Thursday, April 7, 2011

I know many of you are coming by looking for an update and I apologize, however its been a busy week.  We knew it was going to be a busy one with Emily being here at the hospital and then my being at work and just taking care of everything else. 

Emily has been doing great this week actually, as well as to be expected.   She has maintained the chemo without throwing up and not a lot of nausea which is great.  The part she has been having the most difficulty with is being here at the hospital.  She didn't want to come here from the get go, and I guess from being gone for almost 3 weeks, it really made it harder and I must admit it was actually kind of difficult for myself as well to get back into the groove of being here.  

By tomorrow morning, some of our family from Massachussetts will be arriving into town and helping us get things squared away and then for the fundraiser.  Doug and I still haven't made the decision on whether we will bring Emily or not, I'm more leaning to not.  but just honestly not sure.  I did talk with Dr. Gowda today on what his thoughts were and he indicated either way.  His thoughts of taking her that we shouldn't have her there long, she needs to wear a mask and when she gets home change and then his thoughts of taking her there are a lot of germs to worry about.  So, its one of those things that we really haven't made the complete decision on.   

Speaking of the fundraiser, my co-worker, Leslie has done an amazing job getting this all together.  I have told her everyday this week what a great job you have done and I am just amazed at what she has done.  Thank you Leslie. 

As for the fundraiser here is the information:

Friday, April 8th from 6PM to 10PM:  Home Team Grill, Main and Vine Streets in The Fan, Downtown Richmond This fundraising event is to benefit Emily H., the beautiful 3 year old daughter of my co-worker, Shannon. Emily was diagnosed with cancer (neuroblastoma) on December 23, 2010. She recently finished her first round of chemotherapy but has several more to endure. Proceeds will help the family pay for medical expenses, medically related travel, and other expenses directly related to Emily's treatment.

This event will feature free live entertainment by "Aftershock", silent auctions for a Gibson guitar signed by Brooks and Dunn and a Virginia Tech football signed by Coach Frank Beamer. Raffles will be drawn for: 

A signed Brooks and Dunn tour jacket, 2 signed and framed Brooks and Dunn posters, signed Tim McGraw Southern Voice CD, signed Tim McGraw poster, certificate for automobile detailing, (2) Dinner for 4 at Arby's, a Birthday Bash at Romp n Roll, and several tour jackets from Brooks and Dunn. Additional items are pending or in transit. Once they are received, they will be listed. Check back for updates.

Home Team Grill will donate 10% of all food and non-alcoholic beverage sales. Cash donations will also be accepted.

Please join us for this event and support Emily and her family! 

If you come please wear RED to show you are there to support Emily, that would be great!  Also, I want to give a huge shout out to Keith Fabry Reprographic Solutions, who went so far for us to make Team Emily Car Magnets and donated them to us.  They started working on them yesterday and will have them done by tomorrow before the benefit.  Tuesday I posted that I was looking for a company that makes car magnets and for a little bit cheaper than what I was originally quoted and a girl, Jennifer that works at Dominion with me contacted me and said her husband works for Keith Fabry, let me check with him and see what they can do.  A couple of hours later, she sent me a message and said the company would like to donate them to your family!  I WAS IN TOTAL SHOCK.  So, I really want to give a huge shout out to this company for going above and beyond for us, it really means a lot.  Thank you!

The car magnets will be available for sale at the Fundraiser on Friday night for $3 if you are interested in getting one. (you can see a picture of it above)

As for now, we have about 1 hour left here at the hospital and then she will be done.  This morning when they checked her urine overnight her glucose was a little bit high in her urine, so they changed the IV fluids back to Sodium Chloride. I worked this morning and came back at 1pm so that I could be here when the doctor got here since I haven't seen him all week. Emily's calcium was a little low, but nothing concerning, but there are things that we can do at home to get that back up.  Also he told me that based on national average of weight, Emily's percentile is about 3%, so he is not concerned either however if it hits 10% then he will look into doing other measures, such as feeding tubes, so we are going to do what we can at home to make sure we don't hit that.  Overall she did well and Dr. Gowda didn't seem concerned.  Emily has an appointment Monday morning at 9AM for a hearing test and then after that we are to head to the clinic to have her counts checked.  We are going to be doing the GCSF (to get her counts back up) at home, so at least she doesn't have to get a shot.  The GCSF is a daily IV dose for 14 days, so we are going to try this and see if it helps her counts.   Overall, Emily did well this round and the next round is back to the rough round again!  In about 1 week she will have a CT scan so that it can be reviewed and then sent off to Philadelphia to be reviewed and have a surgery set up. 

Also my grandfather underwent surgery yesterday to remove the tumor found in his colon.  All I could do was think about him and how he was doing.  My cousin Jessica was there and was giving me updates on how he was doing.  Grandpa did great and is resting.  

Thank you for all of the wonderful people out there who are doing all of the amazing things for us.  Thank you to all of our family who is there for us!  Thank you for all the love, support and care and mostly just THANK YOU!