Free Help For Cancer

Wednesday May 12th, 2010

Kayla did not go to school yesterday but she wanted to go today. Her only stipulation was to skip PE, which sounded fine to me. You see in the picture below that they bandaged the area pretty good.  She has never had a bandage like that before. When we took it off it was very slightly bruised with a small red bump where the needle went in. The bandage made it look worse than it actually was.

I surprised Kayla and showed up at school by 12:20 and we had a small celebration with cupcakes for her and her class mates. They all loved it. I did not take any pictures because I do not have permission from the parents to post pictures on the net. What is the point of taking pictures if I have to blur out every face except Kayla’s?

When I picked Kayla up from school and we were walking to the car Kayla says to me “Mom, you know that if they find one leukemia cell in me they will want me to go back on treatment.”

Yes, I say to her, “I know Kayla but lets not think about that right now, lets just enjoy life without chemo.”

She stops and gives me a very serious look and announces the following “If there is leukemia cells I do not want to do anymore treatment!”

My god! What does one say to a statement like that? The consequences of such an action are gruesome.

Here is what I tell her, “Kayla, I forced you to do the treatment the first time when you did not want to do it. No one is going to force you to do anything regarding treatment again. IF something happens we would get all of the information and have a family meeting to discuss everything about it. Okay? No one will force you to do anything you do not want to do. I promise!” She grimly gives me a nod and we proceed to walk to the car. Yowee… Tis gives you a little peek into her mind and how stressful it is to wait for the results.

Earlier that morning Kayla had asked me if we could drive to Shands in Gainsville (a University hospital where she was treated for almost a year and saw friends complete treatment.) She wanted to get the end of cancer song, trophy and ringing of the bell that they do for every child that finishes. I had to I tell her that we could not do that. Little does she know that we have a weekend trip set up. Her trophy that we bought will be ready tomorrow and Bill is going to hide it in his car. She also gets a beautiful blue 1st place ribbon. Her trophy has her name and Cancer Warrior with the date next to it. I think it is really cool.

Earnest Giving weekend is the event that we are attending on the 14th and 15th of May. It sounds like a busy schedule with lots of family fun. If you click on the link it details all of the events.

Thursday May 13th, 2010 Results

Bonnie, one of our nurses from the clinic called me today. The big news was that all of Kayla’s tests results are negative. NO CANCER! The relief that came over me was so profound I cannot begin to tell you. Well, I will try. It felt like a river of water flowing over my body for hours. I was out at a job when I got the call. I immediately called Bill who announced the news to Kayla. Kayla could be heard screaming into the air I AM FREE, NO MORE CHEMO, WHOO – HOO. This was at the top of her lungs and brought a big smile to my face.

The last test result we wait for is the Cytogenetics, which is a cellular-genetic study of her marrow cells. When this is done a report is produced that states how the DNA of her cells look and what the predictions of these are. We have to wait at least ten days for that report. I am so glad we are going for this Earnest Giving Weekend. Timing could not have been more perfect.