Hello Friends,
We are going on week #7 in the hospital. Lauren is doing okay. She had a pretty intense round of chemotherapy the first month. It took a while for her counts to start recovering. She had a bone marrow aspirate and the results were good. Not the exact results we were hoping for but the % of leukemia in her marrow went from 90% to 4%. She started a 28 day round of immunotherapy (all inpatient) and we are hoping this treatment brings her down to zero leukemia cells. We will do one more round of immunotherapy after this and Lauren has a tentative bone marrow transplant date of February 19. Thankfully there are several 100% matches in the national bone marrow donor registry and we have a commitment from a donor and 2 back up donors.
Lauren’s hair all fell out about 3 weeks into treatment so she’s bald again. It doesn’t seem to bother her though and I just tell myself that it means the chemo is doing it’s job. She was doing so much better with walking and getting around but when we started this round of immunotherapy she started having fevers and feeling pretty tired so she’s slid backwards again. I am hoping that she’s going to start feeling better soon.
I wanted to thank all of you again for the outpouring of love and support these past few months. We are so blessed to be part of such a wonderful group of moms. I just wanted to say a special thank you to Kelli Roveto, who hosted “Lift A Glass for Lauren” and raised an overwhelming amount of funds to help our family. Thank you to everyone who was a part of that special event. I wish I could have been there to hug you all in person. Your generosity is above and beyond and is truly overwhelming. Also, a very special thank you to my friend Karen and her Love McKinley Foundation for their continued love and
financial support. It’s hard to put into words how much
we appreciate all of this support and it means so
much to our family. THANK YOU!!!!
xxoxox,
Shawna
.
McKinley is doing really great. She's loving school, LOVING dance & enjoying being off chemo meds. It really is amazing how much she's grown, how much she's developed & how much more personality she has since she's stopped chemo. All things are looking great which is wonderful news. We've been very busy with advocating & promoting childhood cancer awareness month & attending a lot of events. We did have one scare at this months appointment but all was confirmed negative with an ultrasound. Myself, a few other "cancer moms" & McKinleys oncologist were all concerned about a vein by where her port was placed especially since she had a clot in the past. But all was confirmed ok with a quick ultrasound (Thank God). I'm not sure I'll ever be able to take a deep breath but I do try too. We are praying for a Halloween at home this year (last year we spent 8 days in the hospital fighting a nasty virus over Halloween). And although the nurses & staff came by her hospital room to trick or treat, I'm actually looking forward to sweating & fighting bugs on Halloween night this year. It's the little things 😉 Thank You as always for keeping McKinley in your thoughts & prayers.
xoxox,
Karen
LAUREN'S CORNER