinic, Aunt Kim! I asked Millie who she wanted to invite this time and she was certain she wanted her Aunt Kimmi to come with her. Amelia started a new round of Maintenance so she had her usually Vincristine, but she also had a Lumbar Puncture where they inject a chemo called Methotrexate into her spinal fluid. She did very well and thankfully it went pretty fast for a chemo appointment. I think we were out of there within four hours. She also started a new round of steroids, YUCK!

Clinic Stats:

ANC: 300

Millie's ANC is under her target range so

she has temporarily been taken off all oral chemo until her blood counts come back up.

Height: 112 cm

Weight: 20 kg

And for her hair...

* A lot has been going on with Miss Millie but I wasn't up for a long post, so I decided to just blog clinic for now. I will post again later this week about being inpatient and what's going on with her blood counts.