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<\/p>\nLeukemia has become the centerpiece of our lives; instead of studying statistics and other computational research I’ve been reading lots on Leukemia, cancer in general and Hematology.\u00a0 Everything we do now revolves around Leukemia and I’m striving to make The Serenity Foundation become a reality so that my work time can revolve around it too.\u00a0 I believe I’ve found an excellent way to use technology to help families who have kids with Leukemia and other medical crisis.\u00a0<\/p>\n
The last two weeks have been a whirlwind of first, dealing with roid rage and roid binges and for the last week, having our little girl come back to us.\u00a0 Serenity spent a month on steroids and the last week was the worst.\u00a0 If you looked at her wrong, she would fly into a huge tantrum and hurt herself and anyone or thing around her.\u00a0 She was also eating like a madman – Last Friday I bought 4 1\/2 dozen eggs thinking they would last her a while – by that Sunday afternoon they were GONE!\u00a0 About every thirty minutes to an hour she was waking up wanting 2 eggs, some yogurt and chips.\u00a0 She would gobble them down – and by gobble i mean use a fork with her right hand to put a piece of egg in her mouth while grabbing the next piece at the same time with her left hand.\u00a0 Once she had stuffed 2 eggs in her mouth, she would eat chips and yogurt for a while and then be ready to go back to sleep.\u00a0 This would go on all night long – for that period, Adria and I got VERY little sleep and what we did get amounted to cat-naps.\u00a0<\/p>\n
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Last weekend she finished her steroid treatment and this week has been a lot of fun!\u00a0 A lot of her cheek and tummy swelling have gone down and she looks quite a bit more normal.\u00a0 The best thing though is that she has been her old self again – an extremely happy and fun baby!\u00a0 She laughs a lot now and plays with the kids all the time, she hangs out with me a lot while I work.\u00a0 It’s been really nice having her back instead of the Terrible Steroid Monster.\u00a0 She still can’t walk, but her legs are getting much better, she can scoot around and tries to stand often.\u00a0 Once or twice she has taken a couple steps – but that’s the most she can do so far.\u00a0 I think it’s very frustrating for her to not be able to get around on her own at all.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Holding her has become very similar to holding a long-haired dog in the spring time – you come away COVERED in hair!\u00a0 When you run your fingers through her hair you come away with a full handful.\u00a0 I suspect she’ll be bald by the end of next week and her body hair will probably follow soon thereafter.\u00a0<\/p>\n
During the last week, we’ve managed to take Serenity and all the other kids to the park each night to have a bit of fun.\u00a0 She really enjoys being in the baby swing and will sit there all night and just swing.\u00a0 Her blood counts are within the healthy range so we were able to take her to church today for the first time in over a month and she’s been able to go to a lot of public places lately as well – like the museum.\u00a0<\/p>\n
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Tomorrow she starts her next chemo protocol, 6-Mercaptopurine or 6-MP, along with getting her bone marrow biopsy and intrathecal (in her spine) chemo treatments.\u00a0 Hopefully that won’t set back all the progress she’s made in the last week.\u00a0<\/p>\n