Happy Birthday Weekend

Kelly and Megan turned 15 last Saturday. We were fortunate to have our friends, Pete and Heather Armes, offer us the use of their Aunt's condo in San Clemente for the weekend. What a wonderful weekend getaway we had. As you can see, there was a beautiful view of the ocean and the pier, which doesn't show in this photo. Pete and Heather brought their girls, Megan and Jessie, down Friday evening so we celebrated the girls' birthday with them.

We had a fun evening with them. As you can see, Megan and Jessie are also twins who go to school with Megan and Kelly. (OK, our girls aren't quite so obviously twins) Pete surprised Kelly with her most wished for present. She really wanted a video camera and was trying to save money to buy one, so she was thrilled to receive this generous gift. Thanks Pete and Heather, for such a wonderful gift for her (and thanks to those business American Express points!) She has been video taping and taking photos ever since. She even made a video tour of the condo because she enjoyed being there so much. What a great place for her to relax and rest. Megan really appreciates her gift also. Thanks for all you did for the girls to make their birthday special!

Later in the weekend, we had a birthday dinner at Fisherman's Restaurant on the pier. It was a beautiful day to have dinner outside on the pier and Kelly was happy with her bucket of clams, one of her favorite treats.

This was our view from the restaurant.

A beautiful sunset from the condo's windows. The girls liked this view so much, they didn't want to leave.

Looking Good

Kelly had her weekly CHOC clinic visit yesterday. Her doctor was very impressed with how well she looked. Kelly just refuses to feel bad. She is still having her weekly labs done, even though she is resting from any treatment right now. We are hoping to see them go up now that her body isn't being subjected to radiation or chemotherapy.

So we had some fun since she was feeling so good. We went to Main Place Mall after her appointment - it is very handy having a mall so close to the hospital. We met our friend Stevie there and saw the movie Hairspray (again.) You just can't help but feel happy when you see that movie. Glad you finally saw it Stevie! This mall has $1.00 movies on Tuesdays, and there are hardly any people there, so it is a safe way for Kelly to see movies once in a while.

It is a happy coincidence that she is on a treatment break since her birthday is this weekend. She should be feeling good and ready to celebrate!

Last Day of Radiation!

Today was Kelly's last day of radiation! This is the mask she wore everyday to hold her head in place for radiation. Before she started radiation, this mask was molded to her face and marks were placed on the mask to help aim the radiation beams. The mask would then be attached to the table she was on. They let her bring it home now that she is done. Needless to say, she is happy not to have go up to Orange everyday for these treatments. She has a 4 week break now before she begins her next chemotherapy round. Hopefully, she'll get some of her energy back during this time. She will be still go to her oncologist once a week and have her labs done just to make sure she is doing OK.

She celebrated tonight by going to her high school football game and a dance afterwards. She had fun seeing her friends that she doesn't get to see at school. Most of all, she got to feel like a normal teenager!

Time For a Break!

Kelly just had her last chemo treatment tonight!! She has one more radiation treatment tomorrow and then she is done with radiation! She is very happy about this. Her radiation therapist asked her what she was going to do at 10:30 every morning now. She has four weeks off all treatment after tomorrow before she begins her next rounds of chemotherapy. This should give her body time to recover and her blood counts to go back up. They are very low right now after six weeks of treatments.

She is doing some testing at her high school to see how her brain has recovered from her surgery. As most of you know, she was having some reading processing problems as a result of surgery. She has definitely improved and is now reading constantly. Thanks to everyone who has sent her book store gift certificates. She has used them all! She will soon begin her home tutoring as soon as her teachers at her high school know if they need to make any modifications for her.

Her doctors have reminded her to stay in touch with her friends - at this point it is very good for her spirits and important to her recovery. So those of you who are friends of Kelly's - please post messages to her here. She loves to read them! It brightens her day to know you are thinking about her.

Contacting Kelly

Kelly is feeling pretty good right now. She is just tired some of the time. She has bravely faced her diagnosis and treatments and isn't complaining. But she is missing her friends since she can't go to school. Now that she is in a routine with her treatments,and she knows what to expect, she is ready to be a little more social. She would love to be contacted by friends. Please feel free to call her now. She would love to hear from some friends. Visits are also OK to arrange with her as long as you are healthy. Thank you all for being considerate so far.

Port-a-Cath Update

It was harder than I thought recovering from my Port-a-Cath surgery. I was pretty sore for awhile. But I am glad to have it now. On Thursday, I had to have an IV treatment of pentamidine to prevent pnuemocystis pneumonia. I had it last month as a breathing treatment and I didn't like it. It made it hard for me to breathe the rest of the day and I felt really faint. So they decided to try giving it to me through an IV instead. They used my port-a-cath and it was so much easier than starting an IV in my arm. They also used my port-a-cath to draw blood. Every week before this I have had to have blood drawn from a vein in my arm and sometimes they had a hard time finding a good vein (not fun!) So it was so nice to just have it taken through the port-a-cath. Even though the port is under my skin, we put Emla cream on first to numb the skin above the port, then I just feel a little pressure, but it doesn't hurt. It is going to make these weekly clinic visits easier!
-Kelly

A New and Different School Year

Happy first few days of school everyone. Except for me . I say this because I will be doing home tutoring my freshman year of high school. Well, I AM a MVHS student, I am just doing it at home this year. I will have a teacher from MVHS come to my house. We also have some nice friends that will help me with my schoolwork. My doctors don't want me to go to school and be exposed to all the germs there. My blood counts are really low because of my treatments so I could get sick much easier and I can't fight it off as well.

In about two weeks, I get to stop radiation, and get a break from my Chemotherepy for about four weeks. Luckily, it is during my break that I am having my birthday, and going to Hawaii. I turn 15 on September 22, and I go to Hawaii for a week starting October 7. I am excited about Hawaii because I get to see my dad. Then I come back and start more rounds of chemotherapy.
So, I hope all of you have fun at school, and I will most likely post again soon.
-Kelly