11.23.2008

Written Nov 23, 2008

Hannah is having SURGERY this morning.

She has a possible bowel obstruction. Hannah had an NG tube placed last night to try to remove the bile and air in her belly but there is no change.

Her counts are good right now and the window of opportunity for her to have a surgery is slim. You never know what her counts are going to be.

Hannah is about to receive a blood transfusion and then off to surgery she goes.

I will update more soon.

Please pray for Hannah's protection and strength and also pray for the doctors and nurses who will be taking care of Hannah.

Keep the Faith!

11.21.2008

Written Nov 21, 2008

"For I am the Lord, your God, who takes hold of your right hand and says to you, Do not fear; I will help you."
Isaiah 41:13

Hannah's liver is fine!

The resident surgery doctor who informed us that something was wrong with her liver was mistaken. Hannah's liver is fine, however her liver enzymes (blood test) is slightly elevated but nothing to be alarmed about. If she was running a fever and still throwing up there could be an issue, but this is NOT the case. Her liver enzymes will just be monitored daily.

The resident surgery doctor should have told us that Hannah's colon did not have enough gas stuff in it and her digestive track appeared to be slowing down. This has caused her belly to extend and become rigid.

I spoke with the general surgeon this after noon after Hannah had another abdomen x-ray today. He was informing me about the x-ray results and her colon. I politely asked, WHAT ABOUT HER LIVER? He was clueless what I was talking about. I explained what the resident shared with me and the surgeon deeply apologized!

Needless to say to fix Hannah's problem she needs to stop throwing up and needs to go potty. She has only thrown up 3 times today and she has already went potty this evening! She should be on the mends from this ordeal.

Today, Hannah's ANC was 5,561! I honestly can't remember the last time it was this high! Now her body can finally start to heal. She was taken off of one of her antibiotics today! Hannah is now only on one antibiotic and the finally were able to discontinued the phenobarbital! Hannah did receive a platelet infusion today. The doctor stopped the Neupogen shots since her ANC is elevated; now her platelets should hold their own.

It has been a crazy past few days (past few weeks). Hannah has already been in the hospital for 26 days this time. She is continuing to improve and if all goes well this weekend we may truly be home by Thanksgiving!

Sorry, for the scare about the liver! This is the type of situation our family has been going through since August 5th. I believe we have just decided to buckle up and enjoy the ride as much as possible.
Hannah is blessed to have so many people concerned about her and her health. Thank you for all the prayers for her during this roller coaster ride. We now that God is in control and she will survive!

Praise God for Hannah being tumor free and fever free!

Keep the Faith!

11.20.2008

Written Nov 20, 2008 

START THE PRAYER CHAINS!

Hannah is still fever free.

But, last night she could not sleep and she was tossing and turning all night long. I could not console her at all. She was exhausted and something was not right.
Hannah started throwing up around 7 or 8 last night and continued all through the night. She has thrown up almost 20 times in 12 hours.

This morning her abdomen appeared distended and her skin is a little yellowish.

Besides the normal lab work she had a liver function panel drawn. Her Liver enzymes are elevated. Hannah platelets were only 43 after having a infusion yesterday.

Hannah's ANC is 2,048 today which is really good!

This morning Hannah has already had an abdomen x-ray and a CT of her head. The CT showed that her brain bleed has not grown which is good.
The abdomen x-ray showed a possible obstruction in her liver!
(What? Are you kidding me? Seriously?)
We are waiting for the surgeons to look at the x-ray and more surgeons to come and examine Hannah. They are unsure what it is and we don't want it to be more tumor!

If she keeps on throwing up she will have to have a NG tube placed down her nose into her abdomen so she will not aspirate the throw up in her lungs.

Please, Please, Please, Pray that this so called 'obstruction' in Hannah's liver will disappear.

Hannah had such a good day yesterday, the devil will NOT bring her down. Hannah is a strong fighter and she will be victorious!

Also pray for Hannah's strength.
Keep the Faith!

"He will have no fear of bad news, his heart is steadfast, trusting in the Lord."
Psalms 112:7

11.19.2008

Written Nov 19, 2008

Hannah is officially 48 hours fever free!

Today has been a pretty good day; actually a really good day. As good as a day it can be if you are in the hospital.
Although, early this morning we had a little scare. Hannah's port (in her chest) was not functioning properly this morning around 2 am. The nurses had to access her port twice and put a medicine in it to make it work again.

Hannah did get taken off an antibiotic today. She is down to just two antibiotics and the doctor decreased her phenobarbital again.

ANC is 720 today!

The neupogen shots are doing their job. We were informed today that neupogen shot can decrease platelet counts. Hannah's platelet counts keep decreasing. She received a platelet infusion again today. After Hannah's ANC is over 1000 for two days she will be taken off the neupogen shots and her platelets should start holding their own.

If all goes well the doctor hopes to have Hannah home by Thanksgiving!

"I will not die but live, and will proclaim what the LORD has done." Psalms 118:17

Keep the Faith!

11.18.2008

Written Nov 18, 2008

Hannah has been over 24 hours fever FREE!

We are excited. You can tell that she is feeling better and heart rate is finally going back down to the normal range.

Sunday, was a busy day!
Hannah's counts were all crazy. She had to receive a blood, platelets, and a potassium infusion. Hannah is on so many antibiotics that can't be given with any other medications it was difficult to try to fit everything she needed into one day.

Hannah had a low grad fever the majority of the day. Nothing over 102* so we were excited about that!
Her ANC did increase for 0 to 10! That's a start.

Yesterday, (Monday)
Hannah had a pretty good day. Her platelets were low yet again and she had to received another infusion. Everything else seemed to be holding it's own.

Hannah's ANC has increase to 21! The Neupogen shot dose was increased and we are slowly seeing results!
Hannah's highest temperature was 101.3*.

However, the doctors did take her off one antibiotic and decreased her phenobarbital (She should be off this medication completely, soon!). This is good. We have to be able to get rid of the antibiotics to get to go home.

Hannah finally felt well enough to try to do a little physical therapy. She is really weak since she has not done anything in almost two weeks. She did move her left leg by herself once. We are going to have to back track a little and hopefully she will be walking down the hallways again soon.

Today,
Hannah has been coughing up stuff from the mouth sores that are in her throat. Her actually mouth is improving a lot. Hopefully the mouth sores are almost completely gone and Hannah can get off of the Morphine pump. I have not talked to the doctor today so MAYBE he will be taking her off another antibiotic today!

ANC is 31 today, it is still improving!

Hannah will have to have platelets again today. All of her other lab work looks fairly good. Today we are going to see if Hannah will do a little physical therapy and occupational therapy to get her back in the swing of things. I think she is feeling better; we will see how she tolerates it all!

Thank you so much for the continuous prayers and believing with us for a complete and total healing of Hannah's body. We know that she will survive and that this crazy disease will disappear.

We are praising God for Hannah being tumor free and for her temperature to be normal! Also, for all the wonderful things he is doing that we can not yet see and all the things that will be done. Thank you Jesus!

We are truly blessed to have all the support and love from everyone; thank you so very much.

Keep the Faith

11.15.2008

Written Nov 15, 2008

Today, was an alright day.

Hannah ran only a low grade fever the majority of the day. Then around 4 o'clock this afternoon she spiked a fever of 104.6; the highest fever she has had yet. We gave her a dose of Tylenol and the fever has gradually went down.

Jon and I finally received the results from the EEG today. The 'episodes' Hannah had when she was unresponsive was seizures. If she does not respond to us talking or touching her she is having a seizure, if she responds to us then it is a small low grade seizure. The neurologist thinks these seizures are happening due to the high fevers and the bleeding in her brain. The EEG showed the electricity in her brain to be fine. Hannah will be treated with a new seizure medicine called Keppra for two years. The phenobarbital deactivates chemotherapy so she will be taken off this medication.

I forgot to inform you that Hannah's echocardiagram (ultra sound of her heart) showed nothing except a healthy heart!

Hannah did have another strange situation occur today.

After her fever spiked, we gave her the Tylenol and then changed her diaper, I noticed some drainage from the top of her head. On Hannah's right side of her head where her OLD ommaya reservoir was started to leak cerebral spinal fluid. She was so mad and her fever was so high the old reservoir location filled so full of spinal fluid it would not go back down. I requested the neurosurgeon on call to be paged.

It was the same doctor that we met down in the ER on August 5th. He is the doctor that informed us Hannah had a tumor and would have to have surgery the next morning. He is a man that Jon and I will never forget.

Anyways, we only have two options. Try to put another stitch in her head where it is leaking and hope that fixes the problem or take her in for surgery to drain it out and try to make it stop leaking. We all agreed that we should try the stitch first.
Hannah and I set up in the bed and the doctor put the stitch in her head right in the room. She did not fight us or cry. She just set there like it was nothing. He said that Hannah did better than any adult man he had ever put stitches in.

We have such a brave, strong, incredible little girl!

Hannah's ANC was 0 today. She has no immunity; her immune system is not working and she could catch anything. It is extremely important right now that Hannah is in hibernation. The doctors does not want Hannah to be around anyone except Jon or I everyone else has to stay away until her counts come up.

Jon donated platelets for Hannah yesterday. She needed platelets today and received Jon's! What a wonderful feeling to know that he was able to help her.

Hannah's counts should be on the rise any day now. She has had 5 Neupogen shots. Hopefully they will kick in soon. When Hannah's counts go up, her fever should go away, she can start to get off of all these antibiotics, and we should be able to go home.
As soon as Hannah's counts get up to 1000 and her platelets stay around 100 it will be time for her next monthly chemotherapy.

Thank you for all the prayers, concern, and all of the guest book entries. We appreciate all the support. Hannah is such a fighter and we are so proud of her.
Today Hannah turned 17 months old!

Keep the Faith!

11.14.2008

Written Nov 14, 2008

Yesterday, was a difficult day.

Hannah's platelets dropped again. If someone has a high fever the fever eats up the platelets per say! She needed a platelet and blood transfusion yesterday. The platelets never arrived but she did received the needed blood. Since, Hannah did not get the platelets she needed her platelet level dropped more. They are now below the so called thresh hold were she can start bleeding again. Hannah is going to have to have another head CT today to make sure the hemorrhage in her brain has not grown.
It is 8:50, 24 hours after the platelets were ordered, and Hannah is now receiving her platelets!

Hannah is still running a high fever. Yesterday it spiked to 104.2 and then went down after she received a dose of Tordal, to reset her internal temperature gauge. The fever stayed away for awhile. We thought it was gone for good. Then, around 4 am this morning her temperature spiked again up to 104.4! We gave her Tylenol and it has seemed to help. I just pray that these fevers stay away.

Now, for the icing on the cake!
(This is sarcasm might I add!)
Hannah had 3 "episodes" yesterday. She was having what I would say was seizures. The trunk of her body was rocking involuntary and arms and legs moving and her eyes when open were not focusing and rolling around. I requested an EEG, for them to look at the electricity in her brain to see if she is having seizures. Finally, after the third "episode" they knew I was serious and these episodes are not normal. Hannah will be having an EEG this morning in about an hour or so.

Hannah's TPN and lipids have been increased to run 24 hours, so she is getting IV nutrition continuously. She received her 3rd Neupogen shot yesterday and her ANC is in the 80's today! Her mouth sores look like they were improving yesterday but with the low platelets last night her mouth started bleeding again. Hannah's burn on her back is staying about the same but should start to improve soon as her counts increase.

"Dear friend, I pray that you may enjoy good health and that all may go well with you, even as your soul is getting along well." Third John 2

Please keep the prayers flowing.

Keep the Faith!