June 29, 2006

Samantha was finally able to start her next round of chemo last night. Although she did not want to do it she did great. She has been very tired this past week and has not been real active. We are still trying to figure out what is causing her to have that choking cough every morning which leads to vomitting. Since she has returned from Memphis she has not had any seizures (we are keeping our fingers crossed) but had quite a few while she was there.
Her check up went well no new news really. She has now been off her steroids for 11 days and seems to be handling it okay. Her balance and her eye are looking great. She was very shaky for about a week but that does not seem to be as severe now. We are working on her appetitie or lack of I should say.
We don't know how fast her counts are going to drop again with this round of chemo but we are hoping to get her more active while she can get out of the house some. Please continue to pray for her.
With love,
Audra, Kurt, Christopher, & Samantha

June 22, 2006

Samantha and Kurt left for St. Jude on Wednesday and are returning home today. She had some trouble with seizures while she was there which resulted in some more adjusting of her meds. We can only hope & pray that this will be what she needs to be without these seizures. Her counts are starting to come up and it looks as though she will start her next chemo round on Monday. They lowered the dose (which her Dr. said is not uncommon) due to her counts not being fully recoverred. It is their feeling that it is better to do the cycle as close to six weeks as possible rather than giving the full dose and waiting an extra 2-3 weeks for total recovery. She is now off her steroids and zantac which eliminates 4 doses of meds per day, with any luck that will help with the vomitting.
Although it was very hard for us to seperate we both managed and she is happily on her way back home. Please continue to pray for her and as always thank you for all your support.
With Love,
Audra, Kurt, Christopher, & Samantha

June 16, 2006

Just a quick update from yesterdays posting. We received the CT results which showed no changes since her last scan which was done on May 15th. Samantha seemed to have a better day. Christopher and I took her to the park where we only lasted about 1/2 hour because we left to late and it was so hot. She enjoyed herself though. She spent some time in the pool as well. So far today she has had no seizures and seems to have a little more energy. Hopefully she will be feeling good to enjoy her weekend. Will update again after mondays labs when we know more.
Love to all,
Audra, Kurt, Christopher, & Samantha

June 15, 2006

Just a quick update to let you all know that our trip to Memphis has been postponed. Samantha's counts are still on the low side and the doctor felt it best for her to wait to travel until they come up some due to the risk of infection. We will know more on Monday after her labs are done. She did need to have a transfussion of platelets again yesterday and today went in for a CT scan. She is still having seizures and vomitting so we thought it would be best to ask the doctor to order the scan to be sure her ventricles are the right size and that her shunt is working. We should have results in the morning. She has had a pretty rough few days and we are hoping tomorrow will be a better day. We increased her seizure meds agian this evening hoping that will help. As we get results we will update again. Thank you all for your thoughts & prayers, you can not imagine how much they mean to us.
Love,
Audra, Kurt, Christopher, & Samantha

June 13, 2006

Samantha had labs done again yesterday and it appears that her counts are starting to recover. She will be tested again on Wednesday to be sure her platelets are okay as they were borderline. It has been a week since her last transfussion so it seems that they are coming up. Her white count is on its way back up so we should be able to get out a little while we are in Memphis without her wearing a mask.
We have lowered her steroids to .5 mg's every other day and are praying that this slow decrease will be the end of steroids for her. We are still fighting the seizures and the morning vomitting but are hopeful that after returning from St. Jude we will have all that under control as well.
As far as her spirits, she continues to amaze us with her determination and smile everyday. She spends a lot of her mornings doing 100-150 piece puzzles which she really enjoys and we try to get out for a walk or bike ride every evening around our neighborhood. In between playing with Christopher in the yard, swimming, and beating everyone at Uno make up the rest of her day. She is looking forward to being able to play with her friends again and go to physical/occupational therapy as her counts continue to come up. She seems to have more of her interests and personality back which I'm sure you can imagine makes us so happy. Ironically the only complaint she has is that her hair is growing in and she doesn't really want hair anymore!!!
We leave for Memphis this Sunday. Our trip will consist of a few doctor visits, no MRI this time. We will update again when we return. Thank you all for your continued support. Please continue to pray for Samantha and all the others at St. Jude.
With Love,
Audra, Kurt, Christopher, & Samantha

June 9, 2006

This week seemed to be a bit quieter than last. Over the weekend we took the kids to the movies and did some shopping. We went to a BBQ on Sunday at our new neighbors house. It was nice to get out some. Come Monday it was back to lab work and a transfussion of platelets. Samantha also needed her monthly IV therapy for prevention of pnemonia. She spent about 4 hours in the hospital having all that done on Monday evening. Luckily she sleeps through most of it with a pre-med dose of benadryl. Her white count has dropped to the point that she is at risk for infection so she can not have to much contact with people. We had labs done again yesterday (thursday) and for the first time in 3 weeks she did not need to go in for platelets. Hopefully this is the turn around and she will start recovering now. More labs will be done on Monday.
Her seizures seemed to have slowed down but still break through here and there. She has been having trouble keeping down breakfast but other than the morning hours she does pretty good throughout the day. Since her steroids have been lowered to .5 mg's a day she has been sleeping through the night. We will be returning to Memphis next Sunday on the 18th for a check up.
Thank you for all your continued support, please keep those prayers alive!!!
With Love,
Audra, Kurt, Christopher, & Samantha

June 2, 2006

We had an eventful week here in Vero. After the long busy weekend Samantha started tuesday out with seizures at 6:30 am. They would stop on there own but were coming every hour. She had her labs done and needed another platelet transfussion along with red blood this time. Her seizures continued throughout the day and ended about 12:30 am after the 12th one and 10 hours in the hospital. She was seizure free on Wednesday and had two on Thursday. She also started PT & OT on thursday and really liked the therapists. Today she had labs again and we just returned from her third transfussion of platelets. Things went much faster this time and the nursing staff at the hospital are really trying to get a system down for her so it will be a quick as can be process. With them & the help of her pediatrician things seemed to go a lot smoother this time which was much appreciated. She will have labs again on Monday. Tomorrow we will increase her seizure meds to the dose they were originally aiming to get to, hoping and praying that will do it for her. Without these seizures she would definately have more energy and a little more freedom. As always she remains smiling. Thank you all for your continuing love & support. Please continue to pray for her.
With Love,
Audra, Kurt, Christopher, & Samantha