Ronald McDonald House

Today Courtney and I moved into the Ronald McDonald House in Memphis.  This place is wonderful.  I have been feeling a bit depressed lately, and my mood has changed so much already after meeting some super nice people... talking ... laughing.   I got Courtney up to go down and eat and she felt better after for a little while.  Right now she is not feeling very well again.  She gets achy all over and has a temperature.  So far these are the only side effects she is having.  She will have treatment through Sunday.

Courtney at Ronald McDonald House in Memphis, TN

Treatment starts...

Yesterday we received the best news... the cancer did not spread to her lymph nodes!  I was terrified that it was because they had to do additional blood smears... like they did for her melanoma, and that came back positive.  I am thanking the Lord!!  Before we spoke to her doctor, I was holding back tears all day and was very emotional.  I felt like there were a ton of bricks in my stomach.  When they put her to sleep to put her PICC line in, the tears started coming as it is very emotional watching them put your child to sleep.  They put me in a hospital room and I cried for about 20 minutes.  The nurse that was putting the line in came in and held me and prayed with me.  She told me she prays over every patient before they insert the line.  I have not had a real good cry since I have been here because Courtney has always been at my side, and I try not to cry in front of her because I do not want to scare her.  Afterward, I felt good, like all the weight was gone... and my positive feelings came back... She woke up... I wheeled her to the doctor, and that is where we received the good news... yes, more tears!  but tears of joy!!!  I prayed to God and thanked him for this wonderful news all throughout the rest of the day and night.  Now we have to KEEP the cancer from spreading for the rest of her life.  I am not going to think about the statistics of a stage IIC cancer (which they say the 5 year survival rate is 47%).  At first it made me sick, but now I am going to think that she IS going to be the 47% that survives.  She is young and so healthy... and very strong!!  

Today Courtney starts her treatment of the peg-interferon alpha 2b.  This drug is new and Courtney is part of a research study using this drug.  They have not tried this drug on children and approximately 15 other kids from St. Jude and MD Cancer hospital will be on this protocol.

Today will be a long day.  We go to the nurse so they can teach me how to care for her PICC line, and then treatment is from 11:30 am to 7:30 pm.  We have to be there so long so they can take a lot of blood samples.

This is our last day at Grizzy House... we move to Ronald McDonald House tomorrow.  Courtney was concerned that they didn't have maid service at RMH like they do here.  LOL

Thank you dear Lord for hearing and answering our prayers!  Now we will need prayers to get her through these next 4 weeks as there are a lot of side effects.  The nurse said that she may have all the side effect, none of them, or people even make up their own.... Courtney found this funny, and thinks she is going to come out of  this talking Chinese!!  Please nooooooo... I can barely understand her now as she talks too fast... and non-stop!  Ahhhhh.... I love my daughter more than anything... she always makes me smile and laugh so hard, even through all of this.  <3

8:30 pm
Courtney completed her first treatment.  She was doing well at first, and then started to feel achy about 6 hours after... She is resting.  It was a long day.

Treatment

Yesterday we received the results of Courtney's surgery.  As of right now she has a Stage IIC cancer, although the results of the lymph nodes are not back.  I am still praying that this will come back as negative today.  The doctors told us that she has a very high risk melanoma, it is dividing quickly, and it has ulceration. The depth of the melanoma tumor was 7 mm, which is very deep, and the likelihood that it will spread is high.  She will receive the new drug, peg-interferon alpha 2-b.  She will get her line put in today, and she will start her treatment tomorrow.  The first part of her treatment is called induction, and will last for 4 weeks.  She will receive a high dose of interferon alpha 2-b (Intron A) 5 days per week for 4 weeks.  She will also receive something before her treatment to help prevent possible side effects.  The 2nd part of her treatment is called maintenance, which will last 48 weeks.  She will receive Peg-Intron once a week.  Peg-interferon has been used mainly in adults with Hepatitis C.  Peg-interferon has been shown to work just as well or better than interferon.  There are a lot of side effect that i will not get into, but I feel that she will do very well on this as she is otherwise very healthy, young, and very strong.  We have a lot of people praying for my sweet girl, and all I do lately is pray.  I do believe our prayers will be answered, and she will be the percentage that survives this awful diseases.  I was telling a friend this morning that she is going to kick the cancer's ass and then I went on Facebook, and Choose Hope.com has a new shirt that says Kick'n Cancer - one day at a time.  This is Courtney's motto... One-Day-At-A-Time!!  I am learning from her.... I love my daughter so much!!  She has so much life, love, she is so smart, and sooooo funny.  She makes me laugh every day.  I know it may sound corny, but she really is the light of my life as she is such a "sunny" happy person.  <3

Surgery

Courtney had her surgery on Monday, June 6,2011.  Everything went really well.  They did not do a skin graph like they said they would do and just stitched her up, which is good.  Yesterday she had her drain removed and they removed the bandages and it really does look good for the amount of skin they removed.  We were supposed to receive our test results on the lymph nodes, but they will not be in until Monday.  The surgeon did say that her lymph nodes look clear, but we still need to wait for the results as they are doing a more thorough test.  We are so very happy about this.  I was very scared, but I prayed every moment that I got.  So we will know for certain about the lymph nodes on Monday, her stage of cancer, and her treatment plan.  She is really doing great!!  I missed her sunny personality while she was on the morphine, but she is definitely back to her happy self. 

Melanoma Awareness

Please read Ryan Ritchie's Story:   http://www.melanomaawareness.com/

Melanoma Awareness for Teens and Kids/ Beware of Tanning Beds/Salons

Even after my daughter was diagnosed with Malignant Melanoma, her friends are continuing to go to the tanning beds and laying out in the sun without sunscreen.  Teenagers are NOT aware of how deadly melanoma can be, or they just think it will not happen to them.  I, as an adult, was not aware of melanoma and I thought it would not happen to us.  I mistakingly allowed my daughter to go to a tanning booth for 3 one month sessions over the last 2 years, which is not much at all considering how much other teens and kids are going.   I do believe now that there should be a law banning anyone from under 18 years of age from going to tanning salons, as there is just not enough awareness on melanoma out there.  I had NO IDEA that melanoma could spread as fast as it does and go into the organs and can be deadly.  This is absolutely terrifying!!  I thought skin cancer was topical only and was cut out and that was the end of it.... of course I never thought we would even get that.  Melanoma awareness needs to be brought to our middle and high schools as melanoma is on the rise for teens and they also need to know that they can DIE from going to the tanning bed.

Make-A-Wish Foundation

Our social worker at St. Jude told Courtney that she will get a wish from Make-A-Wish Foundation.  This surprised us as I always thought it was for terminally ill kids.  It is for kids with life threatening illnesses, and so many of these children go on and get completely better.  Make a wish is amazing that they help children going through very difficult times to think about something positive.  She is thinking about an international trip or a college scholarship of some kind.  She does get all A's and B's.  I know I will never be able to afford to send her to Australia or Germany, so this is what she is thinking about.  I asked her if I could give her one wish (before we knew about Make a Wish, and she said she wanted me to take her to Disney World.  So I will save all the money I can, and take her and the kids as soon as it is possible. 

St. Jude

We finally got the call from St. Jude and we arrived on Monday, May 23, 2011.  We have had a lot of appointments and they did additional PET scans, an MRI of the brain, and a CAT Scan.  We found out yesterday that the cancer has not spread to her other internal organs, and we were SO HAPPY!!  Yesterday we had an outside appointment to see a plastic surgeon.  They are doing surgery to remove the rest of the tumor on her arm, and will need to take out a lot of the surrounding skin, so she will get a skin graft from her hip.  We are just now waiting for all the doctors to get together and set a date for her surgery as I want to get this cancer out of her body.  Before her surgery, they will shoot dye into her lymph nodes and see if the cancer has spread there.  We will know what stage cancer she has once the surgery is over.  We can check off Stage 4 cancer as it is not in her organs.  Now we need to check off Stage 3 as I feel positive it is not in her lymph nodes.  I will continue to pray.