Its a New Year!

Okay It is a new year so i guess its time to do a new post!!

MaKenna on January 22nd was diagnosed with Acute Lymphoblastic Leukemia.

So going back to Christmas we thought MaKenna had broken her leg Christmas eve when she was running on the couch and her leg slipped between the cushions. We convinced ourselves that she couldn't of fractured it on the cushions and so we waited and didn't take her to the doctor until 3 days after Christmas. They did X-rays and they splinted it convinced it was a toddler fracture. When we went to her follow up appointment they did another X-ray and nothing showed up. So we left the splint on and a few days after that she started walking.

Patty (Roberts mom) came into town 1 week later and MaKenna ran up to her at the airport and was very excited to see her! later that week they were dancing and MaKenna slipped on one of her sippy cups on the floor and twisted her ankle. She then was not walking again and wouldn't stand up on her legs. Convinced that she was just milking it wanting to be carried and babied. Grandma layed on the couch with her and fed her and just loved her while she was down with her hurt ankle. Because MaKenna "broke" her leg and then hurt her ankle and she was also teething we had been giving her quite a bit of Ibuprofen. So when she started bruising severely we didn't think anything about it because of the amount of meds we had been giving her. So we stoped giving her the medicine and the bruising started to lessen.

That next weekend MaKenna and I got sick. So we both got a cough and just spent the weekend on the couch together and just hung out and rested. Monday Makenna's fever started. She started not having as much color in her face and she started having patiki eye on her face. By Friday morning I just woke up and said to Robert I need to take MaKenna to the doctor right now. So we got up and went.

Patty had hurt her knee so when I decided to take MaKenna to the ER We didn't go to Primary Children's Hospital we went to the IMC Hospital in Murray so they both could be seen. When we got there the nurse saw MaKenna and she was like good thing you brought her in you did the right thing. They hardly see any kids there so they were having a good time with her playing with her and having a good time.

At the hospital I expected to maybe hear them tell me that she was anemic and she needed to get some blood or needed some antibiotics or something. They did some blood tests on her and the doctor came in about an hour later and sat down with me and just told me that she has Leukemia. That I would need to take her up to Primary Children's but that he wanted me to talk to the nurse that had checked us in.......

The nurse came in and talked to me about Leukemia and that her son had just finished up his 3 years worth of treatments. She said as soon as she saw MaKenna she knew what she had because she had just gone though this. The nurse was awesome and she helped answer some questions for me. We both just cried together and she sent us on our way to Primary Children's. Since Robert hadn't come with us we just had him come down and meet us at the hospital before we took her up to Primary Children's.

While I was waiting in the waiting room I called my sister Kim and she told me she would call my sisters and let them know what was going on. Robert got there and we drove over to Primary Children's. On the way there I called my job and quit so when I got over to the other hospital I could apply and qualify for Medicaid since MaKennas insurance would not pay for any treatments here in Utah.

We got up to Primary Children's Hospital and had to go into the ER since the Oncology Hematology unit was full so they had no beds for us yet. After spending 4 hours in the ER they got us up to the room where we would spend the next 5 days. Friday night they gave her 2 blood transfusions and 1 platelet transfusion. Saturday morning they took her into surgery and placed a port in her chest under the skin, a bone marrow aspirate, and a spinal poke to check for Leukemia in the spinal fluid and to also put in preventative Chemo Therapy in the fluid to make sure the Leukemia wouldn't survive in the spinal fluid.......

From there we spent the next few days learning and waiting..... We found out that ALL is treated with about 6-8 months of weekly chemo treatments followed by 2 years of monthly treatments. We had many nurses explaining and referring to MaKennas Leukemia as the "good" kind of Leukemia because they know how to treat it so well and it has about a 89% cure rate. They know how to treat this type of Leukemia down to knowing how aggressive they need to treat by the shape that the cell has changed into. We had found out that the shape of the cell is the Type of Leukemia that needs less invasive treatment but since she has had higher counts of Leukemia in her bone marrow even after several Chemo treatments they will be treating her with a more aggressive type of Chemo therapy.

MaKenna has been on steroids for the past month and has had 4 Chemo treatments. She has stopped talking and it has been about 2 months since she has walked. All of the symptoms are normal for children her age going through this type of therapy. The Steroid has caused her to have a lot of back pain and leg pain. Her Chemo treatment has caused her to have a lot of mussel pain and jaw pain. So we can treat this with pain meds but nothing was really helping. We have spent a lot of days laying on the couch with her and just trying to comfort her. Because of the steroids she has been eating a lot of food. It has made her very hungry!!! She sat down and ate 4 hot dogs in one sitting. We have been caring her around and also waking up in the middle of the night to feed her when she gets hungry. It has been like having a new born again. But things look to get better soon.

She has just finished day 29 of treatments which means she did not have a chemo treatment last Friday and she got to stop the steroids... YAY!!! For the past few days She has been herself again and is sitting up, playing, laughing, talking, and just feeling better. It has been a dramatic change. We have been so blessed to have her in our lives and we are just trying to be optimistic about everything there is to come with this. We know that she will have her good days and bad days but we pray that she has more good ones. We have had so many helpful friends and neighbors who have been there to help us get through this its been amazing. We know that there is a lot more to come in the next 3 years we will for sure try and keep everyone more informed.