Celebration Day!

Jessica finished her final treatment at about 8 p.m. last night! It took us the extra week to make counts, but we made it up. The fluids following the chemotherapy will keep us here until about 6:30 p.m. tonight and then we will head for home. She is doing well! We arrived yesterday at 8 a.m. for a quick cross and type for a needed blood transfusion and then she had an echo of her heart at 10 a.m. The blood started around 11 a.m. and took about 3 hours. It took her until 6 p.m. to be going to the bathroom enough to start chemotherapy. Both Jessica and I have really been missing everyone, but especially Jacob because he has always been with us and we left him home with dad this time. I kept nursing Jacob so that I could keep him with us at the hospital, but it has been only at night and he certainly doesn't need it anymore. He turned a year on September 15th, which is hard to believe. Cody decided to take a couple of days off to be with the kids. Caleb, who just turned 4, has always come up with us too, but has stayed with my sister in Farmington, which he loves. Caleb loves coming up north, but was excited to get to stay home with his dad. Cody was the one who said, "why don't you just leave Jacob too." He is walking really well now and it didn't take long to think that it would certainly be easier in many ways and a lot more fun for him to be home with his dad. So Jessica and I headed off on our own. Jessica didn't want to leave Jacob behind at first, but I assured her that we would have a fun time together. Yesterday, Jessica's Grandma Sheri, Aunt Jan, and cousin Tallie came down from Idaho. We got to spend the day with them, which was tons of fun! Between a pizza party, paper flower making, barbies, pretend cell phone calls between Grandma and Jessica, a visit from our friend Makenzie who is up here at Weber State, and lots of laughs and smiles from Jessica, it was a very fun-filled day! Even Aunt Amelia and cousin Kate made a late night stop after a treck to the Utah Symphony! Jessica had a great day! By the evening her appetite was no longer there, but this has happened every time with the chemotherapy. It will build back up and now we don't have to keep returning to have everything go back down....YEAH! They do a special song and bell ringing for the kids when they finish treatment. We should be doing that this afternoon. We are scheduled to return in 4 weeks for scans and appointments. They will evaluate her counts then to see if they feel she is ready to have her port removed. She might have it removed the following day or because she may still need blood products it may have to stay in a few more weeks. These are huge achievements for Jessica! She has been amazing through every last moment of her journey! It has been a great experience in so many ways, even though it will be so great to have it all behind us! We never know what may come our way or what the future holds, but we have witnessed countless blessings in Jessica's life and in our own lives. How important it is to recognize lifes miracles even when they seem difficult to see. They are always there....always! Jessica truly is a miracle!

We have the most amazing family and friends. If not for them, our journey would have been extremely difficult! We are so grateful to you all! Thank you for all of your love and support! We hope that we can give the same kind of love and support to others through their life's journey's. Someday soon.... : ) I will post pictures! I promise : )

1 more treatment left!

No matter what is happening in my life, time just goes by too quickly. Here we are so close to the end of Jessica's chemotherapy treatments. We spent last week at Primary Children's. Jessica did well. Her kidney is still struggling some, but somewhat expected by the doctors. They just continue to keep a close eye on it. One of the drugs, cytoxin is hard on the bladder. She continues to have red blood cells in her urine, with protein and some other things, but the only thing they can do for that is just flush a lot of fluids through her system during chemotherapy. This has kept Jessica in the hospital for a day longer the last few visits, but overall Jessica is doing great. She is so excited that she only has one more chemotherapy treatment! I have yet to post pictures. Jessica has had many reasons to be excited about the past month! She has had some special moments with friends at the hospital also! She is always thinking about those special friends! Jessica is scheduled to report for her last treatment on Sept. 20th. The last couple of treatments she has had at least a weeks delay, but we are shooting for the 20th. Jessica is amazing! She has come so far! We all love her so much!