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On June 1, 2010 our two year old, "Little Air Bear," was diagnosed with Childhood Acute Myeloid Leukemia (AML) Type M7. After enduring 146 days at Primary Children's Hospital, Erin is now in remission and living a full life at home with our family. Her strong will and constant happy smile is an inspiration to us all. Through our difficult circumstances we found great strength and peace in our Savior, Jesus Christ. Thank you for checking in on us.

Friday, October 3, 2014

Hope For Those Fighting

I'm coming to face the fact that I can't forget that my child had leukemia.  My precious daughter had cancer. I haven't blogged much lately because we're in a happy place.  We're where I hoped we'd be - healthily resuming the crazy thing we call family life.  

Most cancer Moms and Dads move on, we're told to.

 But, I can't!  
 I'm online here to help you see there is hope!

There are so many Moms and Dads out there who have found out their precious infant, toddler, child, or teen has cancer.  42 will find out today!  It was the last thing you thought would happen to YOUR family!  What do you do?  After you have overcome the initial shock and bucked up and started into the chemotherapy regime then you get on the world wide web and start typing out questions.  

You ask questions online.  You search google.  You look for survival rates, you look for someone who had the same cancer as your child - down to the very detail of the subtype.  You look for the face of someone who survived.  You type out your greatest fears, the ones you are often afraid to ask the Oncologists.  You look for someone else who is in your situation because, frankly, you feel lost, lonely, and isolated. 

Most of all, you look for hope!

 I have received countless comments and emails from Moms an Dads all over the world who just want to know someone else whose child has survived.  The statistics are such, that survival isn't promised to everyone.  This is the most heart breaking part about childhood cancer.  So many little people pass away each year, not always from the cancer itself, but from the side effects of the treatment.

It is our very nature to want to know that things will be okay.

Our God has promised us that as we "search diligently, pray always, and be believing, . . . all things will work together for our good. " 

Elaine S. Dalton said, "That doesn’t mean that everything will be perfect or that we will not have any trials, but it does mean that everything will be okay if we just “hang in there.”  

If you're like me, you feel like every day you are literally "hanging" in there!

In Mark, the Savior has promised that “all things are possible to him that believeth.  So believe in yourselves. Believe that you are never alone. Believe and hope.  This does not mean that loss of life can be prevented, but it does mean that whatever happens, it will work out for our good.

It is always my desire to help you.  I want to help those of you who are struggling right now.  You are probably sitting in a hospital room, with your very sick child sleeping in the hospital bed next to you.  I wish I could be a little money fairy and pop into your hospital room and give you millions of dollars to ease the financial burden your child's cancer has placed on your family.  That is out of my reach, but what I can do is give you hope.

You can do this!

Yes, it is hard, so hard in every aspect of your life.
But, you are not alone.
God is always aware and He wants you to know that He is there to help you.  You just have to open your heart to feel that love and your pain and the burden you carry will be lifted.

I am also here for you.  
My daughter has been in remission for just over 3 1/2 years.  
Success is out there!  Many don't share the successes because they have moved on.  
They fought the fight and they try not to ever look back.

I am always open to chatting via email about questions, thoughts, concerns, fears, joys.

*****
You can reach me at: littleairbear1@gmail.com

Thursday, September 18, 2014

Floppy Hat Faye

There just couldn't be a word that cancer families fear more than RELAPSE!  September 8th I learned that one of our dear friends' Acute Myeloid Leukemia had relapsed.  The news was heartbreaking for me.

This is sweet little Faye
Just before being diagnosed the first time with cancer in 2011 at the age of 4.  
Isn't she just stunning!


And, one during treatment in 2011


I think I spent the better of two days in a fog with my mind and heart going back and forth between worrying and praying for this family.  Our daugther's were back to back in treatment, albeit in different states, but the internet can do wonders in uniting those across the world struggling with the same trials.


Just shy of THREE YEARS of being in remission, Faye's cancer has returned. 


Faye will now undergo a couple of  rounds of chemotherapy to achieve remission and then she will have a bone marrow transplant.

Faye and her family

It is exactly these situations that pull our heartstrings and help us to look outside of ourselves.  Are we willing to bear one another's burdens?  Are we willing to make the load lighter for someone else?  Are we willing to give up something small or large to benefit another?

I often think about all of those who have donated to our CureSearch Walks and I think about how our family alone has raised well over $15,000 to support childhood cancer research in the last 4 years.  I think about how that starts with just one small donation after another.

Yesterday my husband and I took our two littlest daughters to McDonald's to celebrate their birthdays.  $17 later we had lunch and a playplace to hang out in.  It is odd how we can just swipe our cards so easily for $17 worth of burgers, fries, and drinks.  Yet, SO OFTEN we think twice about giving even just $10 to a great cause.  I am saddened at how much the world can just swipe their cards into debt for meaningless stuff.  I hate that word - STUFF.  It has no substance, no lasting joy, and no loving touch.

What is it about ourselves that we can easily spend $10 on stuff, but not on another's burden?

So, I call you to action.  Step up.  Be better!  Do without.  And, take a moment to find a way to help someone else.  And, if you feel in your heart that you could help Faye's family, then please donate something to help them out. 

You can access their gofundme account at this link to donate to Faye's Family.

You can also read about Faye on her Blog: Floppy Hat Faye.


Wednesday, June 18, 2014

42 Month Clinic - 3 1/2 Years in Remission

First, I have to share something. In a home where cancer is a common word, sometimes our kids just don't use it correctly.  Like, when fighting over who gets the stool at the sink first to brush teeth.  Things might be said like, "well you got the stool first, you always go first".  And then a sibling retorts, "well you got cancer first."  Um, yeah.  I don't really get it either.  But, our older kids were 3 and 4 years old when Air Bear was 2 and got cancer.  So, they really have no idea how awful cancer (and all that comes with it) is.  My son was SO thrilled today that we got to go to Air Bear's Hospital, he yelled as he jumped out of the car to go to Chinese class "I get to go to Erin's hospital today!!"  He loves, like LOVES, like super-duperly loves her hospital.  They have an amazing playroom on the 3rd floor and that is just about all he remembers from the whole cancer experience.  He dreams about living in that playroom.  Our kids are now 6, 7, and 8 and they have odd conversations about cancer.  I try my best to explain what we went through, but they'll never completely understand.  I'm grateful for that.  I'm grateful that they only remember the bright happy things about what we went through. 

Well, let's shout it out!  YIPPEE!!!!  Yippee for another successful hospital visit!  It's amazing how quickly time flies and we don't think about cancer coming back.  I hardly bat an eye about going to get a blood draw now.  I didn't sit and worry if this one would show signs of her cancer coming back.  It is just one of the perks of getting further and further from where we were on June 1st 2010 when we found out our Little Air Bear had Acute Myeloid Leukemia. We are in the clear to come back in one year.  We get a whole 'nother 365 days away from the hospital (and all the memories that come back when I visit).  Niiiiiice.


**Pictures from today's visit**

Playing in the waiting room.  She had just gotten her poke in her arm to draw blood and was a champ at holding still and not crying!  And, she had it all planned out how she was going to pick a prize from the prize box for her sister and brother instead of herself.  Sweet, huh?!




Getting ready for her ECHO
We get these yearly because her hard core chemos can cause future heart damage.

She watched Frozen on the TV while I watched the ECHO of her heart.
Results say everything looks fabulous!  Take that nasty chemo!!!



Her older siblings enjoyed playing in the playroom while they waited!

A new toy in Oncology - she was excited!


She colored a picture for me.
"To Mom - Luve Erin"


She's growing!!
She is in the 0% for weight, but she JUMPED up to the 11% for height! 
Wowzers!


She branched out here and chose chocolate milk instead of Root Beer.

Awww, Dr. Verma . . . let us count the ways we love you!


"Mom, let me listen to your heart."


Labs from 42 Month Clinic
 White Blood Count 6.2 (normal 6.0-10.0)
Hematocrit 40.9 (normal 34.0-40.0)
Platelets 241 (normal 150-400)
ANC 1600 (normal 1500-8500)
 
Previous Labs from 36 Month Clinic
White Blood Count 7.6
Hematocrit 40.1
Platelets 238
ANC 2800

Saturday, March 1, 2014

Childoohd Cancer is Right Next Door

You just never know what the future brings.  A year and a half ago we changed jobs and found ourselves a comfy home in a wonderfully cheery neighborhood.  A few Sundays ago I opened my email to find the most shocking news.  Our 16 year old next door neighbor (and fabulous babysitter) was diagnosed with Hodgkin Lymphoma.  My heart just burst!  It was like all that yucky-cancer-hurt buried inside my heart was burst open and thrust upon someone else.  I wanted to catch all that bad cancer pain in the air and not let it escape to another mother's heart.  I had been there.  Now they are living it - right next door to me!

The minutes after I found out that our own Little Air Bear had cancer my father said we would see great blessing come from this trial.  I firmly feel that.  This blog receives hundreds of hits each day, and over the last 3 years I have received many many many messages and emails from other mothers and fathers who are facing similar trials.  Sharing our experience with childhood cancer has been a great opportunity for me to give back, to help lighten the awfulness of it in others' lives, and to offer a brightness of hope that God is there and that He will lift us through our trials.

I have spent the last month working out a way to help our neighbors lighten their trial.  Childhood Cancer is draining in a million ways, but money is such a hard beastly reality of cancer.  All the food, gas, wear on your car, medical bills, family outings to forget about cancer, follow-up visits, and late effect treatments just add up like crazy all while you're still dealing with the normal financial realities of life.  It is a lifelong burden a family with cancer is faced to deal with.

For the entire month of March P.S. I Adore You will feature our friends as their cancer family of the month.  All donations made that month will go directly to their family.  So, hurry . . . donate and/or shop . . . their super fun items change daily and are discounted a ton!

Directions on how to donate:
Please visit www.psiadoreyou.com.  Once on the P.S. I Adore You website you may (1) choose to purchase something, from which a percentage will go to my neighbor.  Or, (2) you may donate directly by clicking on "Donate to Childhood Cancer" on the top left of the homepage.  The items P.S. I Adore You sells on their site change daily, so feel free to stop by their site a few times this month to see their ever-changing stock of awesome discounted items.

Check out the P.S. I Adore You Facebook Page and "like" them to get daily updates on new items added daily.

Those who donate at least $10 between now and March 10th will be entered into a drawing for a $20 Pizza Pie Cafe Gift Card.  Win win!  Every 10 days a new prize will be announced!