Trip to the Hinterlands and West Coast of Michigan

We just got back from an amazing trip to Western Michigan. A family whose daughter passed away of a brain tumor has a cabin with 5 apartments there in a little town called Wellston. The family lets families who are going through similar trials come and stay for free. It's called Little Mary's after their daughter. The cabin has a large playground and a small lake with a dock and boats. Needless to say, fun ensued. Thank you Maurine and family.

Izzy's counts have been higher through this phase of chemo, so she was feeling well and able to do a ton. We went horseback riding, canoeing, paddle-boating, swimming, dock-diving, etc. It was fantastic.

Izzy has her next chemo day on Monday of next week. We are getting so close to the end of the intense chemo, about 6 weeks left. This trip made us realize how great it will be to have her feeling better.

High Counts, Low pounds

We were happy to find Izzy's counts relatively soaring yesterday. March through May she had about a dozen transfusions between platletts and blood and in June she had about 6 transfusions. But her body is finally picking up the pace and she hasn't needed any blood or platletts for July and August. Now we just have to figure out how to get her to gain some weight. She was at her lowest yesterday...25.7 pounds (Ryan weighs about 24 right now) and her 3T shorts drop to her ankles when she runs (it's actually really cute). The problem is nothing tastes good to her anymore and I guess that's common through this phase. So I let her have a dinner of brownies if that's what she wants. Extra butter, tons of cheese, chocolate milk galore, and full meals at bedtime. I'm sure the rest of us are gaining the weight she's losing :)

So to celebrate high counts and feeling good we FINALLY took Izzy to Chuck E Cheese. Since her first week in the hospital back in March she has been wanting to go. But low counts and scuzzy arcade games don't match. So yesterday was a huge treat for all of us (especially when high on excessive hand-sanitizer and clorox wipes). And Izzy ate 2 1/2 peices of that good 'ol Chuck E Cheese pizza...another win!

I also wanted to thank all y'all again. We have continued to recieve abundant donations, amazing gifts, and dinners sometimes 3 times a week. We could not feel more grateful for the constant show of emotion and generosity. Thank you thank you thank you!