Week 4 Done

Avery finished this weeks radiation in good spirits despite the obvious burn marks now showing on her head, neck and tummy. We continue to put the cream on it and I think it bothers us more than her.  It appears to be a bad sunburn for the most part and as butt white as this kid is, I suppose she looks rather normal to everyone else. 

Next week we plan to do 2 more full Spinal/Cranial treatments before switching to the Boost treaments to target the actual tumors.  So far we've been good in terms of the puking.  God Love Zolfran - which by the way is apparently a few hundred dollars a bottle - who knew?  Next week might change all that though as her body starts to get annoyed by the amount of radiation we have dumped into it.

Avery is teaming up to be a typical 3 year old -- Bossy and Determined.  As you can see above, she refuses to smile unless it suits her and if a camera is pointed in her face there is no way that is happening.  We had pictures taken with the St Jude Marketing Department today and she was not having any part of it....even with a balloon, mommy crawling on her stomach and Nana hiding in every corner of the tiny studio jumping out and yelling boo!  Caught off gaurd though and this is what you get....

Hanging upside down - still gets her every time!

Jenn

Switch

Well Nana and I finally arrived yesterday to a worn out Daddy and a very excited Avery. The terrible 2's may not have hit the Christiansen household but the tramatizing 3's have definitely shown up. She has figured out how to use her whine and get what she wants. Dad fell for it for 3 weeks straight and as a result Avery wore the same red pjs for 2 weeks. Poor daddy.

Not to worry... Mommy knows better and so does Nana. We did a little shopping today as someone has decided feety pjs are the only option. She also had to have twinkies for some unknow reason and she was not going to let it go. Sounds like Monday she has her second Sim MRI to double check her tumors before we start the boost rounds next week. So far she is still doing well... Tired mostly.

Jenn

First Week Done!

I made it to Memphis last night thanks to the Manders!  The drive down is a long one and even worse on your own.  I'm not sure how Jeremy did this every weekend 2 years ago.  The sad part is we arrived last night at 7 pm and we will have to leave tomorrow around noon.  Not nearly enough time for me.

We actually brought the cold with us and it is freezing down here.  We are not excited about that at all. Luckily it appears to be a short lived cold blast that will be replaced by the 60's by mid week.  Avery looks good.  She's been eating well and they managed to bump her up in the schedule so that her sedation is ealier in the day.  That helps us get more food in her for sure.  At some point the eating will not be so good so we are trying to bulk up for when that happens.  Jeremy says she's been very demanding this week.  Honestly -- good for her - she deserves to be.  He's learned that he leaves her bedside when they knock her out and then runs to get her the snack pack and pop tarts that she wants.  She has been adamant about eating Jello and a poptart when she wakes up and is not deviated from the task for any reason.  I think it's funny personally, but he is shocked at how bossy she is being.

Her hair is starting to come in from the Chemo....fuzzy head.  It will fall out shortly but it's nice to see it again.  Other than that, tiredness appears to be the only side affect showing up right not.  Soon enough we'll see more I'm sure but for now its pretty quiet.  She was very excited to eat breakfast this morning and she has so far put down 5 chocoloate pop em doughnuts.  She still appears to be obsessed with the movies and has moved into a Care Bear stage with Sunshine being her favorite.  Luckily I saw this coming and managed to find a 6 disc collection of the Care Bears so she has options.

Today we are going to give the Manders a tour of St Jude, so I will post some pictures later.  I just realized that I really haven't done that before and most of you are probably pretty curious about what this amazing place looks like.  Weekends are pretty quiet in terms of people at the hospital, but we'll get some good shots of this amazing place and where your good money is being sent if you are a Partner in Hope.

Thanks for all the continued support!

Jenn