Ellie's school Mother Goose Tea Party

At Price Lab Ellie's class had a mother goose tea party today. They were to dress up like a character in a Mother Goose rhyme. Ellie chose the cat and the fiddle from Hey Diddle Diddle. So I went to watch her and the other kids perform their rhymes. Ellie aparently won a contest of guessing how many scoops it would take to empty Jack and Jill's pale of water. She guessed the closest so she got to present that rhyme by herself. So there are pictures of Ellie presenting with her teacher, Mrs. Bromwich. Then they had their tea party at the tables. There is also a picture of Ellie's friend Ahmad. It was neat to spend time at her school and participate in her activity. She is also wearing this cat costume for trick or treating. Nate is going to be a dinosaur if he will tolerate the costume, if not we have a skeleton long onsie he can wear. I'll get pictures of that up later. Hope all is well with you!

Ryan's buck and vertigo

Another exciting thing that has happened was that last week was muzzle loader season and Ryan "got him his first buck." He was so excited about it until he had to drag the big thing out of the corn field where it finally gave up up. Then Ryan decided it was too big when he was still cutting meat off it at 11:30 at night. So it's good, he got his buck and we have a freezer full of deer meat now. The taxidermist said it is officially a 5 year old, 13 point buck. Wow, we were amazed. Yes it's at a taxidermist so that means it's getting mounted and if Ryan has any say it will be on a wall when he gets it back next year. Yes, it's going to take a year.

Something else, that wasn't so exciting, was that I spent Saturday morning in the emergency room at Sartori because when Ellie woke me up that morning, at 6:20 for some odd reason, I couldn't stand up. I was so dizzy I would have fallen over if I wasn't holding on to the bed post or walls. It was crazy feeling. I got nauseated and vomited if I was upright for too long. So I called nurse on call and she suggested I call 911. I explained I had two children and my husband was hunting so I got my parents to come over and my dad took me to the ER while my mom watched the kids. So nothing else was wrong with me except this dizziness, nausea and vomiting. They gave me wonderful meds that worked immediately after it was put in my IV. They drew blood and did a CT scan to check everything out to be safe. Then they sent me home with another dizziness, nausea med to help me get over it. I rested all day since Ryan had the kids at a wedding and reception, I was bummed I missed. Sunday morning I felt fine and have been pretty good since then. I am so thankful it only lasted one day. I still carry the perscription around with me incase it comes back. Oh yeah, they said it was vertigo. It was lovely...as those of you who have experienced it know.

Ellie's 10/28/09 MRI

We showed up early in the morning and Ellie was already fighting us to even put cream on her arm and cover it with a bandage to start to numb it so the poke of the IV wouldn't hurt. We had to hold her arms still so the nurse could do that. She fought and fought and fought. Then it was time to take an oral med to calm her down so she won't be so fiesty when it comes to putting the IV in. Well she refused and refused and fought some more. So they got permission from the anesthesiologist to do a gas mask to put her out then they could do the IV and MRI while she was out. So a couple nurses and I had to hold her down to put the mask over her face until she stopped fighting us. It was so sad I cried cause I know we are retraumatizing her. It hurts to have to force your child into doing something she is afraid of. I feel horrible.

After she recovered from the meds and woke up enough for us to transfer her we went to see Dr. Bautti. He is her oncologist and he said the scan was clear and no concerns up there. He said that there is a syndrom that happens to people who get radiation in their brain between 3 weeks and 3 months after the finish of radiation. It presents exactly like Ellie had as tiredness all the time. Their recommendation when this happens is to just let them sleep when they need. It goes away in 1-2 weeks and then never tends to come back. Although he wasn't sure because Ellie did have the blood test result of elevated white cell count for a virus so he wasn't sure if it was that syndrome or a virus that made her tired. Although the viral count could be from the infection she had in her eye maybe. Who knows. She recovered from it and she's good now.

Then we had him look at the scar and the scabs that haven't healed yet. So we held her on our lap tightly so he could look at it. She has this intense fear of anyone touching her head and hurting her. So he was slightly concerned they hadn't healed up yet so he suggested we go up to Menezes's office so they can look at it and do what is needed. They said sometimes the internal stitches get pushed up to they are near the skin and that could be keeping the scabs on there. If they are still on next time they may be pulling them off. We can try to sluff them off in the bath when shampooing her hair. If there are signs of infection we have to call them to get her on antibiotics. It's also good she's swimming once a week at school to keep them clean and maybe coming off while swimming. We go back in three months sometime to see Dr. Menezes, Dr. Gantz, Dr. Bautti and do a stealth MRI. That means it's 12 minutes long and we are going to try to have her stay awake for it. Or just give her meds to relax her. Then the time after that it will be a long 2 hour MRI to do brain and spine. That one will be with full anesthesia.

This morning I took Ellie to the eye doctor to follow up on her infections and they are clear! So I thought at this time Ellie is healthy, buuuut.....If it's not one thing with this child it's another. I just got a call from the Price Lab nurse and Ellie was down there because the inside of her mouth hurt. So the nurse looked in and saw a canker sore on the inside of her cheek. So she put some orajel on it and sent her on her way. While eating lunch the nurse went to put her eye drops in and Ellie said her mouth felt fine. So yeah, this is minor but seriously...

Thank you all for your prayers, we are thankful she is clear of tumors right now. Praise God!

Ellie's first follow up MRI

Well, tonight we head to Iowa City to stay in a hotel, hopefully enjoy a little swim, and tuck our little girl into bed before she has her MRI tomorrow morning. It's time for the first follow up MRI in Iowa City at 7am. She has to get poked again and we aren't looking forward to this. The MRI should be pretty quick, half hour maybe, they are just looking at her brain this time. Then after she wakes up and we make it through the stages of being discharged we head to the oncologist for an appointment. We hope to hear she has a clear MRI with no concerns. I'll send out messages with results to yall and then blog about the days so others can read about it. Nathan will be enjoying time with Tio Javi, Titi Steph and Hudson for the night and back at Wendy's Wednesday.

More benefit pics

Here are pics from the silent auction at the benefit.

Benefit pictures

So sorry this has taken so long to get posted. Here are some pictures from the night and dinner before hand. I really didn't get very many taken so if anyone out there has pictures from that night would you mind sending them to me electronically if you can. I'd love to post them. I don't have any of what the silent auction looked like, or the kids or anyone dancing, or people visiting. Any help would be great. I want those who couldn't make it to be able to see what it looked like. Enjoy!

New blessings...

My friend Mandy and her husband Justin had a baby yesterday so I wanted to announce their new blessing. His name is Maddox Robert Hunecke 7lbs 4ozs 21.5 inches born Oct. 20th at 5:30am in Mankato, Minnesota. I am so excited for them and miss them very much.

UI Children's Hospital won a game room!!

YAY UI Children's Hospital! They won one of the three game rooms! Here is a small article announcing the winners.

FLINT, Mich. (AP) --- Hospitals in Michigan, Iowa and Mississippi have won new $10,000 playrooms equipped with Xbox 360 video game systems, new TVs and computers.

Xbox 360 and the Children's Miracle Network announced the winners of the online contest on Monday.

They are Hurley Medical Center in Flint, University of Iowa Children's Hospital and Blair E. Batson Hospital for Children at the University of Mississippi Medical Center.

The online contest began Sept. 3 and ended Friday.

Installation of the room is expected to take place over the next few months.

blood work results

Well it's been a few days but earlier this week we found out that the blood results came back fine. The cbc showed no anemia, platelet count good, but the white blood cells are elevated to the level of a viral infection. They also checked her thyroid because radiation can affect that but the next day the results showed up fine for thyroid. So Ellie has been slowly perking up to her usual self. It seems as though it was just a viral infection she was fighting off.

Then two days ago we noticed her eye was bright red again and it looks like there is another infection in her eye just in a different part. So we are back on antibiotic eye drops and have a call into the eye doctor because today she is complaining about throbbing pain above her right eye. We'll see how all this turns out.

Seems like lately if it's not one thing it's another. Please be in prayer that she can get healed and we can have a calm rest of the month before we go back to Iowa City on the 28th for her first post surgery/radiation MRI. Thank you all. We'll keep you posted.

Last day to vote for UI Children's Hospital

Ryan's mom told me about this competition for a game room makeover for the UI Children's Hospital. BUT IT ENDS TODAY, FRIDAY THE 16TH. Here is the article. If you all want to join me in voting for UI Children's Hospital that would be great! We are way ahead according to the numbers, lets keep it going to the kids down there can have a wonderful getaway from their illnesses.

Friday is the last day to vote for a hospital in the “Gameroom Giveaway,” an online contest sponsored by Xbox360 and Children’s Miracle Network, an international non-profit group that raises funds for 170 children’s hospitals. In the contest, which started in early September and is open to all hospitals affiliated with the Children’s Miracle Network, allows people to vote up to 10 times a day for the hospital of their choice. The three hospitals with the most votes overall will each win a $10,000 gameroom makeover.

As of 9:55 a.m., UI Children’s Hospital had the most votes at 1,887,006, about 29,000 votes ahead of their closest competition, Hurley Medical Center of Flint, Mich. The Iowa hospital also was more than 42,000 votes ahead of fourth-place Blair E. Batson Hospital for Children at the University of Mississippi Medical Center in Jackson, Miss. If the standings hold, UI Children’s Hospital would be the winner of the gameroom makeover.

http://xbox.childrensmiraclenetwork.org/

We had a great experience at the children's hospital this summer. Can't even complain about anything we experienced on the children's floor. So we are happy to try to help contribute to this cause.

So this website is taking a long time to load so maybe after 5pm it will be quicker if you want to try tonight.

Ellie's email from a friend...

It was so cute last week on Friday when I opened my email there was a message from one of Ellie's friends Emma F. Ellie got her first email! It said, "dear ellie i miss you very much and i love you too good bye." It was so cute I thought I'd blog about it. Ellie was with me at work because we were waiting for an eye appointment to follow up on the eye infection. So Ellie got to read it but wasn't up to responding at the time. Thanks Emma and Heidi for sending the message!

The doctor said the infection is gone so we don't need to give her the antibiotic eye drops anymore, just the rewetting drops. Yay! Ellie has been feeling under the weather lately. Sleeping a lot but that's all of any symptoms she's had. We aren't sure if it's a growth spurt or what. She sleeps any chance she gets. Falling asleep in the car, in the grocery store cart, waiting on my lap at the eye doctor. Very lethargic, she's doesn't have that perk about her. It was the worst on Saturday and Sunday she didn't sleep as much but still layed around and was pretty quiet. I'm not sure if it's nutrition or what so we are gonna have that checked out. She was never this tired even during radiation. We will keep you posted if we find anything out. Have a good week everyone!

visit the website...

My friend Mandy who has helped me tons with this blog posted a new flyer for me at the top of the page I wanted everyone to see so please visit the blog at www.wearesmiley.blogspot.com to see the update to the page. She has also posted the benefit flyer in a blog so we still have it on file. Thank you!

Ellie's Flier PDF