November 9, 2011

November 9th - It's been about 5 months since I've posted last and I guess I am overdue to supply some updates!

Taylor started back to school the beginning of August and has been adjusting pretty well. Her grades have been great and she has made a lot of new friends. She had a little bit of a tough time in the beginning when she realized some of her friends she had a year ago just weren't the same people she thought they were. Well, not so much they weren't the same people as it was they are just in different places as she is. Some were into partying and things, where as Taylor is looking at is as "I just fought for my life and you are throwing yours away and putting things in your body you shouldn't". She has said that she is almost thankful she went through what she did because she could be making some of the wrong choices they are. Pretty powerful stuff coming from a 16 year old! Although she may have lost touch with some old friends, she has made some pretty awesome new friends over the past few months.

She has continued to go to church and was even baptized a couple of months ago, which makes me extremely proud! She came out of her whole ordeal with a new determination and focus on life and I couldn't be more happy about it! To this day she says that she would not change one thing about her being diagnosed with leukemia and having to go through chemo, and that it has made her who she is today.

She is still dating her boyfriend, Justin, and they just celebrated their 1 yr anniversary together. He is a great kid and is awesome to her...but it still feels weird saying my 16 year old just celebrated an anniversary with her boyfriend haha. They went to Homecoming together a few weeks back and they both looked great. Jenna had her homecoming dance the weekend before Taylor. Talk about putting a father in an early grave...Jenna looked so grown up, it's hard to look at her sometimes and remember that she is not even 13 yet!

A couple weeks ago I celebrated my birthday with my girls. In case some didn't know or forgot, Taylor was diagnosed on my birthday last year. It was not just only a celebration for my birthday, but also a celebration that I have my daughters with me still to spend it with. We went out to eat together with my parents, came home and played games...I didn't care what we did as long as it was with them!

November 18th - I started the blog above, got sidetracked and never finished it. So the latest to date is Taylor now has a learner's permit...look out world! I'm not too concerned about whether she will be a responsible driver or not, she is pretty sure about herself when it comes to driving. She's not too timid, but not overconfident either. The same day she got her permit, she also had blood testing done and everything came back great with the results! So all in all, things are going good. Now tonight, I get to go watch Jenna cheer for the first time for her school's basketball games. I couldn't convince her to play basketball so this as close as I get!

Taylor's Sweet 16!!

Well, I haven't updated this thing since about Easter and I know so much has gone on since then but I am sure I will miss a couple things.

My baby girl turned 16 on Friday and she has gone through so much in the last 6 months! I think this was probably the most meaningful birthday to us and we are just glad she was through with everything so that she could enjoy it! Taylor didn't want a big party or to make a huge deal out of it, so Friday her mom took her out shopping and her boyfriend Justin took her out to eat Kani House. Then he brought her over to our house to spend the weekend with us. She was given the option of what kind of cake she wanted and she asked for Ashley's homemade strawberry cake. I would have got a picture to put on here, but the kids wouldn't wait long enough for me to get one before they dug into it haha.

Saturday we all got up and went to Helen to walk the shops and go tubing down the river. We met up with my brother Chad, his wife Daisha and her son Dayton. We ended up eating first then headed out for our 2+ hour tube ride. It was fun, Taylor and the rest of the kids had a good time but it was definitely tiring!!! From there we said bye to Chad and them and went walking the shops...although we didn't get too far. It was a little (very) crowded and really all the kids wanted was some ice cream and to raid the candy store! We came home, ate dinner and I think we all crashed pretty early.

Sunday we woke up, got everyone ready and went to have family pictures taken. They came out excellent! We met our best friend, Anna and our nephew J.W. there as they were having pictures taken after us. We attempted to have some pictures taken with J.W. too but he was having NO part of it! After that we went to Anna's house and spent a couple hours with her and J.W. He took to me pretty good, but wanted nothing to do with Ashley! I tried to rub it in until she reminded me that last time he wanted nothing to do with me and was all about her lol. We then came back up and met mine and Michelle's family at Joe's Crab Shack to celebrate Taylor's bday with everyone. I think we ended up with a crowd of about 20 total. We all wanted to tell them it was her birthday so they would make her dance around the restaurant in bunny ears or doing the chicken dance, but Taylor all but threatened us with our lives...party pooper...

Well, that was Taylor's birthday weekend! Since April she has had a few check ups and so far so good, all tests have come back great. She had her line taken out on June 15th and has since been able to go swimming, so to Six Flags, a braves game, spent a weekend in Gaitlinburg with Justin and his family, a weekend in Perdido Key with her aunt and uncle, and best of all she is now able to take showers...which she was the most excited about! Taylor has certainly come a long way since her 15th birthday and we could not be more proud of how she has handle the journey getting to her 16th!

No matter what age you are, you and Jenna will always be Daddy's Little Girls...always remember that!

The Latest

Well I just realized that I have not updated this since Taylor got out of the hospital. She was able to come home Easter morning which was a blessing...couldn't have happened on a better day! I took her to her moms house so she could spend Easter morning with Michelle's family, and then she came over in the afternoon and was able to spend time with my family. I think she made up for a months worth of not eating all in one day!

Now we can't keep her at home or still...she has gone to the lake, Braves game, her boyfriends, out with friends...and I am not complaining at all! I think the last 6 months have given her a whole new perspective on things. Before you could never get her out of the bed, now she likes walking outside, riding the Polaris, just getting out. Little things that she would get upset over aren't as big of a deal anymore. I think she has matured a lot and I could not be prouder of how she has come through everything! She doesn't go around feeling sorry for herself and thinking "why me?" which I think it huge, especially for a 15 yr old girl!!

Taylor has to go once every couple of weeks for check ups and blood work. The first week she went back was good, they said her counts were better than they thought they would be...this past week, not so much. Her blood counts were extremely low and they were surprised she had not passed out yet. They gave her blood on Weds and again on Thurs. They were schedule to do a bone marrow test but had to reschedule it for next week. As long as things come back good then, she should be able to have her port taken out within a week or two after that.

So with that being said, we will keep you posted on the results from her next test. Thank you guys again for all of the support for our family these past few months. We certainly live within a great community of people!

April 15th

As some of you may already know, we received some good news about Taylor a couple of weeks ago. We found out that she will not have to go back to the hospital for a 5th round of chemo! So, as soon as she gets out of the hospital for this 4th round she will be done for good! We were told she will be the first one in Atlanta with her treatment plan that will not be having it. On one side we are absolutely ecstatic about it, the other side of us is a little scared too. Just a little leary about being the "first" to try something new...kind of like being the person to test a shark suit, do you really want to be the first?!

We were optimistic that she would be home this past weekend, but even now it is looking like it could be the beginning or middle part of next week. Her white counts are still pretty low so they gave her medication a few days ago to try to help boost her cells. Her liver enzymes have been fairly high the past couple of weeks and they think that might have something to do with the counts...basically they think the white cells have been attacking whatever has been causing the liver enzymes to be high. She could have had some minor virus or something, which to us isn't that major but to her could be.

This time around Taylor isn't asking what her counts are everyday like she use to. That way if they are high one day and low the next, she won't get disappointed by it. Basically, she is just waiting for them to come in and say "ok, you can go home today!". So, now our new goal is to have her home by Easter!

Round #4 Underway

Taylor went back in on March 9th for her 4th round of chemo. This one consisted of her getting one medication (ARC), which she has received every round and she got that one this time every 12 hrs for 6 days, then another medication for days #3-6. She was a little sick for a couple of days and had a little bit of a hard time keeping food and drinks down, but after that it was game on...she definitely made up for the eating after they stopped the chemo! Here's a picture of her first night back in the hospital this round:

This time around she has been craving Atlanta Bread Company's Potato Soup bowl, pepperoni Hot Pockets and pizza rolls. As a result though, she had been getting pretty bad heart burn which has caused her to get a sore or ulcer in her esophagus and it hurts a little to eat. She had requested for me to bring her some mashed potatoes tonight, so we will see how that goes...hopefully softer foods won't be too bad. Here's a picture of me and the girls fooling around with the computer camera and one of Taylor and Ashley:

Apparently last night I jinxed her by saying she hasn't had any complications and things are going good, because I received a message from her mom saying she woke up with a fever of 104. They ran some cultures and put her on antibiotics and fluids right away and we hope it will break pretty soon. Michelle said she didn't eat much yesterday or eat anything today, but then Taylor sent a text requesting a Butterfinger haha. I had to do some negotiating and told her I would let her have one after she ate something with a little more substance! I'm a little more worried about her getting a fever this time because her counts are now starting to come down, where as last time her counts were up...I just hope it doesn't take too much out of her body trying to fight this one off.

If things go as they should, she should hopefully be home in the next couple of weeks. Taylor is usually home about 2 weeks before she goes back in again, but the next round is the last one!! They are planning to give her the ARC medication again, but will triple the dosage she has been getting and she will receive that for 2 days. As long as she doesn't get any fevers those 2 days they will send her home for a week...then she goes back in again for the same 2 day treatment along with receiving some shots in her legs (which she is DEFINITELY not looking forward to!). They will wait for her counts to go down and then come back up where they should be....and then she is done for good! I know her sister Jenna will be so excited for her to be home, she certainly has missed her these past few months.

She has signed up to go to Camp Sunshine the end of June for a week, which is a camp for teens that have similiar illnesses and are going though or have gone through the same things. She leaves 2 days after her 16th bday and ithis will be a good way for her to celebrate it! She was a little iffy about going until she found out her favorite nurses would be the cabin counselors and she would be bunking in one of their cabins. I think it will be an awesome experience for her and I hope she takes a lot from it. Considering how good she is with kids, I can see her volunteering there in future years :-)

February 14, 2011 - Happy Valentine's Day!

Well Taylor was supposed to go home by today, but experienced a little bit of a setback the end of last week. The doctor came in Thursday morning and said that her counts were going up, and as long as she didn't get any fevers or infections she would be home possibly over the weekend or today at the latest. On Friday morning I get a text from Michelle (Taylor's mom) saying that she had been running a fever of 104 since late Thurs night and all morning Friday. They quickly put her on benadryl and tylenol to try to knock out the fever and began running tests to find out why she had the fever in the first place.

Apparently she caught the strep bug...she didn't have strep throat, just the bug that causes it. They said it was possible that somehow it got into her central line in her chest, who knows how that happened. I stayed with her Friday night and she didn't have a fever all weekend and is still good as of today. Unfortunately with her getting the bug, it cut her white blood cell counts in half so we still have to wait for them to come up before she is able to come home again. She was fortunate to be able to get rid of the bug and fever as quickly as she did because it could have been a whole lot worse than it was. There are many kids that I've heard that get infections and it could take weeks or months to get rid of them...so I guess all the prayers we asked for are definitely working in her favor!

I know she was looking forward to being out, especially by today of all days...but I think her boyfriend Justin is going to go visit her this afternoon, so that will give her something to look forward to for Valentines Day!

Here are some pictures of the notes and cards from Taylor's stay the first round. She truly has some wonderful friends and family looking out for her!

February 2, 2011

Taylor has completed Round 3 of chemo, although she will remain in the hospital for a couple more weeks until her blood counts come back up. She had got sick pretty quickly after they started this round since they were doubling her dosage, but the past couple days she has been feeling a lot better. She is back to requesting fried cabbage and homemade mashed potatoes, so that is a plus haha!

She got to be "Queen for the Day" last week. Some of the local pageant winners came to the hospital and gave the girls crowns and sashes, kind of made them feel like beauty queens for the day. It's great to see all of the people that take the time out of their days to come and visit all of these kids. Taylor is blessed to have someone there with her everyday, but I know some of these kids family's don't have the ability or means to do that...so someone making an extra effort to brighten their days is really a special thing for some of them.

These are some pictures from when Taylor was home after her last round:

Taylor and Justin over at her Aunt Tam's house celebrating Nana's birthday:

These are at her Nana & Papa's with Jenna and her bestfriend, Katie, riding her Papa's Polaris



The benefit for Taylor this past weekend was pretty successful. We had a good turnout for the yardsale and a pretty decent one for the dance. Since the yard sale was indoors and we still have a good amount of stuff leftover, we are probably going to do another one outdoors when the weather gets nicer. We will keep everyone updated on it. Thank you to everyone who donated items and came out in support of Taylor. We are honored to have family and friends like you in our lives! Please continue to keep Taylor in your thoughts and prayers!