Quick ER Run

Izzy has had a few hiccups this month. She felt nasty for a week of steroids (5 days at the beginning of each month). And then Thursday afternoon she got a fever that cost us 6 hours at the ER. The ER doctor wanted to admit her as her ANC was at 600 (500 = neutropenic = automatic admittance). I told him 600 for Izzy is a pretty great number. They are used to normal kids who's counts are 5 to 10 thousand. Anyway she was asking for her chest tube to be unhooked so she could run and requesting Cheetos. So I got a hold of the on-call oncologist and we convinced the ER doctor to let us go home--hallelujah! Fortunately her fever never came back and she's feeling great again. So basically, this is an excuse to post some cute shots!

Lorin has been an amazing source of comfort for Izzy--so sweet!

We went to the Detroit Auto Show with the Maynors today! Emmett and Izzy are buds :)

We brought that place to its knees. The kids tested out the cars nicely.

That's actually a car behind us.

Happy Birthday Izzy!

I've recently heard of some Izzy-update withdrawals...sorry, and thanks for caring...here goes:

Obviously no news is good news. In our case, no news has meant we have had more parties going on than we can handle. And Izzy has been feeling so great and loving every minute of it. Here are some highlights:

Izzy reached her 4 year birthday--a thing I questioned would happen 8 months ago. Whew! For her birthday our Make-a-Wish Stars (a group of students that chose Izzy as their make-a-wish kid to sponsor) set her up with a personal phone call from Dora The Explorer!! Not kidding, Izzy even asked her how she met Boots (her pet monkey). And she told Izzy they met up in a tree and decided to go on an adventure together. It was very surreal to hear this television voice through our phone. The amazing chefs at Cake Nouveau also had a special birthday cake sent to her:

Cory and I continued the spoilage with a b-day trip to Chuck E Cheese with friends: (L to R: Izzy, Lorin, Emmette, Ryan, Chloe, Evan, and Brandon)

For Christmas we met Grma and Grpa in Missourri where my brother's family lives with his wife and 7 kids (aka cousins galore). What a rush of fun and excitement! Izzy particularly loved the 4-wheeler rides!

(L to R: Summer, Lorin, Ryan, Izzy, Kimberly, Juliet)
Uncle Karvel with (L to R) Kimmie, Izzy and Summer.
Finally, for New Year we partied all night with the Maynors and the Ingmires (neighbors, b-school friends, rock-band stars ;). And when I say all night, I mean it--due in part to being snowed-in, we slept over and continued the party in the morning.

Izzy has had to continue bi-monthly blood counts as her dosage is causing her ANC to be a bit lower than where she should be for Maintenance. But all in all she is doing better than I ever thought she would, complete with teasing Ryan non-stop and playing with Lorin constantly! Still too good to be true!
P.S. The generosity toward Izzy and our family has quite overwhelmed us this b-day and holiday season! THANK YOU!