Round 3 - Year 3

This past Thursday Kaelyn had her 3^rd round of chemo, and she is still doing great.  They said she would probably lose her hair this coming week, and if not, definitely after she receives the dactinomycin again on Thursday.  I'm still holding out hope that she won't lose her hair, since it is possible not too! We will see though.  I find myself playing with her hair all the time, just running my fingers through it.  I know in the grand scheme of things it is a completely unimportant aspect of our lives, but I will be a little sad to see it go.  Mostly because I worry it will be different when it grows back, and I fear it won't be as cute :) I'm sure it will be though.  At the appointment we found out they would be upping her doses because she's back to her normal weight since surgery.  She had no trouble getting back to where she needed to be :) As far as lab results, the only thing that was low were her neutrophils.  They actually weren't necessarily "low," just lower than normal, and that was a good sign because it meant the medication is working.  It is likely her blood counts will be affected more in the future and the medication builds in her system.  Usually the only problems in that area with Wilm's patients are low platelets, and possibly low RBCs, which would require a transfusion, but that is about it.

Kaelyn's birthday was last Tuesday, and she's had a lot of celebrating leading up to it with family visiting.  She definitely got lots of presents, including a cute sandbox for the backyard, a kid's camera, and a cute little teepee her dad made for her that she adores.  Since Brock was working for 14 hours of Kaelyn's birthday, we just did fun things that Kaelyn wanted to do at home, like decorated her cupcakes, played in the sprinkler, and painted with water colors.  Then we visited Brock on his lunch and went out to Red Robin, mainly because they were the only place I could find that still sings to customers on their birthdays!  The only downside of that, Kaelyn hated it!  I don't know why, but she just glared at all the people singing to her.  It was a little embarrassing to be her mom at that moment!

One of my favorite parts of Kaelyn's birthday was when we got the mail.  It wasn't intended to be associated with her birthday but it did make it more special.  Kaelyn got a letter from "Make a Wish Foundation" telling her she was eligible to Make a Wish! I had always thought that these wishes were granted for terminal children, but apparently they are for any child with a life-threatening illness, so if you have a child in that category you should look into referring your child, or one that you know.  Rae opened the letter with me, and a bunch of little silver confetti stars fell out of the envelope.  It was so cute.  I'm so grateful that she will have this opportunity.  I will tell more about how the whole process goes in a future post.

As for Isaac, he is now walking all the time and picking on Kaelyn as much as he can.  Right now it makes me laugh, but I know it won't be too long before I'll be annoyed with it.  It's just funny to see how little he is (referring to age, not size) and how he already tries to get a reaction out of Kaelyn.  He mostly just like to jump on her if she's laying down, or grab her clothes and pull on them, or take something away from her (which she has done plenty of times to him!).  She screams at him and he laughs.  The other day Kealyn and I were laying in her knew teepee and Isaac came in trampling us.  I said "Ow!" in an exaggerated, joking way and Kaelyn got really mad at Isaac.  She said "Isaac, don't hurt mom!"  When he did it again she said "ISAAC – (long pause) YOU STINK!" That cracked me up.  She was so serious.  I think it was her first real insult to her brother, so I expect more to come soon.  I'm laughing now, but I'm sure that will change quickly!