Chemo this week

Hi,

I thought I would let everyone know that Taylor has chemo this thursday. It will hopefully be a nice quick one where they get out the next day....so cross your fingers.

Not a whole lot has been going on lately. Landon has had a nice long weekend off, so they have been spending lots of time together. Landon's birthday is Wednesday July 1st, Canada Day. Taylor has been zooming around and enjoying her new water ability...LOL nothing to hold her back now with the i-vad! Mindy has a sexy new hair-do. So all is well in the Thiessen household.

I am now off for the summer so hopefully I can be more attentive. I forgot last time to mention they were out of the hospital! Ooops.LOL

We are out of the hospital

For those of you who don't already know, we are out of the hospital. We got out on Monday afternoon as Taylor's levels were good...she cleared this one quick, which was awesome!

We had a bit of a grumpy room-mate this go around, which wasn't too much fun, but I found out on Sunday that she was just told that her cancer isn't responding to the chemo she has been going through for the last 4-5 months and they had to switch over to their last resort chemo, hoping that it works, or she will be taken off chemo and will eventually pass. She is 8 years old and doesn't quite understand what is going on, so that is why she is so miserable. Poor girl! There is another little girl that is 4 years old that we see often, and she was just told the same thing, they have the same type of cancer called Wilm's Tumour which in both cases has spread to other organs and have unfavourable cells. The 8 year old had her kidney removed 4 months ago and the tumour is already as big as her kidney that was removed - it has grown back and fast. These poor little girls, one is from Slave Lake and one is from Cold Lake - so they both have to travel long distances and have siblings...I thought my life was difficult.

Well, Taylor got her IVAD and it is healing up great, we look forward to taking her swimming in the lake this weekend. She is thoroughly enjoying bath time, and if she had it her way, would sit in the tub all day. We go in for blood work on Monday and will likely be admitted on Tuesday June 30th for her next chemo. We are sad about that, as we were making plans for Landon's birthday on Canada Day, but we will have to post-pone them I guess. Landon is off on Saturday and doesn't have to go back until Thursday July 2nd, so we are looking forward to having some time together as a family and getting the house fully baby-proofed, as Taylor has begun exploring even more now that we are home.

Taylor and I are going to Kelowna with my sister and the kids from July 11th to the 18th to visit our brother, and we are getting excited to being away. Taylor also has her next MRI on July 22nd, so fingers crossed everyone!

Well, I hope everyone has a great Canada Day!

Love,

Mindy, Landon & Taylor

Had a short visit with Mindy and Taylor

Taylor is being flushed right now of the chemo (completely normal as it is done after each chemo). This one though takes awhile so they could be in for another few days. Brought Mindy some sandwiches and pasta for dinner. She is good as is Taylor, but Taylor is really bored. It is hard being in the hospital for Mindy right now as there is never a "break" from entertaining Taylor who is not very happy sometimes as she is bored. Don't get me wrong, Taylor is doing great, but after awhile she gets whiney as she cannot do much with tubes in her and she cannot crawl around on the hospital floor and explore like she would do at home. Anyone feeling bored could go up to the hospital and watch Taylor for an hour or two would let Mindy get some breathing time in. I should have today, but needed to put some time in with my kids as I have not been home much due to going to the hospital to see Taylor last week and this week. I will be done my last week of school next week so I will try and do that when I am off in the summer. 

But overall all is good and we are really looking forward to our trip down to Kelowna!

Dropped in for a visit today

Well I swung by the hospital today. Taylor is getting her chemo today. She is looking great. Full of energy and lots of trouble.LOL She is behind the bars of the crib at the hospital and looks like a caged monkey.LOL She peeks out and bangs the rails while standing. For a change of scenery we took her for a very short stroll around and around and around and around the unit...we cannot leave the unit during chemo, which sucks as there is a very limited amount to see.LOL

I brought KFC for Mindy (I know such a healthy choice. I will bring something better tomorrow when I have some time to cook). It seems every time I want to eat Taylor thinks I have something so delicious she must have it, so inevitably I am forced to share (damn kids!LMAO). We had her in a highchair where she could not keep her hands off the poutine, but at the same time was acting like we were asking her to play with disgusting worms.It looked really funny. She would put her hands completely in the poutine and then keep shoving loads of french fries and gravy in her mouth. SHe would keep it there awhile moving it around and then spit it all out. Such a goofball!

On a better note Dr.McDreamy swung by to see Taylor. Apparently Taylor was sleeping so he did not TAKE A PICTURE, but he will take one tomorrow! LOL SO we may get some pics of the good doctor up.LOL What is so friggin awesome is that he has been looking at all her MRI's as they have been done and he thinks that there is nothing left, that the spots are just blood from the surgery, which is completely normal with head surgery! He believes they really may have gotten all the tumor (cancer) so maybe if we cross every body part we can she may never get it back...I will always dream and wish that for Taylor...Good night all!

Surgery was done on Wednesday

Hi,

So Taylor had her i-vad put in yesterday. She did amazing. She was up to her old tricks shortly after surgery, which is awesome. She is not getting chemo until tomorrow so Mindy got to leave the hospital for a couple of hours today. She went to visit Don and Roberta and then Grandma Josie.

So I will let you know if anything changes, but all is good right now.

Leah

Surgery scheduled for Wednesday

So Taylor's surgery is scheduled for Wednesday morning. They are planning on putting in the I-Vad, which will be so wonderful in comparison to the Broviac. I won't have to worry about maintaining it 3 times a week, keeping the exit site dry, and keeping the tube pinned up and out of Taylor's grabby hands - which I think will be the best part. We also will be able to go SWIMMING!!! Taylor LOVES the water now, so she will probably enjoy this the most.

So we will likely start chemo on Wednesday or Thursday and will be in the hospital for 5 days or so (based on the last time she had this chemo) as she has to clear it out of her system before we get discharged. So, we will likely be spending Father's Day in the hospital.

Taylor has become a very fast crawler and has been pulling herself up on furniture. She gets a devilish grin while heading for the dog toys, dog bowls, cords, etc...anything she isn't supposed to have. She is quite funny, everytime she sees water, a sink running water, etc she thinks she is going to have a bath and gets very excited...and then very disappointed. She is a very silly little girl.

The Kids with Cancer walk went well, between Landon and my mom and Leah, we raised over $1100 for the cause and got to enjoy a lovely morning getting some fresh air and exercise. We hope to see you all out there next year (we are thinking of making some cool T-shirts or something).

Have a great week and Leah will likely provide some updates later in the week when more action happens!

Love,

Mindy, Landon & Taylor

Walk for Kids with Cancer was today!

Hello,

So lots has been going on lately. Mindy and Taylor were released from the hospital on Friday, which Mindy was very, very happy for as she was really, really tired. Taylor is awesome and looks great. She is motoring around, enjoying her new found freedom. 

We had the Walk for Kids with Cancer today. I was late so I can't tell you how that part went. I still did the walk, but there were not too many around when me and the kids walked.LOL Taylor was in excellent spirits. We compiled all of our pledges and managed to raise over $500. Hopefully next year we can raise more as well as perhaps be on time.LOL

Taylor has her next surgery on wednesday, which hopefully will be the i-vac(could be i-vad, but I never seem to get them right). After the new tube is inserted they will more than likely give her chemo. We are going to attempt a trip to Kelowna Mindy, the kids and me so that should be really interesting. We are hoping that the i-vac is what they put in so that she can play in the lake at Kelowna.

Taylor had her Broviac surgery this morning

This morning Taylor had her surgery to remove the damaged Broviac line. All went well other than they found a pus pocket. They sent it away to be analyzed to make sure they were giving her the right antibiotics to treat the infection. Mindy feels she is responding well to the antibiotics. Mindy says she was in good spirits today other than being more sleepy than usual. They will not be doing the surgery until next week to install the other line. It looks like they will be putting in an i-vad line, which will be much better I think. I believe with this one there will be not as many issues with things getting into it. So maybe they will be able to leave tomorrow which I am sure that they will both be happy about! Chemo will be delayed until the new line goes in, so maybe next week when she gets the new line they will also do chemo.

The "Walk for Kids with Cancer" is this weekend. 

And things were going so great...

Well Taylor got sick yesterday. She had a fever and her broviac line swelled up and was red. Mindy took her to the Stollery Emergency where I eventually met her and we waited....

It sucked as they had to run tests which are never fun. Booger test was sticking a very long thin tube up her nose that then goes down the back of her throat...quick, but a bit painful I would think. The nurses were all efficiency, but I feel a bit too "efficient". Then there was a urine test, which meant literally shoving a catheter repeatedly up there and pushing her into various positions while she screamed, cried and tensed up. This was truly painful. I am still very angry about this as I do not believe they would have manhandled an adult this way. Eventually Taylor peed all over them while this occurred, which serves them right! Next came blood tests, which they could not use the Broviac as it was "contaminated", so she got poked twice and it was done.  Then finally it was a x-ray where her Broviac is to see what was going on there. She basically has her hands in the air and is squished into a test tube! That did look kind of funny and she was not too upset with that. So we waited and waited. I left around 10:30pm. Mindy did not get a room until 1:30 am. So needless to say they are a bit tired.

Today they started thinking she could have a blood clot in her jugular that may have caused the Broviac to burst. Luckily after an ultrasound, which was another trial according to Mindy, they discovered it was not a blood clot. So as far as I can tell the Broviac is broken and they will be doing surgery to remove it for 48 hours and then redoing the line. Mindy hopes that they may use a different method than the Broviac, so we will see. They need to wait to get rid of the infection before doing anything more than removing the Broviac, which must be causing the infection. Taylor is still red and swollen by her Broviac line, but definitely seems in  better spirits.

So we wait and see. I wish for Taylor that all goes well and they find a better solution than the Broviac as this would be her third one...how many scars will she have on her if they have to continue doing this? She is also now hitting the potential that she may pull it out as she is more mobile. I will keep you posted!

Leah

Taylor is crawling!

Well Taylor is officially crawling.LOL Now Mindy is going to have fun. Taylor has been doing great. She is a very strong willed little girl. She is starting to get some hair coming in, it seems thick and blonde. Who knows if it will stay or not, but she is looking cuter than ever.