A new year!

Hey everyone, it's Taylor's mom here, and I just thought I would post and update on a few things since it has been a while since our last post.

Taylor has been fighting recurring ear infections pretty well since before Christmas, poor girl can't seem to catch a break from these pesky colds that keep bringing on ear infections even with her ear tubes.

Our most recent scare was on Friday when her temperature spiked to 39.5 so I took her to the Stollery Emergency and they checked her over and hydrated her (as she wasn't eating or drinking, and had a bout of vomit and diarrhea two days before). They ran a few tests and came up with nothing conclusive other than low platelet counts and sent us for follow up blood work yesterday. I had to take her to the doctor today as she was still fevering and not her usual self and low and behold she has an ear infection AGAIN. No word back on the blood tests...will have to call the Paediatric Oncology folks tomorrow to make sure that is all good (I am praying that it was all good as they were thinking that the low platelets was due to an infection and nothing cancer related, the paediatrician in emergency called a paediatric oncologist to come down and double check her...anytime they can say its normal kid stuff and not cancer stuff I can breath a little easier, which they likely know by now when dealing with parents of cancer kids! I will feel better once I talk to my nurse Clare (not sure what I would do without her).

So, on the health front that is pretty well it. We are all set up to get Taylor her immunizations in February, as she hasn't had any since birth and everyone has told us that it would be in our best interests to get her immunizations up to date as she will need them when she goes to school. Her next MRI is in May (whohoo...a whole 6 months since her last one) which is nerve wracking and a big step in the right direction. They said if they even had a hint of worry they would have kept us on the 3 month schedule, but alas we are now on the 6 month schedule!

Taylor has been going to daycare/preschool regularly and LOVES it. She loves her "aunties" aka. teachers, and it appears that she has cast her spell on them as well...all the kids and staff love her...it would be hard not to with her silly stories and infectious giggle and she is always happy and excited about everything. People at the doctors office this afternoon were even watching her and engaged in everything she was doing...from reading the fitness magazines and pointing things out and commenting to me, to playing on my phone and singing the alphabet song and counting on her fingers, to commenting on everyone that walked by...they had boots, or lunch, or a purse, or whatever she noticed about them. She asked me to rub her belly and yanked up her shirt and layed back in her chair to which a lady across from us let out a giggle, as it was pretty darn adorable. It just amazes me how she can capture an audience and entertain us all with her personality.

Anyway, I have been following a number of other families with children fighting cancer, and learned before Christmas that a friend of Taylor's great aunt had a little one that earned his wings. It has become all too familiar to hear so many stories of people and children fighting this terrible disease. I have heard some amazing positive stories and some devastating sad ones. There are so many people out there that could use our prayers and support!

My plan for this new year is to touch others lives that are in need, as mine has been touched so many times by so many of you over the years with our journey. Stay tuned, I will keep you all posted on what the plan will be, and I will invite you to join me if you want to be involved.

Thanks again for all of your prayers and support!

Taylor's mom,

Mindy aka. Miranda

We are really in need of prayers again this Christmas!

Hi everyone,

Taylor, our Taylor, is doing fabulous. She is fighting an ear infection, but other than that she is absolutely fabulous.

So why do we need prayers? A lady who we came across while Taylor was in the hospital and fighting for her life, helped Mindy, Landon and Taylor in so many ways. She offered us inspiration and hope. I think hope is one of the biggest things a person needs when fighting an uphill battle. We need to know, or at least think we can make it to the top. Often our hope comes from within, but often when we have been struggling for a long time we may get worn down...thats when we need others to give us back our hope.

I especially like to reflect on Mother Theresa's quote “Never worry about numbers. Help one person at a time and always start with the person nearest you.” We are often faced with many that need something, but where do we start? If you could please take a look at Tammy's blog: http://hairmassacure.blogspot.com/2011/12/praying-for-taylor.html

Please help us send out a huge prayer chain for Taylor #2. We need to send them our prayers, hopes and wishes....send them all the strength you can spare as this is a battle!

Love you all, Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year 2012

Taylor's Auntie Leah

Taylor has had another CLEAR MRI!!

Hello,

Taylor had her 3 month scan last friday, November 25th. Of course as always the build up of nerves grew, we all don't really talk about it, to afraid what might happen if we should "jinx" her scan or whatever other crazy thing we feel could happen if too much is said....some of you may understand what I'm talking about, some may not, but needless to say its kind of weird and surreal...no scientific or true logic, just another way to cope. Mindy took her for her Chicken and fries afterwards of course...I wonder though if we may be teaching her a negative thing with "bad things" equalling "eat foods you like, but are not so good for you", but then I think we have worse things to worry about than obesity.LOL Sorry I am a slight tad twisted.

Yes Taylor is a "dippy" girl! It's so crazy getting over how time flies by and how quickly Taylor is growing up. She speaks, she goes on the potty, she can play by herself (not for long, she prefers to socialize.LOL), she eats on her own and grabs stuff from the fridge....She is pretty amazing. Taylor is quick to fit in with others and does not miss a beat. My daughter had her tenth birthday party at home this past saturday. There were 10 crazy little ten year old girls and Taylor was right in the thick of it all, she let all the girl's now in an extreme psyched OMG "we're doing a craft, we're doing a craft" Taylor wiggled into a chair with the girls at the table and began to do her craft (painting a picture frame).LOL Later amidst the gift opening Taylor told Aaryanna all the things she got her "JEANS!" LOL she was just so excited and so sweet you just want to scoop her up and squeeze.

So on Monday Landon began the "phone every 5-minutes" until they give us results routine...LOL They always have been excellent at the University of Alberta Hospital of letting Mindy and Landon know the results. A CLEAR scan was again Taylor's prognosis. Relief, tears and a huge smile on my face when I got the text. It seems so crazy that Taylor has been given this miracle, where the last few year things were so crazy, but I'm not complaining.

So I will add some more pics of Taylor so you can see how much she has grown. She has been doing fantastic. She is extremely bright (yes I know I'm her auntie, but very important and smart doctors have said the same thing.LOL). Taylor apparently after her appointments today at the hospital (for all her routine checks: hearing, speech, etc) was throwing up, so she may have a touch of a flu bug. She has been plagued by lots of colds and sinus infections of late, but then again she is in a day-care/preschool now, which may have added some new fun bacteria.

Can I ask for prayers...

Hello,

As some may know we follow many other kids that have the same cancer as Taylor. We follow them for hope, to follow their journey's, to give support.

We are in desperate need for prayers, hopes and wishes for a beautiful little boy named Sterling Bacon. Sterling has the same cancer as Taylor and has been battling this cancer monster for 3 years....the same amount of time as Taylor. His family has had shattering news, Sterlings tumour that returned has in the last month tripled in size. There is nothing left for the doctor's or medicine to do, this is now in God's hands. Please, please, please send prayers, hopes, wishes to Sterling and his family! All of you have managed miracles before with Taylor, but someone else needs a miracle...

I am going to leave you with my favourite quote, you may remember it, but it is fitting yet again;

"When you think hope is gone, that is when you need to look farther than your eyes can see."-Peter Kasule


In regards to Miss Taylor. We continue to be blessed with her good health. She is so full of life, ENERGY, happiness. She is staying at her Nana Roberta's and Grandpa Don's house with Mindy an Landon until they get possession of their new house. Taylor has been a tad confused in regards to their accommodations. She was at first repeatedly telling Mindy "Mommy, Daddy, Ruby, Taylor go home." Landon took her by their old house to say "Good-bye" as she never really got to do that as she was at Grandma Josie's while they moved everything. So hopefully time goes quickly and they will all be settled.

Taylor is such a funny duck in sooo many ways. She has a day home with a bunch of little boys, so she tries to be like them. She was leaving the day home on friday and was telling the boys "bye, got to go. I going to play ball, baseball, football." LOL of course she does not play these things, but must have figured that was the thing to brag about.

Taylor's birthday is on Saturday coming up, September 10th where she will be three! I will try and get some pictures up for everyone, maybe a video if I am really good.LOL I think I'm going to buy her some "boot boots" as she seems to love boots. She wears her rubber boots everywhere so I think she may need a style intervention.LOL

Thank you so much for following Taylor. She is an Angel.... although at times when she is lacking sleep I wonder about that...The pic below is when I was out with Taylor and my Mom shopping and we turned around in the car and saw Taylor had put her bathing suit on her head.LOL

Taylor's Auntie Leah

MRI is done

Well Taylor had another MRI under her belt. Luckily Dr. Pugh her neurosurgeon was there and checked her scans. He says they look good to him, which is a HUGE relief. Of course other Doctor's will still be reviewing her scans, but I know Mindy and Landon are relieved not to have had to wait. Mindy said she could not sleep last night and Landon was a wreck...so that probably would have continued if they had no feedback on the scan....so one thing I just can't help but put down here and maybe I'm moralizing, but forgive me, as I don't mean to offend. I hear so much in the news and people talking in general about the healthcare system and how bad the Doctor's are....I have personally had some most AMAZING doctors as well as all Taylor's doctor's. Dr. Pugh has always gone that extra mile for Taylor, so please if you hear anyone saying nasty stuff about these doctor's, nurses and other healthcare providers, remember there are sooo many more amazing ones than bad!

Wow sorry its been sooooo long!

Well hello everyone,

I am really sorry I have been so remiss about keeping up here. I am sure people would like to know what the heck is going on. It has been a hectic year for us...duh! But at the end of August last year we found out our father had Colon Cancer that had gone undiagnosed for a long time, which was now spread throughout his body. He was told he had a short time to live, but he battled through and passed away on June 21st of this year. It was a horrible thing to watch, but we are still trying to wrap our minds around this.

Mindy and Landon decided they had enough of beach living and put their house for sale and the have sold it, bought a new house in Edmonton. Taylor will have a nice new pink room. So they have been crazy busy as they had to do repairs to the house they were selling and now are trying to move all their belongings into storage containers as the possession date for their new home is 2 weeks plus after they have to be out of their house....ugh, its been pretty exhausting for them. So as Mindy jokes "we will be homeless for Taylor's birthday" LOL (September 10th).

Taylor has continued to be our miracle. I sit and ponder how crazy this has all been. It is so surreal to think
 of our lives and all that has happened over the last 3 years....OMG Taylor will be THREE!!! As many know or any who want to know you can go to the original blog posts to see our journey, just too hard for me to do that in this post, but after our last years horrible doomed MRI and diagnosis things have been "weird".

Why "weird"? Well prognosis for Taylor was dire to say the least, we faced such horror with the prospect of Taylor leaving us...quickly. Mindy and Landon had to face what that might look like...its too horrible to even continue, just want to try and put that past me as we always seem to reface the new upcoming MRI's (3 months is just so short, and comes too many times). Than we sent out our hearts to everyone, we pleaded for help, we shared our story, Taylor's story, and AMAZING things happened. My Mom says we must continue to believe it was a miracle, that we cannot deny what we have been given. Taylor after more tests were done, another MRI that followed that initial one came back clear.

Taylor was able to fulfill her wish list due to zoo many amazing people who lent Taylor, Mindy and Landon their support, love, prayers, wishes and hope. We have seen Taylor have continued clear MRI's but its these ones that near the beginning of the school year, the ones when she was first born that to me are the scariest, they seem to always wreak some havoc, show some sort of new growth in tumour. Taylor has her MRI tomorrow, August 22nd. We all are feeling dread as we always do, but for me its "the bad one", but I am going to accept the miracle and say its gotta be clear!

We have heard of some horrible losses  and complications from other cancer kids that have the same cancer as Taylor, we reach out our thoughts, prayers and hopes to them. If you are reading this please know we think of you all the time, you are never far from our thoughts.

So what is Taylor up to? Better questions is what does she not get up to...LOL Taylor is a tornado like none other. She seems so perfectly norma, so happy and strong you would never know by looking at her. Her scars generally do not show through her hair and the ones on her chest only show in bathing suits or sleeveless tops. Taylor seems to have no fear as she will jump at you at full speed, boundless energy, and a motor mouth! Taylor has become quite the little parrot, copying Landon apparently saying "HOLY CRAP"....the Thiessen's must watch for their potty mouths.LOL

Taylor has also been working on peeing on the potty, apparently she is probably fully potty trained! taylor is extremely proud of her peeing on the potty, she gets so happy when she talks about what a big girls she is, with "no accidents".LOL Yahoo. Taylor still enjoys bossing us all around, but I'm getting clever to this and trying to put my foot down! LOL The pictures I have added were from our trip to Kelowna this year. Weather was terrible and Taylor was on hyper-speed.LOL She tuckered us all out, my kids even were making suggestions that maybe we should consider taping her mouth shut so she would be quiet for awhile (horrible I know, but they weren't trying to be mean, they are just kids and Taylor is "normal" to them, and us). Taylor still busts a move whenever music plays, also she likes to sing along to the tunes.

Taylor is still smart as a whip, so you have to be careful what you say or do around her as she picks stuff up very quickly! She is so funny with her expressions of "hold on tight" "goodbye, see you later", etc. She can talk on the phone and tell you what she is up to and really can follow any of the questions you ask her and give you the right reply to the question. She recaps her day to you and all the people she has seen or what she may be about to do. Mindy says she has an uncanny knack of telling her who is calling when the phone rings, as well as knowing when its the day she goes to see Nana Roberta and Grandpa Don. Taylor still LOVES the water and taking baths....okay so I am blathering and will stop. I will try really hard to be better at updates, but we have been blessed with Taylor having a clear MRI now and seemingly good health, so I tend to forget to keep my updates (well and I have been crazy busy, but whatever, "excuses, excuses" as my husband always says to me.LOL)

Please don't forget to keep Taylor in your thoughts with prayers, wishes and hopes for another clear MRI! Love you all,
Leah (Taylor's Auntie)

ALL CLEAR

I am so sorry, I completely forgot to post on here that Taylor's MRI Results came back clear! The appointment on June 2nd went as smooth as we had hoped. The endocrinologist (hormone/growth doctor) that has been following Taylor said she is keeping up and is totally normal on that side of things. The only thing he suspects may be a side effect from the Radiation Therapy is that she won't be overly tall...which we already knew based on our family stature, that she didn't have a chance as a basket ball player to begin with! They said she won't be noticeably small, just a little shorter than she could have been.


The Radiation Oncologists are very happy that things are still clear, and that she is growing and living a normal life, the Neurosurgeon's (Dr. Pugh & team) were overjoyed to see how happy and full of life she is - and how perfect she really is considering all of the odds against her. She is such a miracle!


The Pediatric Oncologist (Dr. Wilson) almost cried when she seen how big she is getting and how much she is talking and just being completely unaffected by everything she has been through so far. Our nurse Clare and Dr. Wilson have been involved with Taylor since she was a newborn...so I could imagine only seeing her every three months now, how much things change.

There was no need to see the speech and language pathologist as she is talking up a storm and communicating very clearly. The neuropsychologist wasn't around, but once Taylor is 3 and we are considering playschool or those types of things, we will likely look at ensuring she has some assistance to make sure she doesn't start falling too far behind the pack. I can't imagine this girl that we have right now ever falling behind the pack since she is so intuitive and quick at figuring things out...but they are preparing us for what the statistics say will happen, so we won't worry about it for now...just keep it as a distant possibility :)


We are going to continue the MRIs every 3 months until we cross the two years post treatment - which will be in two or three more scans. So for now, we are just going to enjoy our summer and our fabulous little girl!


Thank you all again for your continued support and prayers as they are WORKING!!!!



Love,


Mindy, Landon & Taylor


xoxoxo





P.S. I will try to remember to post some new pictures soon!