Last Day of School

Today was the last day of school. Makenzie really wanted to go. I was really proud of her. It is the day after her treatment and she is doing ok. I will post a few more pictures of our week another day. This is Makenzie with our friend Paris. Thanks for all your help driving Makenzie to school. Paris takes such good care of her so I have no worries sending her to school. :) We are so excited about summer starting. We are going to enjoy it.

4th Treatment

Makenzie had her 4th treatment yesterday. She is such a trooper. She has not felt well the last week. Her tummy is upset all the time. They are adding medicine to see if that will help the nausea. She does not throw up but she still does not feel like doing anything. A BIG Thank you to Team Jaydie who visited us this week. They brought Makenzie a stuffed animal and a new blanket. She loves it. Thanks to Nanci Jarman who came and visited with Makenzie for her last treatment (#3). They played and read stories. Makenzie had a lot of fun. We love all of you. Please keep Makenzie in your prayers and ask that she will feel good and that her nausea will go away. We appreciate all of the help we have received. We have been blessed beyond measure. Here is a picture from yesterday having a snack and talking to Grandma Betty on the phone.

Message from Makenzie

hi how is every one doing? i have seen nanny mc phee it is soooooooooooooooo funny at the end they throw cake at each other. i got a chemo angel she is sending me gifts and cards every other day bye love Makenzie and her family bye bye

3rd Treatment

Kenzie got her 3rd treatment today. All is still going well. Her blood counts still look good and she is having minimal side effects. She got a little constipated (that's a common side effect of Vincristine... one of her chemo drugs) and missed a few days of school during the past week, we know TMI. A little Glycolax solved that problem. She hasn't lost a hair yet. She prays every night that her hair won't fall out. She got to go fishing at Ventanna Lakes Monday night with her friend Tommy Simon. She caught 4 fish and had a great time.

2nd Treatment

Makenzie had her second treatment today. She did great as usual. She got to meet up with her old friend Sierra and play catch. PCH has healing dogs. They come and visit the kids in the hospital. Her counts all look good today. We would like to thank our friends in Australia for the warm wishes. Makenzie thought that was so cool that you are from another country. :) Thanks again for the help sanitizing the house and the meals. We really appreciate it. Here are a few pictures from today with Sierra.

Pictures

Here are some pictures of Makenzie before surgery and after her first treatment. She did great and she has not had any nausea so far. She is such an amazing little girl.

Starting Chemo

Makenzie has a short surgery this morning to have a portcath placed. It is sort of a permanent IV in her side where the doctors can take blood and give chemo drugs. Because of that she will not have to have a new IV every week. She also got her first chemo treatment today. So far, so good, only tiredness from lack of sleep and anasthesia. She'll get it once a week for 10 weeks and then go on a maintenance program where some weeks she receives a treatment and other weeks she doesn't. The total treatment should last about a year. Please, please continue to pray for her... that her shunt will keep working, that her tumor will be healed from the chemo drugs, and that she will have minimal side effects from the drugs. She has been blessed so much already as a result of prayers, having her name on the temple rolls, and from Priesthood blessings. We appreciate so much all the continuing prayers and support and help from everyone.

Kenzie is Doing Great!

Kenzie has been doing great the past couple of weeks. Her headaches have pretty much gone away... the odd one here or there but most days she does not get one now. They now seem to coinside with low-pressure storm systems which her neurosurgeon said is not uncommon. She has been going full days to school now. She went on a field trip to the Wildlife World Zoo on Friday and did lots of walking and having fun and did great. We had a little scare with the shunt earlier this week. She was building up fluid under her scalp around the shunt valve. We were worried this meant the shunt was blocked somewhere... but she had an MRI and everything was fine. The neurosurgeon said the hole around the catheter tube that leads through the brain down to the ventricle has not totally closed around the tube... probably because the high pressure she had in her head when first diagnosed enlarged the hole around the bubble reservoir tube she had inserted during her first surgery larger than the doctor would've liked... and he put the shunt tube in the same hole he originally made for the bubble reservoir. So some fluid did get out around the tube instead of through the tube and built up under her scalp. But the shunt was working fine and the fluid build up quickly went away. And the hole should eventually close around the tube completely. The MRI also showed that the tumor has not grown at all, despite no treatment so far. So that is great news and we are in no rush to start chemo yet since the goal of chemo is only to keep the tumor from growing to buy time so they don't have to use radiation until she is older to avoid or lessen the chance of developmental problems.

Princess on Ice

i had lots of fun last night they did my finger nails and did my hair and got lots of cool stuf and i rode in a limo and saw cindarela and bell and then saw princeess on ice and my friend came with me too.

Makenzie went to the Disney Princesses on Ice with the oncology department at Phoenix children. There were 30 girls. She had so much fun. The show was really good. Carson ended up being sick so he could not go. Kenzie has been doing really good. She is still getting headaches in the afternoon. She has been back at school this week. She has made it 1/2 days because of headaches. We are going to try to get her to stay all day next week. We still don't know what kind of treatment she will be receiving. We should be finding out shortly. This is Makenzie and Belle. They had a room set up so the girls could see Cinderella and Belle and eat cupcakes. This was such a great night for Makenzie (and me). We also saw her on channel 10 news. Someone else saw her on channel 3 I think.

ER again

Everything has been going great until yesterday (Monday) Makenzie was not feeling so good. She was complaining of a headache and she was lying on the couch and fell asleep which is not like her. When she woke up she said she was feeling good so we went to Lowes and then she threw up in the store. All of these things are signs of a shunt malfunction. I was really worried so we took her to Phoenix Children’s and got there about 7:00pm. They took us right back and she got a CT scan and some X-Rays of the shunt line. Everything looked good so we were worried they would send us home. They did not the neurosurgeon had us go to the PICU for the night. It was around 1 am when we got in there and by the time they hooked her up to all the monitors it was almost 2. She woke up feeling great and had breakfast. She kept that down and he let her come home around 1:00 pm. We still need to watch her close and make sure she is feeling ok. They said if it was the shunt it could have been a couple of different things. The doctor can press on a valve on the top of her head and feel the fluid coming in it. He said it was filling up nicely. A lot of times shunts are high maintenance and can give lots of problems. Please pray that Makenzie's shunt will work properly and that she will not have problems with it.
On a lighter note it is spring break this week and we are painting the inside of our house. If anyone has a burning desire to paint come on over ;) We are moving furniture around and I am just nervous because I had to make a choice about what color to paint. How hard could it be to pick a tan color? There are a hundred different choices. Wish me luck. It was great to see everyone at church on Sunday. I have missed being around all of you. Hopefully we will not have to miss very often.