I had a big surprise last night. Both Alicia and Briley came home with "above the shoulder" length hair. Both Alicia and Briley have always had long hair so I was shocked to see them with the short hair. I must say that I like it!
Both girls will be donating the hair to Children with Hair Loss! The program is similar to Locks of Love, however CwHL have donated wigs to a couple of Briley's friends at Cooks, so we decided to donate to them. Who knows, maybe Briley will get a wig made out of her own hair!
Briley's hair still hasn't fell out completely and you really can't notice how thin it is until it's wet.
We will be heading back to Cooks on Monday for a spinal tap and then to the clinic for chemo. It will be a long day and one step closer to the final treatment.

Another round of chemo

We went to Ft. Worth and back yesterday for yet another chemo treatment. Briley's appt. was at 1:00 and we actually made it there with time to spare! Briley really took well to her port getting access. Only a minimal amount of crying this time. She told the nurse that did it, "you did it really easy". So now Briley has a new favorite nurse.
Her counts are still good, but her ANC has dropped to 1020 which is borderline good. It will drop even further than that after yesterday's treatment. In order for Briley to be able to be around crowds, play in the dirt, basically do normal 3 year old stuff, her ANC needs to stay above 1000. So we will start taking a little extra precautions when it comes to where she can go and what she can do. Thankfully, it seems like summer is almost in full swing and there is alot less sickness going around then a couple of months ago. I pray that she stays well.
She is scheduled to be back at Cooks on May 2nd for a spinal tap that morning and then to the clinic later that day for chemo treatment. It will be a long day for sure.
She had a little more side effect from this last treatment than she has had in the past, but nothing to bad thankfully. She started complaining of nausea on the way home and saying that her toes and legs hurt (vincristine side effect). She said, "I'll go to sleep and when I wake up my toes will stop hurting". So she fell asleep from Springtown to Seymour and she did fine when we got home without any complaints!
Briley will have just two more treatments to finish out this phase. She is slated to start the dreaded Delayed Intensification phase on May 30th. We will cross that bridge when we get there. Things are going great and we appreciate all of the prayers and well wishes. It's been 3 months of treatment now. What a ride. Only 2 1/4 years to go............ugh. Whatever it takes to have her cured! We'll get there! Thanks!

Tough little gal

Things are going very well. We were afraid that the chemo she is getting would run her down. But by looking at her, you couldn't tell she's a cancer patient. We have been very blessed that she is a tough little trooper. It's also been wonderful seeing the Team Briley shirts being worn all over town! What great support we have! We will be going back to Ft. Worth on Thursday for another stronger round of chemo and I pray she will continue to tolerate it just as well. We would like to thank the LVN students and Rilda Novak for the generous gift at Ag Day! Thank You!

Another trip to Cooks, things are well!

It has been a while since the last post. Things have been going great. Briley is gaining so much strength! She will climb up stairs and say, "look mom & dad! my legs are getting strong"! She has been pretty close back to normal. Although, her & Bryson miss playing with other kids at daycare. I sure wish they could go. It would do both of them alot of good. Maybe they can have some friends came over to play every now and then. Briley had her scheduled appointment at Cooks yesterday. Both of Briley's friends Lianna and Gracie were at clinic also! It was good seeing them at the clinic and not in the hospital. Briley gave them both a tutu and all 3 strutted around the clinic during treatment! Briley's ANC dropped from 3500 to 1200. It's still good at 1200, she's not in complete isolation. The doctor said that her counts shouldn't drop much more than that. Doc was also very impressed with Briley's response to her treatment! I think she is doing so good thanks to Bryson and the little terror that he is! Briley's new favorite eating place is Taco Bueno. So we stop every time at Lake Worth and get her a bean & cheese burrito. That's good, I sure was getting tired of McDonalds! Briley has been diagnosed for 3 months now. It's been 3 months worth of chemo. She still has 2 years & 3 months to go. It's just hard to imagine that it will take that long, especially after seeing how well she is doing now. I know we can make it, but it will take a heavy toll on us emotionally. Please continue to pray for her. As long as we can stay on the treatment plan without road blocks then we are doing great! So far, so good. Lets pray it stays that way! Thanks!