Holding Steady

Kelly had a good doctor visit at the clinic today. She is doing pretty well and hopefully we have a plan to make her next chemo easier. We have realized that everything needs to go through her port very slowly or it makes her sick. Even having it flushed after her labs made her sick today because it was a little too fast. Her doctors are impressed with how good she looks though. Next week is a big week for her - she has chemo on Tuesday, then her next MRI is Wednesday. We will be going straight to Dr. Muhonen's office after her MRI so he can go over the results with us. We are praying for another clear MRI.

Kelly really appreciates hearing from her friends. Her week off from chemo, like this week, she feels good and likes to talk to friends. So, please leave her a message here, or give her a call. Visits can also be arranged. It is so nice for her to feel in touch since she isn't in school and misses seeing people her age.

Idyllwild Photos

Here are some photos of where we stayed in the mountains near Idyllwild last weekend.

This is Mark and Laurie's cabin that we stayed at with them.  It was so cozy with a fire in the fireplace and seeing the snow come down outside.

  The photo below a view looking up the driveway. (That's Laurie at the top of the driveway.)  This was the morning it was snowing.

Trying to get down the steep driveway in the slippery snow was a challenge.

I'm so glad we had a chance to have a fun weekend in the mountains.  Today wasn't as good.  I was at the clinic for over 6 hours for my chemo treatment.  It made me pretty sick today.  They had to stop one of my infusions to give me more anti-nausea medication in my port.  Then they slowed down the infusion and I felt better.  I felt pretty loopy when I was done.  As we were leaving, my mom had to steer me away from walking into walls since I was having trouble walking straight.  But at least it kept me from throwing up anymore.  I feel better tonight.

Kelly

Snow Days!

One of my wishes has come true. We got to go to the snow for the weekend. It was so much fun. When we first got to Mark and Laurie's cabin, there was some snow left, so we could go sledding behind the cabin. That's where the pictures were taken. I know that doesn't sound like a big deal to some of you that live farther north, but there is no snow where we live, so we have to drive to the mountains to see snow. Luckily, that is about 2 hours away.

Kelly

Megan

Shannon and Kelly

The next morning we woke up and it was actually snowing! There was snow everywhere. Shannon and I ran out at 7:00 in the morning to play in the snow. It was beautiful. I was really hoping it would snow while we were there. It wasn't supposed to snow until Tuesday, but it started a day early. I was so glad we got to see the snow, even though it was a little scary driving down the mountain in it. It was a wonderful weekend. Thanks Mark and Laurie for help make one of my wishes come true! We really enjoyed spending the weekend with you.

There are more pictures we want to post, but we just lost them on our computer somehow. Hopefully we'll figure it out this week, then we'll post some more snow pictures.

Tomorrow I have my next chemo treatment so I'll be at the clinic most of the day. Dad is flying to a meeting in Washington DC in the morning, but at least he'll be back at the end of the week this time.

Kelly

A Good Week

Kelly has had a good week. This is her week off from chemotherapy. Her wish granters from Make A Wish came over last night and she asked for a Disney Cruise. That was a hard decision for her. She had so many ideas she wanted to do, and she really liked the idea of a cabin in the snow, so this weekend we are headed to the mountains to visit our friends, Laurie and Mark, at their cabin. (Unfortunately, it has been so warm this week the snow is probably melted!) We are really excited to get away as a whole family - that is a first for us for a long time since Kevin has been away for so long. Snow or no snow, we are really looking forward to the weekend together. We even changed Kelly's next chemotherapy treatment to Tuesday instead of Monday so we can stay a day longer.

Her tutor came over this week also and she is trying to do more schoolwork now. She had so much going on in the fall with her recurrence, surgery, and treatments, it was hard to get much schoolwork done. Her school is going to just start her now on second semester and we'll have to find a way to make up her first semester work. Ideally, she is supposed to stay on track with the rest of the high school. School just wasn't our priority when we just wanted her to feel better and focus on her health.

It was nice to see you at the clinic today Cheyenne. I'm glad the platelets are hanging in there and hopefully they'll come up with a treatment that is a little easier for you to take. We'll see you Tuesday!

More Thanks

I have been meaning to post this photo for quite a while now. I finally got our photos from December organized so it is easier to find them! Now for an overdue thank you to Pam Turner for this beautiful quilt she made for Kelly. She loves this personalized quilt - her name is stitched in the border fabric. The moose is also wearing dance shoes! This was just a perfect little quilt for Kelly. Thank you so much for the love and effort you put into this Pam, it means so much. We were also touched by the Christmas gifts you brought over for us. You are going to have to help me use mine! We really enjoyed the caroling too. You have such a talented family! Austin, you have to come back and play Wii with the girls.

One of the good things that has come from our situation is all the generous help we have received from our friends. The meals and rides for Megan and Shannon have been wonderful. Something that our good friend Darla did for us that has helped so much was to send her dear cleaning lady to our house every other week. This has truly helped save my sanity. I feel so much calmer when the house is clean and it has been so easy to overlook little things like cleaning when there is so much else to worry about. Thanks also to Debbie and Allison, Julie, Lori, Charmaine and Colleen for contributing to this also. It has helped more than I can say. We are overwhelmed by how kind everyone has been to our family. It has truly been a blessing.

Kelly had her visit to the clinic today. She is doing much better this week since it is her week off from chemo. She lost a couple pounds last week on her scrambled eggs and popcorn diet, so we are trying to make up for it this week now that she has more of an appetite. We have switched her chemo day from Monday to Tuesday (starting next week) since there are three Mondays coming up that are school holidays and she wants to be home when her sisters are off school.

One more note - many of you know, since you receive it, that I send an email notification when we update this site. If you don't receive the email notifications, but would like to, just email me and ask to be added to my list. My email is kathylaude@cox.net

A Big Thank You

Yesterday was my chemo day. Mom and I were at the clinic most of the day. But the good part of the day was when I got home. Diana came over and she brought gifts that were given to both of us! Thanks for organizing that Mrs. Zintgraff! What wonderful things we got! There were lots of scrapbooking things because we both like to scrapbook. We got little purple scrapbooks, lots of stickers and paper and other supplies. We are going to have a scrapbooking day soon. We both have a lot of photos of everything we are going through and we want to scrapbook them. We also got build a bears and we got to stuff them ourselves at home. That was really fun - Diana helped me stitch my bear. We both got pirate outfits for them, so now we have to watch Pirates of the Carribean together with our bears! Thanks again Mrs. Zintgraff and everyone who helped with such a fun gift for us.

Today I am living on the couch - chemo makes me really tired for a couple days. I got some extra medicine for my nausea this time and it is helping. Luckily, I don't have to go back to the clinic until next week.

Kelly

Happy New Year

It is hard to believe it is January already. December went by so fast with all of our fun Christmas Parties and events. We have been having fun with our relatives here for the holidays - it is so good to be together. The girls love having their cousins and Aunts and Uncles here. This is a photo of all the cousins together at Laguna Beach on New Year's Eve.  Karla, we liked your Christmas card photo so much, we copied your idea.  Thanks!  Kevin had to go back to Hawaii, but it was to wrap things up so he could come home for good! He is coming home tomorrow to stay!

Kelly had a bad cold last week. Just as she was feeling better after her last chemo treatment, she became sick with a sore throat and bad cough. It seems like if you are dealing with cancer, you should be exempt from getting the normal, yucky colds. Actually, we are fortunate that it was the first time she was sick since she was diagnosed last summer. She got to go to all of her Christmas events feeling pretty well. So we feel lucky. Unfortunately, we had been given tickets to see the Rockettes at the Orange County Performing Arts Center and she had to miss that.  

I have never found a video of Kelly being interviewed at the hospital on Christmas Eve, but this is a photo of her being interviewed by NBC and ABC news.