Logging More Mileage to CHLA

We've had a very full few days since Wednesday... so full that I haven't inundated you all with more postings! I'll try to keep it to just the basics to get you caught up, but there will be lots of pictures because we had a very fun event.

Thursday was our home nurse visit for a blood draw. We love our nurse, Denise, as we've mentioned before. This time Mom got a picture.


Princess Elizabeth also had ballet class. She had still been pretty under the weather at that point, but managed to get off the couch long enough to make it to class. I'm not sure how, but Elizabeth made it dancing through the entire 45 minute class! Here she is with her teacher Miss Rosie:


We also made it to McDonald's after picking up Mike from school. Elizabeth had a vanilla shake, Matt had a strawberry shake, and Mike had an M&M's flurry. Danny just watched!

Friday we got a call from Patricia, our nurse case worker at Children's Hospital Los Angeles (CHLA). Elizabeth's blood panel came back with high white blood counts (WBC). That is usually a sign of infection somewhere. So we went in to CHLA for another blood draw to check her WBC again. Her temperature was very high when we arrived (103.5F). SO... we were admitted to the day hospital for examination. She ended up with a 30 minute infusion of antibiotics (ceftriaxone). Her WBC came back still high, but lower than it had been on Thursday. Blood and urine were taken for cultures (takes 2-3 days for results). Thankfully, because Elizabeth didn't show any symptoms of infection, we were allowed to go home instead of staying over night. Good thing since Elizabeth and Mommy had a special event on Saturday to go to. Mommy was very proud of how well Danny, Matt, and Elizabeth all behaved while we were at CHLA for 5 hours. They were happy to have dinner at McDonald's (of course... we were at the hospital afterall) after. Here's Matt playing in McDonald's:


When we arrived home from our first visit to CHLA of the weekend, we were excited to find a package waiting! One of Princess Elizabeth's ChemoAngels, Princess Amber, sent a very large box that was sitting on our front doorstep. Visit http://www.chemoangels.com to sign up as an angel or get your own angel! Elizabeth was so happy to get a letter written just to her from Princess Amber, complete with pictures of Amber, her cats, and her neice and nephew. Elizabeth thought it was cool that Amber's neice is named Emma... afterall, if Danny had been a girl, Elizabeth insisted we should name her "Emma". There were little presents in there for Mike, Matt, and Danny, too! Mike ran through the house with Dad playing with the sticky frogs, Matt laughed uncontrollably when we read the book together, and Danny now has a new chew toy (a soft little piggy). Elizabeth got the most beautiful (and SOFT!) ballerina bear from Build-A-Bear (one of our favoritest places!). Princess Amber sent it complete with Bearth Certificate stating that bear's name is Princess Faith Elizabeth. Elizabeth is very pleased with bear's name, as is Mommy! Thank you, Princess Angel Amber! Here is a picture of Princess Elizabeth and Princess Faith Elizabeth taken Saturday morning:



Saturday was very, very busy! Elizabeth and Mommy were invited to a special event through the Michael Hoefflin Foundation. A friend of the Foundation, Neil Weichel, purchased an entire Princess Table (!) at the Santa Clarita Ballet Company Tippy Toes Tea fundraiser (that's a mouthful!!) and donated it. Princess Elizabeth was very happy to go and socialize with the other princesses that attended. Princesses, ballerinas, and fancy tea cups... if it was planned especially for her, it couldn't have been more fitting! Grandma Kirsten bought her a fancy dress for the tea, and our friends MaryAnn and Amanda Brown bought her matching gloves and a purse. She looked absolutely beautiful!

WARNING: Lots and lots of pics. I'll try to keep the descriptions as brief as possible (HA!)...

The theme of the tea was "Cinderella" so Mom and Elizabeth got matching "glass" slippers to wear to it.


There were beautiful ballerinas dressed in white who served us scones. And a bullfrog even sat at our table for a while, much to Elizabeth's chagrin... she said Matt would have liked it, but she didn't.


But, our friend Abigail Duran (Abby) didn't mind!


Abby and her sister, Haley, sat with us at the special Princess Table. They were nice enough to bring their mom, Lindsay. (As all you moms know, we're always just along for the ride!) Abby has ALL (a form of leukemia), which requires almost 3 years of treatment. Here is big sister Haley:


Another little princess sat at our table. We met Marissa (and her mom Sandra), who had her last chemo treatment the day before. She was awarded "Best Hat":


Here Elizabeth shows off her new hat, made for her by our hostess M.J.


A beautiful Nutcracker ballerina show:


All of the girls with Bloom, a winged fairy:



Elizabeth by the pool:


Abby, Haley, and Elizabeth in their special hats from M.J.


Princess Abby:


A sea of princesses!


Elizabeth wants to stay


We also got to sit with Sue Hoefflin who started the Michael Hoefflin Foundation with her husband, Chris. Sue teaches Kindergarten and one of her students is M.J.'s (the lady who made the girls' hats) daughter. I think her name is Talia, but I'm not sure. There was a raffle for various little girl items that Elizabeth got to put tickets in vases for. She wanted the handpainted roses child table and chair set so badly that she put all 20 of her tickets (courtesy of Sue and M.J.) in the vase for that drawing. M.J.'s daughter won that raffle, but since M.J. painted and donated the set, she talked to her daughter about giving it away. Talia willingly and generously gave it to Elizabeth, knowing she wanted it so much. The next raffle was for a huge Angelina Ballerina stage, doll, and wardrobe playset. And Talia won that raffle, too! She was so very excited, and opted to keep that one! It turned out that she wanted to win that one most, so it was very nice the way it all worked out. The tea was a complete success and now Elizabeth and Mommy have another day full of wonderful memories. We are very thankful that we got to go.

After Elizabeth's nap her temperature shot up again. We went in to CHLA and had yet another infusion of ceftriaxone. Elizabeth, Danny, and Mom spent a rather uneventful 3 hours in the ER. Unfortunately, Elizabeth did have to miss another event, the Michael Hoefflin Foundation Annual Bowling Party, but at least we made it to the tea. Elizabeth did not see it that way, however, and was very upset that we weren't going to make it. Dad was able to take Mike and Matt, though, and they had a great time. Elizabeth is still griping today that she didn't get to have pizza like her brothers did, so I think we all know what we'll be ordering for dinner tonight!

So... it was a rather full weekend. Elizabeth's blood and urine cultures still do not show any sign of infection, so the fevers are still pretty unexplainable. Most likely it is just a reaction to the chemotherapy (a notable side effect of gemcitabine). If she keeps on with the fevers, though, we're afraid it may interfere with our chemo schedule. Hopefully we'll still be able to get it on Thursday. Elizabeth is still on track for her scan on Tuesday regardless. We're eagerly anticipating the results of that so we can see if the chemo is doing anything to the cancer. Please pray for clear results so we can make the best decision for subsequent treatment. Of course, we'd love significant reduction in the tumors! But as all of you already know, we're grateful for whatever blessings come our way, even the small ones!

Keep Elizabeth in your prayers, especially on Tuesday afternoon when she is getting her scan. Thanks!