Halloween Parade and Isaac's class party

Halloween

Halloween was fun around here. Carda and Janessa brought down Jarom to the MTC that day and then joined us for trick-or-treating. They came early enough to come watch the elementary school Halloween parade, to stop at the Junior High to say good-bye to Josh and  Nathan, and to stop by the church office building to see Sean. We had a fun time trick-or-treating  the that night. We took the girls around the loop, Nathan and Isaac went with their friends, and Josh invited some friends over.

Lydia's done with steroids!

I think that October was the longest month of our lives, but we made it! Those steroids were miserable. They made Lydia grumpy, hungry all the time for savory foods, and made her muscles so hard she got to where she can't walk. It's wonderful to be done with them and to watch her sweet personality come back. The best is when she laughs!

Lydia finished steroids last week on the 25th! It was the longest month of our lives, but we are grateful that the cancer is gone and that Lydia's sweet personality is starting to come back. I took the girls to the playground in the park behind the house and it was wonderful to hear her laugh again and she played in the swing.

Carving Pumpkins

Another fun tradition this time of year is carving pumpkins. We were grateful for the ones someone had brought us and they kids carved those. They did a great job!

Playing in the Leaves

We don't have a lot of trees in our yard, so we don't get a lot of leaves, but we did get enough for the girls to make a pile and play in one day! We loved our palm trees in California, but they didn't drop leaves, so we had missed that.

Fun at the Farm

Lydia's numbers were looking better and the weather was great so we took the kids to a local farm to play and go on a hayride. It had a fun giant slide, a corn maze and other fun activities. We finished with root beer floats. It's a fun tradition!

Fall Band Concert

Josh wasn't able to play his trumpet because of his broken collarbone, but Nathan did a great job playing his trombone during the Fall Halloween band concert!

Josh broke his collarbone

Josh had a lot of fun during his mountain bike season until he went to  the state meet in St. George. Sean bravely took the older five kids down there by himself for a fun day trip while I took Lydia to a clinic visit. I hadn't been home long when I got a call that Josh had crashed and had most likely separated his shoulder. He needed to be taken to the hospital. We decided that it would be best for Sean to drive back up here to drop off the other kids at home first instead of taking all five of them to the hospital there. It was a long drive for Josh! Sean took him over to the new Layton Hospital where x-rays showed he had broken his collar bone and most likely his elbow. Luckily when we went in the next Monday the orthopedic doctor found the the line in his elbow was just his growth plate, so Josh was able to take the annoying splint off. He needs to be in the sling for about four weeks. Then they'll check and see how it's healing. We're ready for things to be a little less exciting around here!

Cornhusk Dolls

The Tholen girls invited Hannah and Emma over for a fun afternoon making cornhusk dolls with them.

Football

Isaac has had an awesome football season! He was the star linebacker, getting at least 10 tackles a game and got several interceptions and fumble recoveries. He also played a bit as the back-up quarterback. He was so much fun to watch! They're team went undefeated all the way up until the semi-finals and lost in overtime. They had a great year!

Gifts and Service

People have done so much for us during this time! They've brought us dinners, helped with the kids, cleaned the bathrooms and mopped the floors, brought and sent Lydia and the kids gifts, sent cards, texts, called, and prayed and fasted for us. We feel so blessed and supported!

First Clinic Visit and Facebook update

I wanted to share an update about Lydia before I take a 10 day break from Facebook. ;) As you can see, Lydia is much happier at home! She gets around slowly, but a couple times a day she walks around and plays a little bit...mostly things like playdough, playing dolls with her sisters or bubbles. She's a lot less grumpy than she was in the hospital. Her doctor/nurse anxiety is getting better too now than she has the PICC line in.(That's what the blue sleeve in the picture is covering.) She knows it doesn't hurt to get her blood drawn or to get medicine in it. I have to flush it twice a day and sometimes that can cause nausea in some patients (can someone explain why they can taste it?), but she just laughs and says it tastes funny.

The hardest part has been her medicines she has to take twice a day. A couple are nasty tasting. Thankfully we finally found that she likes it all mixed up in yogurt!

She had a good first clinic visit on Thursday. She had her second lumbar puncture (she was put under for that), had another dose of chemo, and a blood transfusion and platelets. After seven hours and nice long nap during the transfusion, she was happy to go home. She was a trooper, and there wasn't any pain involved. I was as happy about that as she was.

I also wanted to answer a few questions some have asked and I'm sure others are wondering.

Q: What stage is her cancer?
A: Leukemia actually isn't classified as Stage 1,2,3 or 4 because it's a liquid cancer in her blood, and so it's already throughout her entire body, which would technically be stage 4. Leukemia is classified as Standard Risk or High Risk, based on 5 factors. So far we know the first four, and she is standard risk in all of them! Her white blood cell count at diagnoses was normal and not highly elevated. She's young and children ages 1-9 have a much better chance. It wasn't in her spinal fluid yet, and we just found out on Thursday that the genetics of the leukemia cells look good as well. Now we're just waiting to see how her body responds this first month!

Q: Does the chemo make her sick?
A: Not so far! We've given her Zofran just in case, but she actually hasn't even gotten nauseous once so far. She has had other side effects like constipation, and her feet bother her- not sure if that's from the chemo (it can cause numbness and tingling in the hands and feet) or the steroid (can cause fatigue and soreness). She doesn't want to wear shoes.

Q: Will she lose her hair? When?
A: Most likely in a couple of weeks, slowly. Some kids are lucky and their hair survives the first phase, and then they don't lose it until phase 4, which would be in 3-4 months. We're not sure how she'll respond, so the plan right now is to normalize it as much as possible.

Lydia goes home

Lydia finally gets to go home! She really missed the other kids, Curry, and her bed. We were so grateful to have her home and to all be together again!