Hannah's Test Site

I'm so excited, the Red Sox are on........ho hum..........

Seriously, we have a split household right now, with Hannah and I rooting for the Red Sox and Colby and Dave rooting for anybody but. Hannah said she's wearing her Red Sox hat tomorrow, which is pretty risky, considering we have a clinic appointment in the heart of Yankee country. I guess when you're 8 and bald you can get away with pretty much anything.

The girls carved pumpkins last night, although no one touched the "inside yucky stuff" except mom. They were hard at work and look how great they came out! I have to take a picture without the flash so you can see how nice they look all lit up.

Tomorrow we have clinic, so hopefully Hannah's platelets are up from last week, so that she can get her next round of chemo next week. She is also still on Neupogen shots, so we also hope they stop those tomorrow.

This weekend our family is heading to New York City for a pumpkin festival and walk through central park. The event is sponsored by the Pediatic Brain Tumor Foundation and the Sunrise camp for cancer kids to raise money. Hannah is going to donate money from her cans for cancer fund. We hope that the weather holds so we can attend! I'm sure we'll have lots of pictures to share from that. We are all looking forward to participating.

xoxo Kim

Another busy weekend since Hannah is feeling good and her energy level is pretty good. Saturday was Rally Day at the 4H. Here is Hannah with her purple team and Hannah on Finessa. All riders were split up into teams who then competed against each other in fun. I was a bit apprehensive with her platelet count down, but everything was fun and safe. I ran alongside Hannah during the day to be sure her horse didn't get any ideas about running off. Having said that, a few girls did actually get thrown from their horses. No-one was hurt, thank goodness, but it's still scarey to see. That's the thing about horseback riding, you can be a very good rider and still get thrown if the horse decides (which is why I'm always on the sidelines wringing my hands until each lesson is over). Colby and I spent the rest of the day traveling west to her basketball game, while Dave and Hannah came home, took a trip to the library to pick out new books with Mrs. Baker, hit some tennis balls and hung out with Riley.

Today Hannah went bowling at Mary Kate's birthday party, then came home and drove in to her dad's gym to go swimming. There is an indoor pool there that they like to go to. She was planning on having ice cream when she got home, but said she was too tired. She still gets fatigued at the end of the day, but has no trouble right now making it through the day with lots of activity.

We go back to clinic on Thursday for a recheck on her counts, hopefully her platelets will be up by then and her ANC will be ok so that I can stop giving her the shots.

Thank you to all of you who have supported Hannah in her Cans for Cancer campaign. So far she has received donations from friends in 4 different states! Thank you so much.

Hannah was at clinic today to check her levels. She was so funny when we were walking in she asked if she could watch a movie after we saw the doctor and I said "we are leaving after we see the doctor." She smiled so big and said NO CHEMO? It was pretty funny, and she was so happy.

Her counts were good and bad. Her ANC (for fighting infection) is good, but her platelets (for clotting your blood) were pretty low. They were not quite low enough to transfuse, but not far off. We just have to be careful in the next week not to do anything that would risk bruising, which could cause internal bleeding. He said horseback riding was ok on Saturday as long as Hannah didn't do anything too risky, walking and easy trotting are ok. We go back next week for another blood check, but we expect to be ready for chemo on Nov. 1st and 2nd. The doctor made the decision today to do her next round of chemo the day after Halloween, rather than on Halloween (another happy thing for Hannah today).

Next week when we go to clinic, we will also go for a renal sonogram. Her last MRI showed a cyst on her kidney. They think it's nothing, but wanted a follow up with a sonogram to be sure. We will follow this to be sure it's nothing.


Grandma and Grandpa went home today and we want to say HAPPY BIRTHDAY to Grandpa. We celebrated with him last night, here are a few pictures from the celebration. My parents have been so incredibly supportive and important to us in this, we couldn't have done it without both of you! We hope the next time we see them is in Indiana, rather than here again for another round of chemo.

We also want to say hello to our cousin Noah in Illinois who had to spend a few days in the hospital lately getting his appendix out! We hope you're feeling better really soon. We would love to go fishing with you again this summer at our next family reunion.

xoxo Kim

The link to Hannah's Song of Love is now working, just click on the play arrow on the sidebar to your left to hear Hannah's Song. I will post the words later.....

We got released today with no issues and are happy to be back home. Before leaving, Hannah got a flu injection to help protect her this year against the flu virus. Our entire family now has been vaccinated and it just shows who the wimps are!!

Hannah is on Neupogen shots again so that her levels don't go too low. She is also on two anti-nausea meds for this week, instead of the normal one. She did really well this round, with minimal bouts of nausea and no vomitting, although the ringing in her ears is already back. It did go away last time after this medicine, took a couple of weeks.

It was a very difficult admission for us this time, regardless. The floor was packed with patients, we had to move rooms once due to issues and Hannah also received the wrong dose of medicine two days in a row before it was caught.

You didn't read this incorrectly, she was overdosed, again! I won't go into a lot of technical detail here, but she was given 10 times the amount of diuretic medicine on Wednesday and Thursday with her chemo infusion. The nurse noticed it after the dosage was written differently (correctly) when it came up from pharmacy on Friday. It wasn't an easily identifiable mistake, and even though I check each dosage myself, it was very complicated to figure out and even harder to notice. It wasn't like the medicine bag said 10 grams and the dose should have been 5 grams.

We knew when the attending walked into our room on Friday night at 7pm that something had to be wrong. They don't just visit. Fortunately, all of her levels checked out, and it did not adversely affect her because some of the side effects of overdose of this medicine are quite serious. Thank goodness it wasn't the chemo, or we would be in a different situation. Doesn't leave you with the best of feeling.

But, Round 7 is complete, and we are looking toward the future. Hannah is going to school tomorrow although not that excited about it (it goes without saying that she would rather be home with Grandma baking cookies all day). I hope she can stay for the day, but we'll see. We go back to clinic on Thursday to check levels again.

Thanks to all for the cans that have been dropped off. The first thing Hannah did when we arrived home today was run over and check the bins for cans, and wow, there were lots!

xoxo Kim

Today is Friday, Day 4 of this 5 day chemo round. Yesterday she didn't nap at all, and even stayed up to watch Survivor! We try to stay busy during the day with crafts and games and movies. She doesn't like to do too much moving around because of her needle and the IV pole. Her eating is not great, but not terrible. She gets in some rice, rolls, soup, poptarts and of course a bit of candy too.

Grandma and Grandpa came up today for a visit. The brought some new crafts and a nice packet from Mrs. Grossman, Hannah's art teacher. Here is Hannah with her beautiful horse picture she colored. Mrs. Grossman always sends the best goodies, thanks! She slept today for all of about 10 minutes before the doctors came by on their rounds. Hannah is doing well and her counts are good, drifting down a bit but not crashing.

The Smiles for Scott Foundation just brought around the candy cart, so that's always a fun time. Hannah told the nurses at school that she would bring them something, so the cart came back for a second round and Hannah got something for each of them. I don't know if I mentioned before that the Foundation sent Hannah a nice thank you note after we donated the money from her bake sale. Then, a couple weeks after that we received a beautiful plaque from them also, which was personalized for Hannah and specifically thanked her for holding the bake sale for them. We were so touched by it. I spoke quite a bit with Scott's mom today, it's been 2 years since her son Scott died from medulloblastoma. She said Scott was in this room that Hannah is in for quite a while-although he was in it by himself. I'm not sure I could be back here like she is. She said she still hears the beeps of the machines at night and really can't go into the bone marrow transplant unit (where Scott was for quite a while also.)

So we are stocked for candy now, and Hannah is taking a rest, or at least trying in this very noisy room. We'll leave you this picture of Hannah getting her chemo, still smiling.

xoxo Kim

We're settled in now, second day of chemo under our belt. Hannah is doing well. She was eating well today until this afternoon, and has not eaten anything since, doesn't even want chocolate. She has been in pretty good spirits though, but she cries about once a day that she just wants to go home. Only a few more days I tell her.

We did have some excitement today. Hannah was chosen to be in a commercial for a company called Songs of Love. They are a non profit company that creates unique songs for chronically and terminally ill children. We filled out an information sheet, and they included everything in her song from family and friends names to favorite sports, animals, etc. The Childlife people here were asked to recommend a child and they thought of Hannah. She agreed to do it, so today a film crew showed up to make the production. The commercial will be aired on cable channels, and is intended to get people to donate their old cars (and money too) to the Songs of Love Foundation, so that more children are able to receive songs.

They brought with them Hannah's song, which we had not heard yet. John Beltzer is the creator of the foundation and the singer/songwriter and a very nice person. The Song of Love Foundation has been featured on the Rosie O'Donnell Show, Today Show, CNN, Black Eyed Peas concert, CBS with Dan Rather, and in People Magazine and much more.

John tried to put Hannah at ease while the crew set up everything, but you know Hannah she is pretty quiet around people she doesn't know. It was like being on the set of a big production! They did the takes over and over, and Hannah didn't have to speak much. When they asked her what she thought of her song she said "it's good." Little did I know that I would also be in the commercial (or I probably would have opted for a shower today!!!) She held up well, but was very tired from some of the medicines they had given her earlier. I wasn't sure if she would make it through, but she rallied! It will be interesting to see how it all comes together (I hear Dan Rather will be in it also from his earlier interview). I will post it here if I can do that. I will also post Hannah's song-again, barring any technical difficulties. Here is a link to their website, if you are interested in seeing all they do. Click HERE

Here is a picture of Hannah after the crew left, she fell asleep about 3 minutes after everyone cleared out.

xoxo Kim

Yes, we're in! Hannah's counts checked out today and we were admitted for Round 7. It took ony 10 and a half hours to get upstairs on the floor into a room, ugh! We got here at 8am (left our house at 6:15am) and didn't get in our room until 6:30 pm tonight. It is very packed here, and every room is full. There were three admissions today, and we were the last to get a room. But, now we are in and settled. They started Hannah's chemo before we came up to the floor, so she was even done with both of her medications by the time we arrived. So far, so good, just fatigued from the 2 anti nausea meds, and still eating well.

Hannah was able to deliver the gifts she bought today to Childlife. They were so happy to receive everything. This is a picture of Jan from Childlife receiving the goods. Since we brought them directly to Childlife, they are able to use them specifically for the hemotology/oncology pedicatric patients that are either in clinic or inpatient. Hannah is going to ask them to break out the Mousetrap game we brought tomorrow!

Hannah also feels the need to mention our Yankees. She told me that now she will root for the Red Sox because the Yankees aren't in it anymore. Just two nights ago when Johnny Damon hit a homerun to lift the team up and begin a rally to win the game, she was insistent that we email Audrey from Spaulding in Boston (who loved Damon before he became a Yankee and cut off his hair). Not many people we know switch from rooting for the Yankees to backing the Red Sox, so to all of our Boston friends, good luck!

Hannah's Cans for Cancer reached a total of $357.50 as of today. Since we are anticipating being admitted tomorrow for chemo during the week, Hannah wanted to go out to do some shopping (one of her favorite activities) to get some supplies for Childlife at Schneiders. Here is a picture of her with a trunk full of supplies. She did very well, and still has some money left over. She got so many things like play dough, markers, glue, many games, batteries, blocks, books, dvds, and so much more! We are going to ask them next time for some of their specific requests to ensure we're providing exactly what they need. We went with Grandma, and she and Colby had a great time searching for what they liked. She can't wait to hand them over to Jan and Faye tomorrow!

Thank you to everyone who has helped the cause. We really feel we're making a difference and maybe for a moment are easing the burden of the children with this terrible disease. We can tell you first hand that when you are stuck in clinic for hours getting chemo, or inpatient up on the 4th floor, this is all you have to occupy your time. Even the children who aren't feeling well enough to go out of their rooms enjoy watching a video or playing a game with their mom or dad in their room. We are all making a difference together, thank you so much!

We will update tomorrow from the hospital, hopefully counts will be good enough to stay!

xoxo Kim

Today at clinic was not what we were hoping for, but not entirely unexpected. Hannah's ANC was only 547, and it has to be at least 750 to begin a new round of chemo. I was somewhat surprised that her doctor did not put her on the neupogen shots to boost her ANC until the next round. The reasoning was that she would only get a few days of shots in before they would have to be stopped 48 hours prior to chemo. Since they don't do routine admissions during the weekend, the earliest she could be admitted to start would be Monday, and we're already scheduled to start next Tuesday. He figures she is on the way back up now, and her body can come up on it's own by Tuesday, so why put her through the shots. They are not a guarantee anyway.

So, Hannah walked out today pretty happy. No accessing, no hospital and no shots! We really don't want her treatments delayed, becuse the chemo is precisely scheduled to be most effective. The longer you get away from that schedule, the less effective the chemo becomes. We are hoping for no more delays. The doctor did increase her appetite stimulant medicine because she has not been eating well over the past 2 weeks and that is going to get even worse as the chemo progresses in the next 3 rounds. She has lost weight the last two visits, and while it has not been a substantial amount, we don't want to see that trend continue.

For the rest of this week, no clinic visits and no treatments. She won't go to school tomorrow due to low counts. We were home schooling today after chemo anyway, and already have the homework for the week, so we'll play it by ear for the rest of the week. I would like her to go to school to keep with her routine, but also don't want to risk an infection prior to the next round. She is also quite tired, her hemoglobin is low, but not dangerously so, and she is sleeping quite a bit. She'll have the next several days to rest up.

xoxo Kim

Hannah would like to announce her new

campaign. This idea originated from an article in our local paper about a women who began recycling cans to raise money. Recycling is something Hannah and Colby do regularly with Dave. They take our cans and bottles to the grocery store or the beverage center and collect the money back from the deposits. Hannah had been looking into various ways to make money to help kids with cancer and she liked the idea! The money will be used to help fund the Childlife group in the hospital. Childlife is there to help the kids deal with life while they are in clinic or in the hospital. They can take the kids' minds off finger sticks, and being accessed, nausea, and many other fears. They provide games, activities, crafts, toys, etc. for the kids to keep them occupied. Hannah and I have noticed that many of the games are missing pieces, or are in bad shape. Crayons are broken, glue is hard, supplies are scarce. They do a wonderful job with what they have, but we are hoping to give them more! Depending on how much money we raise, we may be able to contribute to other sources that also help kids with cancer.

We have already started the recycling project and Hannah has over $100 in her fund already (thanks to Melanie who donated the money from her bracelets). Here is a picture of our last recycling effort. Hannah is too short to reach the machine, so Colby is giving her a lift.

How can you help? If you live in the area, you can drop off your cans and bottles (any and all that can be turned in for a deposit) at our house. We have set up two bins in the driveway marked "Hannah's Cans for Cancer." Hannah designed the signs herself (she wants you to know that I made one of them.) You can leave them anytime. If you need our address and/or directions, please email me.

Or, if you prefer, you can turn in the cans yourself and drop off the money. We have an envelope attached to the inside of the blue bin, just drop your money in there. If you live out of town, and want to participate, please send us your deposit money and we will add it to the fund.

Hannah is so excited about this. We already received our first can donation-thank you to the Angells! With your help we can raise lots of money to help kids with cancer. Thanks!
xxoxo Kim and Hannah

Round 6 is now complete! We had mixed results today from our clinic visit. Hannah's counts continue to go down each week. Her red blood is good, however her ANC is now only 797. Her doctor said that we wouldn't stop her chemo for today since she is in the middle of the cycle, but if they do down again next week, we will have to delay Round 7 by a week in order to treat her with shots to raise her ANC. At this time, there is nothing to do except wait. We won't know until next Tuesday, Oct. 2 if she is going to be admitted or we have to hold off for a week. Obviously, we're hoping for no delays, but if her ANC drops under 750, it will be delayed. From last week, it dropped by 350 points, so although I've learned not to predict what will happen, it's more likely than not that we will have to wait.

The other thing I've learned is not to try and read an MRI by myself. I couldn't decipher anything from the 200 pictures on the MRI disk I brought home with me, and was nearly in a panic by the time her doctor emailed me. The good news is her cranial/neck MRI today was clear with no signs of tumor. I do not yet have the full report, so I don't know all the details, but most importantly, she is still tumor free! Tomorrow is part 2 or her MRI, the spine. She did great today, the MRI took about an hour and she slept for part of the time. She is very happy that tomorrow will be only the MRI, then deaccessing and we're out of there!

One more note-she did great today with accessing. About only 1 tear, and very little fanfare. I asked her why the difference now from before, and she said "you just get used to it after a while." Unbelievable!

We'll update again when we have the results of the spinal MRI. I'll leave you with a picture of Hannah and Riley. Pretty risky wearing that Red Sox hat this time of year, even inside the house!

xoxo Kim

It was a busy weekend for us. After our marathon dinner on Friday night, Saturday was horseback riding. Hannah was insistent that she wanted to canter on her horse. For those of you not familiar with horses, that means to go faster-quite a bit faster. She has been asking about it for a few weeks now, but she really isn't strong enough yet. Well her instructor thought it was worth a try, so she had 2 girls alongside her-one to hold the horse from taking off, and the other to have a hand on Hannah in case she started to fall. She got the horse to canter, and we just watched her body bobbing up and down, starting to lean a bit to the rail. I think she may have cantered once or twice in the past, so she doesn't have really any practice at it yet. In other words, she can't really keep her butt in the saddle! All was fine, it was only a very short canter and she was smiling so big! Of course, the instructor, and the other parents and I all almost had a heart attack. The only to learn is by doing, but her body is not that strong right now, so it's pretty scarey! Another gray hair or two for me, that's for sure.

Today we took a trip out to Montauk to ride bikes and hang out at the beach while the weather is still nice. We didn't get to camp this year, so we thought it would be fun just for the day. Here is a picture of Colby and Hannah on their bikes.
Hannah does well on flat land, and she is getting better at stopping without crashing into something. She can't start by herself because she can't yet keep her balance while trying to get her speed up, so I helped her since Dad's back is not up to that yet. Inevitably she would ride very far away and then stop, needing help to get started again, so we would run up to meet her. She told me this was my exercise for the day...ha ha!
After bike riding we headed to the beach. It was a beautiful day, breezy but nice and even though the water was freezing Colby and Dave went in. Then Colby decided to build a huge sand city while Hannah meanwhile took a siesta.
Great day and a fun weekend. This coming week will be busy, Hannah has her last day of Round 6 chemo as well as a two part/two day MRI. I feel the PMS (pre MRI syndrome) coming on already! Of course we're hoping and praying for good results, and likely won't hear anything until the following week as long as all is good. Grandma and Grandpa will arrive on Saturday to stay while Hannah and I are in the hospital for 6 days at the beginning of October. Hannah has requested they bring her new favorite cookies with them-wedding tea cakes (from Grandma Kochvar, minus the nuts). She is really looking forward to that and having a few days with them before she goes in.

xoxo Kim

Last night was such a fun night for us. We went to dinner with a special group of women "Hannah's Hurrying Heroes".

While still in Boston, I received a call from a lady from Cutchogue I had never met. She read about Hannah in the newspaper and wanted to do something to help. Her idea was to get a group of women together to complete a half marathon/marathon in East Hampton to raise money for Hannah. Since that time, Donna compiled a group of 9 strong women who will be in East Hampton next weekend together. Hannah named the group, and picked out the color of the shirts too. Eight of the women are completing the half marathon, and Donna is doing the full marathon. They have worked long and hard, training and fundraising and are just an amazing group of women. Some of the women we knew, and others we had never met. They had never even met each other. They are pictured below with Hannah in their race shirts. From the left (minus Danielle) are Kelly, Josephine, Debi, Gretchen, Melissa, Donna, Virginia, and Stephanie with Hannah. Hannah and I hope to be there at the starting of the race next weekend, if all goes well. We want to sincerely thank each and every one of them for their hard work and dedication. We are so touched that they would give of their time and hearts to do this. You are all heroes in our book, and we love you all!

GO HANNAH'S HURRYING HEROES!

xoxo Kim

Another day of chemo done, almost done now with Round 6. Hannah did well yesterday with only mild stomach upset. I spoke to the doctor about her counts, because each week they are lower (her whites), but it's normal and to be expected while getting chemo each week. She tolerates this round well, so no shots or transfusions are expected.

I was so proud of her when she got accessed. She was a bit calmer, with not as much fighting and resistance as before. She still was a little upset and really uncomfortable having it done, but at least they couldn't hear her out in the hallway. Maybe it had something to do with the very loud and very long scream we heard before she was accessed. She looked at me like WOW! that was loud. I asked her if she was planning on doing that when she got accesssed and she just gave me one of those "mom" looks.

Dave came in to clinic at noon to stay with her, so I could come home only to head back out to the city for my annual bus trip to see the Yankees with friends (sorry to all of our Boston friends, but they won BIG!). She put up a bit of a fuss when I left, saying I had to be there for deaccessing, but she didn't really seem bothered by it. It was a good day anyway for Dad to be there since members of the NY Jets football team were in visiting the hospital. Here is a picture of Hannah with #70 Mike Devito and #35 Manny Collins (had to look him up on the practice squad roster).

When I asked Hannah about the Jets visit this morning, she said "I don't know who they were and they didn't say one word." She also said you can't see her IV pole in the picture because she put it behind them so it wouldn't show. Pretty tricky. It is nice when they have people come in to visit, does help to break up the monotony of the whole thing. She seemed to enjoy it.

Next week is her last chemo treatment for round 6 and she also has a two part MRI on Tuesday and Wednesday, full cranial and spinal, so she has to miss 2 days of school (Hannah smiles). She is enjoying school, and says she would rather be there than at clinic!

xoxo Kim

Another day of chemo behind us. Hannah did really well with no major complications, just a slight stomach ache. Her counts were about the same as last week, some low and some ok. Her energy remains good, and she went back to school today for the entire day. Yesterday afternoon when we got home, she even wanted to bake cupcakes, so we baked and frosted them. She took some into school today for the teachers, nurses, and some of her other favorite people.

We were a bit disappointed when her onocologist advised against soccer and gymnastics-not because of the germs, but because of possibly low platelet count which could cause serious internal bleeding if even bumped a bit. This will really become an issue on Rounds 7 and 8 (especially 8). So, she may "work" at the gym while her sister is in gymnastics class, and we'll have to lay off horseback riding a bit also. In the meantime, I'm still trying to convince her that karate is not just for BOYS!

The girls have Thursday and Friday off from school for Rosh Hashanah, and we have a few birthday parties to attend. Looking forward to seeing our cousin Sarah over the weekend for her "half sleepover party."

Meanwhile, our other patient in the house went for an epidural injection of cortisone today, and is has helped him somewhat, although still a long way to go to get to painfree. But, he is up a bit and out of bed, a big improvement from the last few days. He gets another shot in a couple of weeks. Just hoping to avoid surgery.

We said prayers tonight for our friends Jacob, Alec and Nicholas, fellow cancer friends we have met so far on this journey. Please keep them in your prayers too.

xoxo Kim

It's been a week of ups and downs this week. School started, and all has gone well there. She has been more tired than usual, getting used to her new schedule.

Hannah had 2 headaches this week. The first was Monday night when she was going to bed. She said her stomach felt funny and her head hurt. After calming ourselves down, we decided not to call the doctor, it was one headache, not accompanied by vomitting, and at night. She had another on Thursday night. I emailed the doctor that night and called him the next morning. He felt that it didn't have the characteristics related to the tumor or hydrocephalus, but if she had another, we would look into it more-probably with an MRI. She is scheduled for an MRI anyway at the end of this month. No more headaches to date.

She hasn't been eating well since her chemo last week. She only seems to get hungry enough to eat well for one meal of the day. So, her weight will remain stable anyway and she shouldn't lose any hopefully.

This morning she also complained of a sore throat. She said it started yesterday, but she didn't tell me. She didn't have any other symptoms. It was really bothering her this morning, but she didn't want to miss riding today since she hasn't been in a couple weeks. Dad made her soup for breakfast and then she did her mouth care-it's a mouthrinse and a lozenge that she has to do 2-4 times a day-and said it felt a bit better. It could be mucositis again-throat sores and irritation caused by chemo. She had this her first round of chemo, and it's not pleasant for her. It is quite painful, and you can't eat because it is so irritating.

On the upside, she did make it to riding today. She did really well and had fun. She also went bike riding yesterday with Dave and Colby and she can now ride her bike by herself again without help! She said she wants to show me tomorrow, so that's what's on tap for tomorrow.

We spent some time at the ER this afternoon-this time not for Hannah. Dave hurt his back this morning working in the garden, and was in so much pain by the afternoon, he asked to go (so you know it had to be bad.) A couple years ago he had an MRI that showed 2 slightly bulging disks, and hip degeneration and every so often it gets irritated, but never quite this bad. They gave him some pain meds and told him to see an orthopedist, so we'll try to get him in next week. Hannah was happy not to be the patient for a change!

That's all for now-and that's enough!
xoxo Kim

Today was first day of school around here. Both Hannah and Colby were somewhat nervous, and not ready to see summer end yet. I really didn't know what to expect from Hannah when we got there, but she was happy to see Mrs. W, her aide. It made all the difference, and she waltzed off to her classroom with Mrs. W and Charley before everyone else came in. Hannah made it through the whole first day, just a little tired around 1pm, and asked to come home. But, she rallied and stayed with the class. She was a bit tired when she got home, but immediately went to work on her first day of "homework", which was one simple sheet.

Tomorrow the school nurse will come in to talk to the class about cancer, to ease some of the fears from kids who have not heard of it before. She will present some information, it will give the kids the opportunity to ask any questions and we will show a Peanuts video (that was also shown to her class last year). Hannah asked if we could do this, since she was a little apprehensive about starting school with this year with some new kids in her class. I will go in also, in case there are questions that Hannah needs some back up on. She seems to be looking forward to it.

We both made it through the first day, although I'm wondering if her day was easier than mine here at home alone!

xoxo Kim

Hannah started round 6 today at the clinic. All went well, and she experienced no symptoms. They also gave her another drug, an antibiotic to reduce the risk of infection from pneumonia. She hasn't had it yet during treatment, and the details were a bit sketchy today, so I will speak more with her doctor next week about.

Tonight she broke out with a rash on her chest and stomach. I called in just to be sure, and we're just watching it for now, no other symptoms. It's most likely a reaction to the antibiotic.

Her white counts were quite a bit lower than last week, reds looked good. Not too low to get the chemo though, so one week down out of the four. We'll see how the counts look next week.

Hannah also received a package this week from her friend Jake in Chicago. It was a group of cards from his class last year of 3rd graders with well wishes for Hannah. We had quite a fun time reading through all of them. Some of our favorites were "your heart and soul are valiant and so are you", "I have a pet hamster that bites me", "I'm sorry about your brain" and "I am very sympathetic in your illness" and many other fun cards. She loved getting those, thanks to Jake and Sue!

xoxo Kim

We're arrived back home yesterday from our brief trip to PA. We all had a good time getting away for a few days. Colby rallied through a very bad sore throat (of course better since we were on our way home!) and Hannah didn't catch anything from her.

Here is picture of Hannah and I hiking at Bushkill Falls, PA. She did pretty well, only had to be carried for the second half of the trip, mostly uphill.

Our next day we were off to Hershey. We spent the whole day there, left the park at 9pm, so everyone was tired. Here are Colby and Hannah with a 5 pound chocolate bar (I was tempted, but didn't buy it!) So we're enjoying these last couple of days before school starts here on Thursday. Hannah will go full days this year, as long as she is not in for chemo or home due to low counts. We go in for the beginning of Round 6 tomorrow, so she will get chemo for the next 4 Tuesdays in a row, then only the final 3 rounds left. We can't wait.
We wanted to also say thank you to our friend Melanie from East Hampton who sold bracelets she made to help Hannah raise money for charity. Melanie worked very hard, and raised $90! WOW!! What a great idea. Thanks for all the hard work!
xoxo Kim