We're Back & Maintenance Begins

We returned on Wednesday night at 11:30pm from the most incredible, memorable, precious vacation...it was a trip beyond our highest expectations.

Here are a few pictures...



Anya officially starts Maintenance today with a spinal tap at 2pm. This is a big day for us...we can finally say that Anya is on her last phase!

Orlando Here We Come!

Tomorrow is the big day - we leave at 6:30am for Orlando, Florida and won't be back for a week!

We'll be sure to post pictures once we return.

We're Going to DisneyWorld!

It's been a whirlwind 48 hours but things have fallen into place - we're going to DisneyWorld on March 20-26th! Needless to say we are extremely excited!

To make a long story short Anya's doctors have determined that we should make the trip now because they do not anticipate that Anya's counts will have recovered enough to start treatment by next week anyway. This is ideal as it means that Anya will not be on any chemo while in Orlando and won't be suffering any after effects of steroids (two of our former concerns).

The Wish Granters from the Make-A-Wish Foundation just left our house after debriefing us on the coming trip. They also brought a few goodies including a princess crown & sceptor for Anya...and of course, we'll get a set for Esther too.

Here are a few highlights of our trip:

- A limo will pick us up and take us to the airport in Detroit.
- We'll fly non-stop to Orlando and be taken via shuttle to Give Kids the World, an exclusive resort designed specifically for Make-A-Wish kids. We'll enjoy swimming pools, complimentary breakfast and dinner, and unlimited ice-cream.
- Once there we'll receive passes to all of the Disney parks and SeaWorld and shuttle transportation to get us to each location.
- We also received a generous check for spending money to cover our lunches, souvenirs, and any incidental costs that come up while we're there.
- Upon our return to Detroit a limo will bring us back home again.

Our family is so excited to be going on this trip. After the Make-A-Wish people left we all danced around the living room for a while singing, "We're going to Disney World!"

We are so thankful to God for providing this for us and working out the details. We're also thankful to all of you for your prayers and of course to those who donate to Make-A-Wish in order to help families in need to make their dreams come true. We can't wait to go on the trip and share our memories and photos with you. Until then we've got a lot of work to do to get ready for a week away. Praise the Lord!

Maintenance & Disney Delayed

Anna took Anya to the clinic this morning (Monday) for blood counts. If they were high enough we were going to begin Maintenance tomorrow with a spinal tap. Unfortunately the ANC was too low to begin another round of chemo. We'll now wait and take counts again next Monday in hopes of starting Maintenance next Tuesday (March 18th).

This delay in treatment has also resulted in our trip to Orlando being delayed! The Make-A-Wish Foundation notified us yesterday that they had scheduled our trip to DisneyWorld to begin on March 20th!! But now that will be impossible, regardless of if Anya begins Maintenance next Tuesday or not because of the revised treatment schedule. We had really been looking forward to some fun in the sun as a break from this winter weather!

We're not sure what, if any, changes will need to be made to the timing of our return to Kansas City. Please continue to pray with us that Anya's treatment would resume speedily and that we'd have God's wisdom concerning the timing of our return home.

Maintenance Overview

The case manager for the clinic, otherwise known as "Pam", and one of Anya's favorites, gave us an overview of treatment during Maintenance. It will include:

• a spinal tap with chemo every 3 months
• a clinic visit for intravenous chemo and preventative antibiotic every month
• steroids for five days of every month
• oral chemo everyday

We had mistakenly been under the impression that Maintenance wouldn't include quite so much treatment. But we have again been reassured that this phase is not as intense as it was during Induction, Consolidation, or Delayed Intensification but rather similar to Interim Maintenance. They have said that Anya should be feeling more like herself during this next year and a half. We have also been told that most kids return to school during this time and that their hair begins to grow back. We are praying for a smooth transition to this new line of treatment.

(Previously we had been told that there was a good chance that Anya would be delayed in starting Maintenance next week because her counts have traditionally dropped and recovered late. However on Wednesday her counts were stable so we were told than that there is a good chance that she will start Maintenance on time next week after all. She is scheduled to have blood work on Monday and at that point we'll know something more definite.)

No More "Delayed Intensification"!

On Wednesday, Anya's visit to the clinic for chemo and a preventative antibiotic concluded the delayed intensification phase! Esther tagged along with us and got to see what happens when Anya goes to see the doctor. Unlike the usual quiet office, there were several other patients there for treatment so it was quite a zoo. But it was neat to talk with some of the other parents who are going through a situation similar to ours. It always helps put things in perspective.

While there, during lunchtime Anya started crying really loud because she was nauseous and embarrassed that she was going to throw up in front of everyone. Fortunately the nurse was able to give her medication after her IV finished that helped relieve her stomach discomfort.

The doctor said that Anya shouldn't be continuing to feel so sick to her stomach as a side effect from her last chemo drug and therefore the steroids must have caused some repairable damage to her acid levels. She has put Anya on a medication to decrease the amount of acid produced in her stomach and we are hoping that it will decrease the nausea and sensitivity to smell.

Uneventful Week

This has been a very uneventful week since Anya isn't scheduled for another chemo treatment until tomorrow. Anya has continued to be nauseous off and on and is more fussy than usual but overall she is feeling good.

Israel took advantage of this break and left last Wednesday night for another visit to Kansas City. I spoke with him last night and it sounds like he's had a great time visiting with the families of our church. He was planning to spend his last night of his visit going out with a few friends to Buffalo Wild Wings to take the "Blazing Fire" Challenge. (We all have to have a little fun!) Israel plans to drive back today and should be here by later this evening.

My brother Alan, who goes to school in Cleveland, visited us this weekend. The girls ate up his attention...it was nice to have him around.