Relay For Life

Relay for Life is something I decided to be a part of this year. We have started setting up a team and need more people. I signed up to have a team of 15 walkers. We need more members for TEAM ELLIE! April 9-10 at the McLeod Center at UNI will be activities for families during the Relay for Life walk. It's a 24hour walk that starts with a survivor lap where all survivors of cancer walk a lap together to get it started. Then each team is supposed to have at least one team member on the track walking at all times. I was thinking with 15 walkers on team Ellie we would only each have to walk an hour and a half to complete the 24 hours. Walking in pairs or groups is fine also. Looks like there might even be camping outside on the grass for those who want to do that for a little fun. There will also be other activities for people to participate in. We are hoping to get t-shirts made for Team Ellie so I need to know how all is interested in being on the team so we can put names on the back. Relay for Life would like everyone to make at least a $100 goal for funds raised per walker. So I made our team goal $1500.00 thinking each walker would try to raise $100 before the day of the walk. We have to turn all money in on that day. So if you are interested please click on the Relay For Life title to this blog and it will take you to the website where you can learn more and decide if you want to just make a donation to our team our join our team. We need about 8 more walkers I think. Thanks for considering joining our team and once you join I send you more information about events. Ellie has some of her friends signed up with one of their parents to be on the team and walk with her throughout the day. She would love to have more friends join her. GO TEAM ELLIE!! YAY!!

Genetics appointment update

So I know it's been a while and I didn't update right after the appointment. I wanted to know how long the testing was going to take to get results. Ryan didn't know when he got home from the appointment so it took time for me to remember to call the lady and ask.

Sooo the appointment went well Ryan said. I stayed at work to avoid the trauma of having to hold her down for the blood draw because it's hard for me to do this and I've done it a lot lately. So Ryan said she didn't fight and scream about it. She sat on Ryan's lap, she looked the other way and Ryan just put his hand next to her head so she couldn't see over there. The first time they couldn't find her vein in her elbow so they had to put cream on her hand and wait for it to get numb. Then they were able to get blood from her hand. They showed on Ryan's hand what they were going to do because Ellie wasn't too sure about it. So Ryan came home with a bright pink bandaid on his hand also. I thought it was cute. Ellie was a trooper and didn't even fight them so we are so happy.

She let them measure her eyes, nose, mouth, ears, hands, and other stuff, then looked all over her skin for cafe ole spots which are a sign of something, I don't know. She got stickers when she was done and she was interested in showing people her pretty bandaids and stuff. I am begining to think that after the MRI went so uch better and this appointment went pretty smooth that she is becoming more mature and getting used to these procedures. This is a blessing and something the doctors were thinking she'd grow into.

I got the message yesterday that the genetic testing will take at least 4 to 6 weeks. So they lady from the genetics lab will call me with the results. After that sometime I will inform everyone of those results. Ellie goes March 22nd to Iowa City for the eye doctor appointment again. This appointment is painful because we are always there for hours waiting to get seem by multiple people. Ellie hates it also so lets hope this goes smothly like the past two have.