ER

Well tonight was quite eventful. Makenzie's incission was oozing and it was getting worse. Me, I think the worst and so Chris took her to the ER at Thunderbird and they talked w/ her Surgeon and they said it is a localized infection in the skin where her incision is. They gave her a topical and oral antibiotics. If it gets worse tonight we are supposed to take her to PCH. As of right now she is asleep and we will be watching it thru the night. We have an appointment with her surgeon @ 10:00 a.m. Her only worry is that she can't go back to school tomorrow like she was supposed to. Hopefully this will only be a small setback.

Trip to the School

today i went to my school to eat lunch with my class then i went to recess then we red a storee recess was fun then i went home. :)

Makenzie is doing great right now. She is happy and is going to eat us out of house and home. The steroids she took while she was in the hospital make her hungry and likely will for the next two weeks. She is done taking them but the nurse said we will still see side effects for about that long. Sunday we went to church and Makenzie was thrilled to be back in her primary class. She missed her favorite teacher Brother Oliver (DCTL) and her friends.
She will be able to return to school on Wednesday and she can't wait to be with her class again. Makenzie's birthday is on Thursday, March 2nd. She is thrilled to be turning 7.
We won't know how they are going to treat the tumor until next week. She sees the oncologist on Monday and they will tell us their plan for treating her. Wednesday she will go in to get another MRI and they will check to see if her procedure is working correctly. Thusday we will see the surgeon for a follow-up appointment so that he can go over her MRI and see how she is progressing. I know we keep saying it but THANK YOU to everyone. We know Makenzie is in your prayers and we are so grateful.

Message From Makenzie

thank you for all my toys and gifts thank you for being rill nice to me i miss you very much love makenzie

Makenzie wanted to write to everyone and I think she did a great job. She has been feeling good and just getting back into the routine. She went to dance on Wednesday and had a great time. Today we met my sister Amber for lunch and then she did my hair. Kenzie went with her daddy shopping (thank you Susan Allen for helping Chris at the store :). Tonight we played go fish, read out of Junie B. Jones, read scriptures said our prayers and the kids are now down for the night. We haven't been too busy and hope to stay that way for a few days. We will keep updating everyone as we find out more information. Thanks for all the messages left. Makenzie looks foward to reading them. Please let your kids write to her. She would love that. We are so blessed to have all of you in our lives. Thanks for all the of the meals, cards, presents, etc... that have been brought over. We really appreciate it.

Makenzie is home!

She got to come home Tuesday night. So far, all signs point to a low-grade, slow-growing tumor... which is the news we want. She'll be out of school until at least next Wednesday but she is a bundle of energy and except for a bald patch on her head you'd never know she had brain surgery just a few days ago. She goes back for another visit next Tuesday... this one should be a shorter one, just part of a day. We'll get official word and printouts of all the pathology results then and get all the details on her treatment. As always, we appreciate everything everyone has done for Makenzie and our family. The love and support has been overwhelming. There were kids there at the hospital who were alone most of the time, without any parents or other family there because their parents were only able to visit them occasionally because they had other children at home and did not have the family and church support that we did. The blessings of family and the Gospel are real. As always... please keep Makenzie in your prayers. She has a long road ahead of her, but if she handles it like she has the first 6 days... she will be amazing. She had two, 20 minute PET scans today. Most 6-year olds have to go under general anesthesia for those test because they can't hold still. Makenzie was awake and held still for both. The tech. said he can't remember another 6 year old ever doing that and she did better than most adults.

Coming Home ?

We thought we might be able to come home today but we found out we need to stay one more night. Makenzie is not happy about that but she is ok with it. She is staying with her daddy tonight. The boys are starting to have a hard time with mom, dad and Kenzie being gone. They are all troopers.
Makenzie has a PET scan in the morning at 11:30 so as long as everything looks good with her surgeon we will get to come home after that. I figure we will probablly make it home about dinner time. We got some of the pathology reports today and we will get the last one tomorrow. So far everything says slow growth which is what we want. That is the news we needed to hear. The neuro-oncologist said if he sees any signs of any faster growing cells we will start treatment right away. If there are no signs than he said we will wait a week or two. We appreciate all of the dinners, visits and prayers. We can not wait to get Makenzie home and back into her normal routine. Please continue to pray for our family. We love all of you and I hope I can get some pictures on this so you can see how great she is doing. Kenzie sends her love to everyone.

Sunday, February 19th

We had to change rooms last night (to my displeasure). The room we had was in the PICU, she was well taken care of, and had her own room. The new room she shares with a 19 month old and it is really tiny. After we got in here we really can't wait to get her home.
Today was a better day. Makenzie woke up in good spirits this morning. She was able to get up and walk around and after that they couldn't keep her down. For lunch she had chicken and mac & cheese and dinner she had a little bit of tater tots and pizza. I was able to come home for the first time since Wednesday and see the boys. I really did not want to leave her side but knew the boys needed to see me. I went back to see Kenzie around 4:00 and stayed until bed time(8:30). We are hoping Makenzie will get to come home tomorrow (Monday the 20th). She has passed two criterias and needs to pass one more. The doctor was gone over the weekend and should be back to look at her. They will check her inscision (SP?) and make sure it is healing properly. They also left what they call a bubble resevoir under the skin in the top of the head so they can tap into it if she gets into trouble with too much fluid. They will stick a needle in that tomorrow so they can check the pressure. That is one way they can tell if the new hole they drilled to drain the fluid is working. If that looks good then she will probablly get to come home. We should get the pathology report back by Monday or Tuesday and that should tell us what kind of tumor it is for sure. Please continue to pray for Makenzie and her health but also that she will have the courage to take on what lies ahead. We know our Heavenly Father has blessed our family with this special little girl. She is such an inspiration to all of us. We know that our prayers have been and will be answered. Thank you to everyone with your words of encouragment and especially your prayers. We appreciate our family friends. We love you. The Moore Family.
I just have to write one of mine and Makenzie's favorite songs that we sang before she went into her opperation:
I am a child of God, and He has sent me here, has given me an earthly home with parents kind and dear, lead me guide me walk beside me, help me find the way, teach me all that I can do to live with him someday.

2/18 Update

Makenzie had brain surgery Friday morning. The neurosurgeon created a new hole near the bottom of her brain to drain the fluid that had built up and caused the pressure in her brain that was causing her symptoms. It was a high risk surgery because they were operating very close (1mm) to the optic nerves and the main artery that feeds the brain... but she did great through the surgery and has done fairly well as she has recovered, only some headaches and nausea which is to be expected as she adjusts to not having so much pressure in her head... plus she had brain surgery!

She does have what the doctors believe to be low grade, slow growing, benign tumor in her brain. They said it has been there a long time and she may have been born with it. The tumor is blocking the normal flow of fluid in her brain which is what caused the fluid build up. Hopefully, the fluid pressure situation is resolved and now we can focus on the tumor. The doctors believe it is inoperable, they would probably paralyze her if they tried to take it out. During surgery, they did take tissue samples. Next week, we should know the pathology results and get her a PET scan. Then the neuro-oncologists will then use this information to decide how to treat the tumor.

She's been upbeat and positive, a real trooper consider what she went through. We all appreciate, more than you know, the prayers, the visits, and all the help and support that this ward has been so far. Keep praying for her. We'll keep you updated.

Let Makenzie know how much you love her!

Sign your name and a special message in the comments to leave Makenzie a note

How is Makenzie Doing?

We are using this blog to post updates about how Makenzie is doing, and you can ask questions by using the comments. Thank you all for your support and love.

The Moore Family