Still Doing Well

Not much has changed. Makenzie continues to do well. She is enjoying school this year and got a good progress report... all A's and one B in math. Her counts have held up well the past 4-5 weeks and she has been able to receive treatment. And we are grateful that her tumor did not grow during the month she was unable to receive treatment. Grandpa Bill and Grandma Alice are in town from Logan, Utah for about 5 weeks so Makenzie and her brothers are excited that they will get to see them a lot for awhile. We'll add some new pictures soon.

Good MRI News

The MRI results were good... there has still been no tumor growth and her shunt is functioning just fine. She did have some sinus issues which probably are the reason for her headaches and balance issues. We will put her on some allergy medication and hopefully that will help her feel better. We feel blessed and grateful that she continues to do well. Please, continue to keep her in your prayers.

D-Backs Game and the Science Center

Kenzie and her brothers have been busy. Kenzie and Carson are both enjoying school. In the past couple of weeks they have been to a Diamondbacks game with other kids from Phoenix Children's Hospital and the Arizona Science Center with Hope Kids. The baseball game was sponsored by AFLAC. This is something AFLAC has been doing each year for a few years for kids who are patients at the Center for Cancer and Blood Disorders at Phoenix Children's Hospital. Before the game, they fed the kids and their families free dinner at Sliders across from the stadium. At the Arizona Science Center the kids were able to play with many of the hands-on exhibits and see the Chronicles of Narnia exhibit. They had fun.

Kenzie got another MRI today. It was a little sooner this time, we didn't wait the standard 3 months since the last one. She has been having a few more headaches, tripping a little more, and she missed 3 weeks of chemo a month ago because of low blood counts. We should know the results in a couple of days.

Camp Rainbow and Back to School

Kenzie is back from Camp. She had a great time. She said the weather was perfect. She caught 3 fish, went canoeing, rode horses, went to fitness, tried the zip line, did archery, camped out in the meadow, and made lots of new friends. She is also back in school and liking it so far. She really likes her new teacher. She is the 4th grade this year.

Her counts were great today (7900 and they only need to be 700 to get chemo) so the time off chemo helped her bone marrow recover well. She was able to receive treatment today. Hopefully this 4 week delay in treatment was just a little bump in the road and her counts will hold up and allow her to continue her chemo without interruptions. Please pray for that to happen for her.

Carson also started school. He is a big kindergartner. He is very excited and proud of himself. He marched right in on day one, sat down, and got down to business.

No Treatment for A While

Makenzie's counts have been too low the past two Tuesdays to receive Chemo. She will be gone at Camp next week... so she will have had 3 missed treatments. She is either fighting off a virus or 2.5 years worth of chemo are finally starting to take their toll on her bone marrow. She had her counts checked again today and they appear to be on their way back up. Hopefully, after camp, her counts will be up and she will be able to resume weekly treatments. She has done so well for so long we had gotten a bit spoiled. Most patients do have some delays in their treatments because of low counts. Low counts basically just means she does not have enough white blood cells to fight off disease... so she can't have more chemo until they recover enough. She is excited for camp... she loves camp. Pray for her counts to go back up and her immune system to be strong. We will post pics and details of camp later.

Makenzie's Glasses and New HairDo

Here's Makenzie in her new dress with her new hairdo and her new glasses. She goes to Camp for a week in a week. She is excited and counting down the days. Then, after camp, it is back to school. She is not too excited about that but hopefully she has a good school year this year. She actually missed a treatment last week because her counts were too low. That is the first time that has happened in probably 2 years. We will try again next week.

July MRI and Other News

Makenzie had her latest MRI on July 1st. MRIs are so much easier now that she stays awake for them. Her doctor was out of town at a national brain tumor conference so we had to wait a while to find out the results. Good news.... still no growth. This chemo is keeping the tumor in check and not making Makenzie sick, her quality of life is great. She will continue chemo at least until January now. As long as she continues to handle this chemo well with little toxicity and it controls the tumor... her doctor says she could continue on it for a while. We found out there are kids who have gone 3-4 years. At the minimum, we are buying time while more treatment options become available.

I think we have moved since we last updated this blog also... just a few miles north of where we were. We have been busy the past week or so ripping up tile and laying down hardwood floors. Makenzie has been a big help keeping the boys occupied while mom and dad work. Soon after we moved our ward split... we are in the new West Wing Ward and Chris is still ward clerk. I guess almost 7 years wasn't enough yet! Terri will be the Webelos leader.

Makenzie is enjoying her summer. She's been swimming a lot, going to the summer movies, been on vacation to Utah to visit her grandma, grandpa, aunt, uncle, and cousins, spent the night at the Phoenix Zoo with dad and Carson, and been to a Diamondbacks game. She's been sleeping in most days but she only has about 5 more weeks to do that. She also had to get glasses. She wasn't seeing as well as she should... but that is probably just bad genes from dad, although the tumor could have something to do with it. We did learn from her eye exams that she has suffered some nerve damage from the hydrocephalus years ago that affects her peripheral vision, she doesn't have much. But she still functions very well, I guess she just won't be a fighter pilot now.

Carson is excited about being a kindergartner this fall. He's been getting school clothes and supplies. Brayden is just staying busy playing and keeping everyone else busy watching him. He is a funny (sometimes evil) little boy. He told us in church yesterday he wanted to put us all in the microwave and cook us.

Keep Makenzie in your prayers... it works. I don't think most kids do as well as Makenzie has done. But she still has a long road ahead.

The Latest MRI & 6 More Months of Chemo

Makenzie had another MRI on February 26th. Good news... there is still no growth in the tumor. We thought maybe Dr. Etzl would stop chemo after the MRI, it has been 2 years total and 1 1/2 years on the current chemo regimen. But... after consulting with all the other doctors on the brain tumor team he decided that we will continue chemo another 6 months until August. It would have been nice to be done... but we are hopeful the continued chemo will be able to shrink her tumor. Many kids on this protocol go 2 years. And Makenzie has handled this chemo very well and it seems to be controlling the tumor. Please, keep her in your prayers!

2 Years

February 15th marked the 2 year anniversary of Makenzie being diagnosed with a brain tumor. She and her family continue to be blessed and do well. She feels well and is able to do pretty much anything she wants. Her tumor still has not shrunk or grown. She has another MRI scheduled for February 26th. She has been on chemo for almost 2 years. But this could be the end of it if everything looks good. We will find out shortly after the 26th. If she stops chemo then she will just be monitored. We are not 100% sure what would happen if the tumor began to grow after stopping chemo. We will have to ask the doctor on our next visit. Please continue to pray for Makenzie in your prayers, that she will be blessed with health and miracles of healing.

Makenzie has been keeping busy and having fun. She and her family got to go to a Coyote's game in a suite thanks to Make-A-Wish. There were several other Make-A-Wish families there. They kept us fed with pizza, hotdogs, soda, and cookies. Keeping with the hockey theme, she was also adopted by a Phoenix Roadrunners hockey player, Brett Angel as part of the "Phoenix Roadrunners Face Off Against Cancer". Kenzie, Brett, and a bunch of other kids and their hockey players, have already had a party at the hospital where they ate pizza and played games. They also spent a day at the Phoenix Zoo. Carson got to go to the zoo also. He had fun teasing the Roadrunner's mascot and stomping on his feet. He named the mascot "Peckerwood". We don't know where he came up with that one. Still to come is 2 hockey games where the kids will get to eat ice cream with the players in the locker room after the game... and then a farewell party.

Makenzie also went to book signing a few days ago where she met up with her favorite author, Barbra Park, again. She got a signed copy of her latest book. She was excited to see Barbra again.

She is still doing well in school. She just got her progress report and she got all A's and B's. She was also January student of the month for her class so we are proud of her for that.

New Year Update - Another MRI

It's been a while since we updated the blog. Makenzie and her family had a great Christmas. Makenzie and her brothers were spoiled by Santa and her family. Makenzie also sang "Stars Were Gleaming" on the Lake Pleasant Ward Christmas CD this year. She went to Turf Paradise, the Phoenix Zoo, and Build-A-Bear through the Rainbow Kids and Starlight Children's Foundation so she has been having fun. She is looking forward to a Camp Rainbow reunion and going to a Coyotes game in January.

She continues to feel well and is able to do what she wants to do. She had another MRI on December 18. She did this one without anesthesia also. The tumor is still the same. It has not grown or shrunk. Of course we would like to see it shrinking, but we are grateful it is not growing. She will continue her weekly chemo treatments for now. She has been on chemo since April of 2006 so she is quickly coming up on 2 years. She could possibly be on her current chemo until August... we will see.

We also moved over Christmas break. That made the break a little crazy. We sold our house and we are staying in Makenzie's Grandpa Bill and Grandma Alice's vacant house while waiting for our house in Cibola Vista to be finished sometime near the end of April.