Through week 10 and ready for a break!

Today Stella finished up her tenth week of chemo.  Now we get a two week break - YAY!  Stella did awesome today.  It was a packed house and there were four little girls aged five and under getting chemo at the same time.  Eight weeks ago just being in that room watching these little girls would have had me teary eyed. . . now this is just becoming part of our life and we are all getting used to it.  We are very ready to have a break though, and Stella's next chemo treatment is not until November 11.  Yay, yay, yay! 

Stella still has all of her other appointment, and an MRI, in the meantime.  Her MRI is on November 1 and we are anxious to see what is happening with her tumor.  I am feeling cautiously optimistic. . . her eye seems to be looking a little bit better sometimes.  It is so hard to really tell though.  One good thing is that her physical therapist is feeling (cautiously) hopeful about Stella's ability to regain movement in the left side of her face.  She did a bunch of work with her and determined that, while Stella can't currently move that side of her face, she can definitely feel that side of her face.  That is a good thing, and hopefully will translate into recovery of some facial movement in the future.  Right now Stella sees a physical therapist once a week every other week and an occupational therapist once a week on the alternating two weeks.  Crossing our fingers that all of this will help. 

Below are a few pictures of Stella at chemo over the past two weeks. 

Rob went with Stella to chemo last week.  I was in the bay area for a quick business trip and got home in time to sneak into chemo and snap this cute picture of the two of them.  Stella loved hanging out with her daddy. 

Making bracelets today at chemo.  :-) 

Drinking her "coffee" while lounging.  I order Stella the vanilla steamed milk and she calls it her coffee.  Pretty cute! 

At gymnastics this week.  Stella is having some problems with balance and depth perception because of her eyes, so we are hoping that the gymnastics will help.  She loves it. 

 



  

Through Week 8. . .

Yesterday Stella completed week 8 of chemo.  She did great as usual.  I say it every time, but I am constantly amazed by her.  We are back to the loooong chemo days. . . and are at the doctor's office for approximately 5-6 hours each treatment.  This is how it will stay for the remainder of  her chemo regimen, but that is okay because we get to spend lots of quality one-on-one time with Stella!  :-) 

I've been a bit bad about keeping up with weekly posts.  We don't get home until about 5:30 or 6:00 on chemo days, and then its right back to work the next day trying get caught up, so I've been a bit pooped out and not as motivated to get these posts written.  BUT, I am going to try to do my best to get them written at least every other week. 

Stella's MRI date has changed.  It was scheduled for this Friday, but Dr. T changed it to November 1 so that she will be completely done with her initial 10 week chemo phase and we will have a better idea of how the chemo is impacting the tumor.  That is fine with me.  I would rather get a good indication of what is happening then go early. 

One thing I am really excited about is that we have an appointment next Friday with Dr. Finlay, who is known as one of the best oncologists in the nation working on the type of tumor Stella has.  He works at Children's Hospital LA, but consults with Children's Hospital in Oakland.  We are going to Oakland to meet with him and go over Stella's scans.  We feel very blessed to have a wonderful medical team and have been very happy with the care Stella has received from Dr. Sun, Dr. T and Dr. Hastings, but the more brilliant minds we can have on Stella's case the better!  :-)  In all, we feel very lucky to live so close to Oakland and have access to their great doctors.  And we are so unbelievably lucky that Children's Oakland operates a clinic in Reno so that we don't have to go to Oakland once a week for chemo!!!  :-) 

As I have said in previous posts, we are also unbelievably lucky to be surrounded by an amazing community of family and friends.  The Northern Nevada Children's Cancer Foundation gave Stella a beautiful custom made superhero cape for her to wear to chemo, and she LOVED wearing it all day yesterday.  NNCCF does unbelievable things for a lot of families.  And today when I got home from work, I found a GIANT box sent from my former colleagues at Sonnenschein Nath and Rosenthal filled with art projects and other goodies for Stella to enjoy during chemo, as well as a bunch of other unbelievably thoughtful items.  To say I was blown away is an understatement.  I have so many thank you cards to write. 

Below are a BUNCH of pictures from the past few weeks - enjoy!   

On our way to chemo for week 7 and we, of course, have to hit Starbucks!  :-)  Stella put this headband on herself and insisted on wearing it.  She cracks me up. 

Hot chocolate, I swear!  I've created a Starbucks addict. . . like mother, like daughter, I guess! 

Stella is all about stickers, glitter glue and coloring at chemo. . . any surface will do, even her feet and legs.  :-) 

Stella and Leslie from NNCCF.  Leslie is such a sweet woman.  Her daughter survived lukemia and now she works with the NNCCF assisting other families.  The NNCCF is having a superhero cape made for every kid they work with, and Leslie gave Stella one yesterday.  It is awesome. 

A cute picture of Stella's superhero cape headed to chemo week 8.  :-) 

Getting chemo yesterday.  My big, brave girl. 

Chatting with one of her nurses, Keri, before starting her chemo.  Stella likes to check out all the medical supplies and be very involved.   

For the first time Stella actually took a nap during chemo!  :-)  It lasted about an hour, but it made me so happy!!!

Opening the amazing box of goodies from my friends at SNR.  Unbelievably sweet. We are going to make these goodies last for many, many weeks at chemo!