Scan Tomorrow

Happy New Year!  It’s hard to believe that 2012 is already here!  We enjoyed the last days of Kyle and Kaylee’s school break by going to see The Chipmunks movie all together and visiting with lots of family.  We went to Grandma and Papa with the Trailer’s house to visit Aunt Cherie, Tim,  Dakota, and their new Siberian husky puppy.  Kyle and Kaylee were so excited to see Dakota and play with the puppy and were laughing and laughing!   The next day, Kaylee and Kyle spent the day over at Grandma and Papa through the Wood’s house along with Aunt Jamie, Uncle David, Aunt Lynda, Uncle Rich, Declan, and Orion, while Jamie and I went to work.  Aunt Jamie and Uncle David took Kyle and Kaylee to a cake decorating class at Michael’s for part of the afternoon.  Kyle (and now Kaylee) really enjoy watching the show Cake Boss on TLC, so Kyle received this class as a gift from Santa.  They both did an amazing job decorating their cakes and really seemed to enjoy themselves.  We may have some future bakers in our family

On New Year’s Eve, I took Kaylee and Kyle to the zoo to celebrate the Noon Year.  At noon, everyone gathers around the entrance plaza to watch the ball drop and yell “Happy Noon Year!”  We made it just in time to enjoy the festivities and then set off to see lots of  animals, with the seals and grizzly bear cubs being some of our favorites!  It was a fun day and then after resting a little while, we headed over to David and Nathan and Miss Deb’s house to celebrate the new year.  The kids had fun playing together, and at midnight, we went outside to blow some horns and enjoy a few fireworks  I was surprised that both Kaylee and Kyle stayed up that late!

Kyle and Kaylee headed back to school last Tuesday, and are getting back into the swing of things.   We are almost back to a “normal” school schedule at night and in the mornings.  I have been working extra hours each day, to get all the year-end reporting done.  Jamie has been helping with picking Kaylee and Kyle up from after-school care and getting them to their evening activities.   Sunday afternoon, the four of us went to the Cleveland Indians Snow Days at Progressive Field.  We stood in a short line to ride on the inner tube ride, not knowing what to expect.  I laughed the whole way down the hill, but Kaylee did not like it so much!  She said the bumps hurt her belly, so we didn’t do that again!  Next, Kaylee, Kyle, and I got ice skates and headed over to the “Rookie Rink” for a few minutes.  This was both Kaylee’s and Kyle’s first time on ice skates, and Jamie and I were both impressed at how well they skated!  It didn’t take long for them to have the courage to go around the big path!  Before the day was over, Kyle skated around the path times, and Kaylee went around one time – both did an amazing job and are looking forward to more ice skating!

Today, Kaylee, Papa through the Woods, and I headed to Cleveland Clinic for Kaylee’s MIBG injection.  We stopped at S20, the outpatient oncology clinic, for Nurse Maureen and Nurse Jenny to place an IV and draw blood for her monthly check.  First Nurse Kennie took Kaylees vital signs – her blood pressure and pulse rate looked great, and she weighs 19.5 kg!  Way to go Kaylee!  Then Nurse Maureen and Nurse Jenny worked their magic and placed her IV without too much trouble.  Kaylee is such a brave girl, watching the entire time!  Then we went down to the Nuclear Medicine department for Mr. Mike to inject the MIBG isotope and take her IV out.  We have learned to have water ready because Kaylee can taste the isotope while it is being injected into her IV.  After a  few sips of water and a fun band-aid, we were ready to go home.  Kaylee fell asleep in the car on the ride home, so she did not go back to school for the last hour of the day.  Of course, she woke up just as we got home, so Kaylee and I had some lunch and then played with her new Squinkies.

Tomorrow morning, Kaylee, Jamie, and I will go back to Cleveland Clinic for her MIBG scan and appointment with Dr. Levien.  I will fill the backpack with lots of books to read to Kaylee while she is being scanned.  Thankfully, we can be in the room with her during the scan and only have to leave at the end while they do a quick CT scan.  When Jamie asked Kaylee at dinner last night if there were going to be any blue cells on the scan, she said “No,” and we believe her!  She said that she only has pink cells in her body, so that’s what we are expecting on the scan tomorrow.  I am still a little bit anxious for this scan tomorrow, but not nearly as nervous as previous scans.   And after her scan, we will go back to S20 to see Dr. Levien and get the blood results back from today’s blood draw.  We also want to see if the results are back from her urine test before Christmas and are crossing our fingers for normal protein levels too.  We should hopefully have the results from her MIBG scan before the end of the week, and I will definitely post an update with the news!

So we thank you as always for your continued positive thoughts and prayers for Kaylee and our family.   We truly believe that all the prayers have helped Kaylee reach remission and continue to be in remission for the last 10 months!  Thank you!  Thank you! Thank you!   I will post results as soon as I hear something!