Chemo 5 and 6 complete!

Stella did great in her fifth and sixth chemo treatments.  These were short ones because she only had to get Vincristine these past two weeks.  This means that there was no need for her to be attached to a bag, and they only had to access her port, take some blood and then push in the Vincristine drug.  All in all, that process takes about 5 minutes.  The actual time at the clinic was about an hour, though, since she had to have all of her vitals checked, meet with the Dr., etc.  

After her chemo this past Tuesday I took Stella to my office for a bit and then we went over to visit with the folks at the Northern Nevada Children's Cancer Foundation.  Stella loves going to my office and visiting with everyone I work with.  It is very cute.  She also had a great time at NNCCF.  The staff there is absolutely amazing and treated Stella like royalty. 

Stella seems to be doing well overall, although her appetite has been limited and she lost a pound this week.  Her hair is starting to thin out, and I pulled out a little clump of it the other day.  :-(  We will see if it continues to fall out, or if it only thins.  Overall, Rob and I continue to be blown away by the strength of this little girl. 

Yesterday my mom asked Stella how chemo went.  She showed my mom her port and said the doctors put medicine in there.  My mom asked Stella if she liked going to chemo and she said "yes, because my mommy goes with me."  That makes me so happy and sad at the same time. . . .

Next week we are back to the all day infusions, and that is how it will continue for the remainder of the year.  Needless to say, we will have lots of uninterrupted time together for arts, crafts, and other fun activities.  Below are a few photos from the past two weeks.  :-) 

Stella and I at Chemo # 5. 

This is what happens when the nurse walk in with the needles, etc.  Stella get super scared and burrows into me.  The way we are now accessing her port is to have her sit on my lap.  We pull up her shirt and I hold her arms and head still while they clean the site, access the port, draw blood and then either hook her up to the IV line or (in the case of the last two weeks) just push in the drug.  She screams the entire time, but calms down pretty quickly once it is over. 

Passed out in the car on the way home.  Even the short visits are exhausting for her and she always sleeps on our drive home.  Good thing the drive is an hour!

Looking sassy before Chemo # 6.

And still smiling after her chemo treatment was completed!  :-)