More updates!

First a picture from Thursday night...Lily had a concert at school, she is in the 4th grade choir...it is an after school activity.

Oops...Lily wasn't looking at the camera!  Dina is finally hat/scarf FREE!  And now she looks even more adorable.  I tell you, that girls does NOT need hair to be beautiful!  (I know...a mother is prejudiced!)

Okay, the latest scoop:  The culture came back virile...and the doctor already had her on a drug for that, he increased her dosage for the antibiotic and he also felt he did not need to do a bone marrow biopsy because he feels it is not cancer related at all.  Her white cell count was still extremely low...the same number 220, so the plan is to have three days of white cell booster shots (remember those from her chemo days?  she had them about the 4th day after each chemo treatment...the side effect is achy bones).  She had one shot yesterday, today she will go downtown to the Compass Campus and get another shot, and yet a third one on Monday.  She will also see the doctor on Monday and get more blood work on Thursday.  Already her mouth sores are clearing up and she is able to eat softer foods now.  Her sores in the lower membrane area are still quite large and not clearing up yet...we are hopeful with increased dosages she will start to get some relief.  She does have a big grin on her face all the time now, because the fact that she is cancer FREE is amazing, a miracle and so uplifting!  She is on cloud 9!

Thank you EVERYONE for your continued prayers and support...YOU all are amazing!

Update on Dina

Okay Folks, we have the word...DINA HAS NO CANCER IN HER BODY!!  NONE to be seen, even the spleen was clean!!  Yeah!!  Are we jumping for joy or what?

Now I have to back up and fill you in on what has been going on for a while and she is not fixed yet...

Earlier in March she felt she had a yeast infection...she has had them before, knows the symptoms and the feelings, so she bought over the counter drugs that she has used before.  They didn't work (twice).  After Easter she had her yearly Pap and Mam, so she saw the doctor and talked to her about the yeast infection.  HOWEVER, the doctor did not do a culture (we are not sure why, now that we look back on it and sure wished she had).  She did give Dina a prescription for the yeast infection.  Then last week she had her teeth cleaned on a Tuesday, after that she had a sore throat for several days and then by Thursday night and all day Friday she was running a fever.  Saturday she was just okay...Ellie had a VB tourney in Corvallis and of course Dina wanted to go so Scott and I went with them so she wouldn't have to drive by herself.  She was just feeling "okay" because she was taking tylenol to help with the fever.  But by the time we were driving home (9 PM at night) she was so cold and chattering, she couldn't get warm.  Her fever spiked to 102 during the night..  She spent Sunday in bed.  After the weekend she went back to the dentist because all of a sudden she had white sores in her mouth...her dentist did not think it looked like a yeast infection,  but he prescribed a strong antibiotic for her.  She felt she should see the ob/gyn before taking the pills and that doctor also prescribed the same drug as the dentist.  It didn't get better and her fever was still hanging around.  And what she thought was the yeast infection was getting worse, making it difficult to sit and of course with the sores in her mouth she was not eating.

She saw her oncologist (actually the PA) and she did not think it was yeast either, but they took a culture and now we are waiting for the results.  In the meantime her oncologist prescribed another antibiotic and then another for a virile infection...just to cover all their bases...they also gave her pain meds.  When they drew blood her white cell count was extremely low and that had them concerned.  They are calling what she has Neutropenia...basically low white count.  Most often this is seen during the chemo infusion, so what has them concerned is that it is showing up so far out from her last chemo treatment.  They moved her PET scan and she had it yesterday morning, so that they could good a handle on what is going on with her body.  This  morning she is going to have another blood draw and after the doctor reads her numbers he will decide whether he will do another bone marrow biopsy.

For now her fever is gone and other than a sore mouth and very sore in the lower region she is feeling good.  And of course we are extremely joyous about NO cancer in her body...neutropenia can be dangerous also, so now we are anxious to get this issue resolved...

As Our Mother Mary says, Pray, pray, pray...

Thank you!

Sunriver...

We made a little mini vacation out of our trip to Central Oregon in order to receive a plaque to honor Bill Foelker as an inductee into the Athletic Director's Hall of Fame.  This was something that Larry Hermo, the Putnam baseball coach has been instrumental in getting done for quite a few years.  Sadly it happened after he passed away, but we are so proud to accept this honor on his behalf.

They had a very nice video presentation and then John and Larry Hermo were invited up to the podium for some question and answer time.  We rented a 5 bedroom house in Sunriver so we could all be together...both our daughters and husbands attended the evening banquet. 

The night before the induction banquet we all went to a Mexican restaurant in The Village at Sunriver...a group of 14 of us and we all loved the food!

Caleb after the run down the hill

Tristan posed for me after he came down the hill, he wasn't sure he wanted to do it, but then he thought it was pretty fun as long as someone dragged his tube up for him!

At the SHARC water park they have a tubing hill...the kids loved it...not so much dragging the tube up the hill, but so much fun coming down!

The end of May they open the outdoor pools which include two tubing slides, a lazy river and lots more pool space...doesn't this look like a great place to go in the summer?

We spent a couple of hours at the High Desert Museum.  We learned about the Falcons and was able to be up close and personal with it on the trainers hand.

Ellie and Addie sitting on the Elk

What do you suppose they are all looking at?  Well, there was rainbow trout and crawfish in the stream bed!

The sea Otters were so much fun to watch...they rolled around together in the water doing somersaults and playing their game...so much fun to watch.

And we also listened to the trainer talk about this little porcupine...that face is just adorable, but they can be mean.  Contrary to what most people think, the porcupine cannot "throw" their needles.  You have to rub against it and it has to feel in some danger before it will release them...Ouch...we didn't pet the porcupine, but it sure was fun watching it climb up this bit of a tree stump and eat a radish.  They are very sslllooowww to move!

 

 

And lastly, some of us enjoyed the amenties of the hot tub on the deck...the Mom's thought they were going to get a few quiet moments to relax, but as soon as the kids found them in the pool, they were in it!  Just as a side note, you can notice that Dina has some hair growing...I think she looks adorable, but she is still a bit self conscious of how short it is (after all, she cut off 18 inches!) so she still wears scarves or hats when she is out and about...and mostly to keep her head warm!

Thanks for following along on this LONG picture journal of our 3 days in Sunriver.  We all decided we would love to go back in the summer time and bring all the kids bikes and let them swim at the SHARC water park...so much to do there...we didn't even touch on it.  Aaron and Caleb chose to go to a BMX Nationals bike race in Redmond while the rest of us were at the High Desert Museum...they had fun, but would have prefered being on the bike, rather than watching the bikers!!  ha ha.  But Caleb is back at racing at the PIR on Thursday nights when the weather allows...so he gets his fill of riding!