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!

We are back from Cooks!

Briley had a 1:45 appointment at Cooks today to start Interim Maintenance I phase of treatment. All was going well this morning before we left until Briley over heard us talking about going to Ft. Worth. She's smart and has it figured out that trips to Ft. Worth are no fun. She whined a good bit about not wanting her port accessed. I don't blame her, especially at her age and not completely understanding the reasoning for it. We arrived in Ft. Worth a little early, so we first stopped by the Ronald McDonald House to drop off 4 grocery sacks full of can tabs that many folks have been collecting for the house. This was the 3rd time we have dropped off that many tabs! The folks there were very appreciative of them and it will go to good use! Then it was off to the clinic. Everything went as planned. Her counts look great! She did cry during port access and then discontinuing it. There is a little playroom in the clinic where the kids play before and during chemo infusion. Briley met a new little friend there that also has leukemia and she is in the D.I. phase of treatment right now. That is Briley's next phase and the one we have been dreading the most, but after talking to the mom of this child, we feel much relieved that the treatment hasn't been to bad for her daughter. She said the only thing that really worried her is when her daughter's tears and urine turned red, but that was normal side effect from a certain chemo. After treatment, we walked over to the hospital to see Lianna and Gracie. They are doing very well and their hair is quickly growing back! It started getting late and we decided to come back home before Briley started experiencing nausea, which has been a non factor at this point. I really wish there was something more we could do for the cancer kids and other seriously ill kids at Cooks. But I've got to remind myself that we are fighting our own battle right now and that God will show us a way when He is ready. Having to go through this with Briley and becoming friends with other parents and hearing their stories has touched us in ways we would have never thought possible pre-cancer. Cancer is ugly, especially when it affects kids. Thank you for your prayers and please say an extra one for all the kids with cancer.

Going to Cooks Tomorrow

Sorry I haven't post more in the last few days. We have been on cruise control without much to report. Briley has been doing great over the past few days! It was wonderful not having to go back to Cooks last week and everything has been pretty much normal. But the reality of cancer will set back in tomorrow when we travel back to Cooks for the next phase of treatment. This phase will last 2 months and she will be getting treatments at Cooks every 10 days. One of the chemo's she will be getting is Vincristine. I can't stand saying the name or even typing it out because of it's side effects. It's a true necessary evil. I hope and pray that this round does not affect her counts and walking abilities like it did before. Her walking has improved so much over the past month, but she still cannot run like she could pre-cancer. Her counts have been great and when compared to other kids, she is able to keep and maintain the counts better than most. We pray & hope this stays true during this phase of treatment. We also expect her hair loss to increase and become complete over the course of this phase. I told her that I would shave my head when she loses all of her hair. But I am afraid that mine wouldn't grow back! Honestly, the hair loss is the least of my concerns, but I know how it will affect Briley. She loves her hair! Thank you for the continued support!

All is well

There is not much to report other than it has been nice not having to go to Ft. Worth this week. I took the kids fishing today and they had a blast! Briley had her little "Tinker Bell" fishing pole yanked out of her hands by a big fish. Luckly the fish came off the hook and I was able to retrieve the rod & reel a foot into the water. Bryson threw more cow patties in the water. We actually brought home a few fish and cooked them for supper tonight! The kids had a blast!
Alicia and I can see a big difference with the kid's allergies and sickness after we ripped the carpet out of the house. Neither one of them has even had a runny nose since we replaced the floors! Before, it seemed like Bryson would have a bad runny nose at least once a week and Briley would every so often and both would run fever at least once a month. It's been such a blessing for us to have both of them well, especially with Briley. We will do what it takes to keep her healthy. Hopefully the hospital visits due to sickness is over with for a while.
Briley will be going back to Cooks on the 30th for the next phase of chemo. The chemo she will be getting affects her walking. We pray that this round won't be anything like before when Briley couldn't walk at all. Thank you for keeping up with us!