Long overdue

Oh my, it's been too long.  I apologize for not keeping up with Maggie's blog the way I did in the past.  It's a good thing though.  It means things are "normal."

So what is new?  Maggie turned 7 in October.  Seven!  It's hard to believe.  She started 1st grade this fall and loves it.  She loves her teacher, school, but of course her favorite thing about school is recess.  She spends all of her time on the monkey bars.  This summer her goal was to cross them.  She is still working on it (we find that her strength and gross motor skills are a bit behind the rest of her peers, but what can you expect when you started walking at 3?)  She is very determined to the point that she came home from school with different pants on from the nurse's office because she fell so many times that she skinned her knees and was completely muddy.

Maggie enjoys to read and write.  She has said that she would like to be an author and illustrator when she grows up.  She wants to work in a library so she can sell her books.  She can be seen in bed or at her table at night writing story after story (when she should be sleeping).

This fall for Maggie's 6 month check-up, rather than driving to Dayton, we transitioned to the children's hospital in Akron.  Dr. French, who will always be my hero, moved to South Carolina and we thought it would be a good time to make the move as well.  Appointments were always a very long day with travel time being up to 6 hours.

We had a very good appointment, receiving good counts and meeting Maggie's new oncologist, Dr. Savelli.  She was warm and optimistic.  Dr. Savelli wants to move Maggie to the survivor clinic.  She believes that the likelihood of Maggie's leukemia coming back is very low.  She wants to focus more on long-term studies and effects.  The survivor clinic consists of Maggie meeting with many different specialists; oncology, physical therapy, psychology, a tutor, cardiology, and others that I am forgetting.  They track the patient and watch for side effects from chemotherapy.

This February will be Maggie's 5 year anniversary off of treatment.  It will be a celebratory time- a big moment in this journey!

We had family pictures taken again this summer by Summer Kellogg.  She does a wonderful job!  If you would like to see how our family has grown, please stop over to her blog. http://summerkphotography.blogspot.com/2014/07/the-b-family.html

I can't thank you enough for continuing to follow along with us in this journey.  Though updates are few, we still are very aware of where we've been and hope never to go back.  I pray daily for Maggie to remain healthy and free from cancer and hope you might too.

Blessings to you as we approach this holiday season!

4 YEARS

Today marks 4 years off chemotherapy.  Four years ago yesterday, we gave Maggie her last dose of chemo, but we didn't know it at the time.  We have followed other families who have gone through cancer journeys and have read about their "No more chemo" celebrations.  We, however, have not had these celebrations because Maggie still doesn't know what happened.  We have chosen to wait to tell her, but there are times that she will ask questions.  Just the other day she saw the scars on her chest and asked what they were from.  After giving her a simple explanation, that was enough for her.  Going to Dr. French's office periodically is something she assumes probably everyone does.

So, rather than a loud celebration, Andy and I reflected on those memories 4 years ago quietly within our own minds.  To be honest, I didn't even know when her last day of chemo was and had to look back on the blog to find it.  When on there, I started reading through some of the experiences we had leading up to ICU and then just the beginning of ICU.  I couldn't read on.  It was too difficult.  Four years isn't enough time and who knows if we'll ever be able to read it.

Maggie is doing very well.  She is enjoying kindergarten and has decided when she grows up she wants to be a teacher and artist.  She plays teacher at home all the time with us being her pupils.  She continues to show us how incredibly sweet, gentle and kind she is.  There isn't another little girl that is so tender-hearted as Maggie.

On Monday, we head to Dayton for what will likely be the last time.  We received word that Dr. French will be moving down to North Carolina to continue his practice.  We moved up our appointment so that we could see him one last time.  Maggie will receive an echocardiogram and EKG, along with a full panel blood workup.  I expect it to be a bit difficult saying goodbye (most likely for me).  Dr. French has been with us since day 1 and has seen Maggie progress from an 8 1/2 month old baby into a beautiful six year old girl.  With him leaving, we have decided this would probably be a good time to transition to Akron Children's hospital's hematology/oncology department.  It is a very long trip going to Dayton (though as long as everything goes well, we move to check-ups every 6 months).  It will be much more convenient to go to Akron for appointments.  We will plan on saying goodbye to our doctors and nurses that have been with us from the beginning and we will most likely say goodbye to our old "Maggie house" and Dayton.  I don't expect we will go back for a very long time.

We continue our journey, though we are much quieter on this space than before.  We appreciate your continuing to follow with us and for the prayers that might be said for Maggie.  I pray every night that the disease will never return.  This will be my prayer always.

Happy Birthday, Maggie!

I apologize for my lack of updating.  We have had so much going on that I would like to share with you.  First, today is a special day for our family.  Maggie turned six today.  I can hardly believe we have a six year old.  As I reflect back on her life, I can remember Andy and I thinking we might not even see her turn one, and here we are, celebrating six years!  We've come so far.

Another big event in our lives that I have yet to share with you is Maggie's beginning kindergarten.  This fall, Maggie was all smiles as she walked into the building and never looked back.  When I picked her up at the end of the day and asked her how school was, she responded, "It was awesome!"  She continues to enjoy school and her teacher says that she is a really hard worker.

In November, Maggie will go back to see Dr. French for check-up.  She is going every four months.  Please continue to pray that Maggie remains healthy and cancer-free forever.  We also thank you for your continued prayers and following our family through the blog (though I do a terrible job of updating).

Maggie's first day of school (8/20).

A cool day at the zoo (9/22)

Happy Birthday, Maggie!

Birthday fun at Chuck E Cheese

Five Years

Today marks our five year anniversary (or crapiversary) of the day that Maggie was diagnosed.  It's a bittersweet feeling, knowing that we've come so far, however it's changed our life so much.  We spent the day doing normal things and celebrated with Maggie's choice of dining, tacos at Chipotle.  Maggie doesn't know anything about this day, nor anything about what she (or we) have been through.  We don't feel that she needs to know anything about that until she's older.  When we go to Dr. French's, it's just a doctors visit to her.  We are so thankful that she does not remember anything about her treatment.

Maggie finished preschool this May.  She loved it and we saw her come out of her shell because of it.  She will speak to others when spoken to, and is not nearly as shy as she once was.  When Maggie was diagnosed, Dr. French read us all the possible side effects to the drugs she would be receiving.  No parent wants to hear those things, and we have wondered how Maggie would develop.  After going through parent teacher conferences and kindergarten screening, we are happy to hear that Maggie is right where she needs to be, both intellectually and physically (which is amazing considering Maggie began walking at the age of 3).

Maggie continues to see Dr. French every four months now.  She goes back for her checkup in two weeks.  The checkups continue to make me nervous, but we pray that each one shows that she is in remission always.

In other news, our family has been through some crazy times in the past couple of weeks.  We ended up in ICU with Colin a couple weeks back because of reactive airway disease.  He had a pulse oxygen level of 83 when we went into the clinic and after several breathing treatments they could not get him up above 90.  They ended up transporting him in an ambulance (he called it a bus) to Akron Children's Hospital to the ICU.  During the trip they gave him several doses of steroids and breathing treatments which ended up helping immensely.  He spent several hours in the PICU before they moved him to the floor for observation over night.  He has been diagnosed with asthma and is doing breathing treatments daily so hopefully this doesn't happen again.

During that week, Grant had been at the urgent care because of a swollen lymph node.  After several days, I returned to the doctor because it wasn't getting any better on antibiotics.  Because the lymph node was larger than a walnut, the protocol was to do a CBC to rule out cancer and an ultrasound.  This put great fear in us. Given our history with Maggie, CBC's are a scary thing.  Anytime a doctor is doing one to rule out cancer, it's a very hard time for us.  Grant's CBC showed an elevated white count which most likely showed he was fighting an infection.

We were scheduled to have an ultrasound on Thursday afternoon, but Colin was than admitted into the hospital on Wednesday.  While Andy spent the night with Colin at the hospital, he spoke with the doctors about Grant's lymph node.  I came the next morning to allow Andy to go to work and a doctor came in to take a look at Grant.  She suggested we go right to the ER because it looked infected.  We then spent the morning in the ER while the doctor's ran tests, another CBC (to rule out leukemia), and an ultrasound (to rule out lymphoma and determine what it was).  After a stressful morning, they determined that Grant had an abscess on his lymph node and they scheduled surgery for the evening to drain it.  Colin was discharged from the hospital and Grant was admitted overnight for observation after surgery.  It was a crazy week and couple of days.  We were a popular family in the hospital, unfortunately.  Maggie made a comment during all this madness that both her brothers were sick, so now who was she going to play with?  We found it kind of ironic that Maggie was the most healthy one in our family during that time.

All is resolved now and we can once again live a "normal" life.  We are so grateful for good health and pray that we don't ever have to go through a cancer scare again.  I also pray we never spend another night in the hospital.  Every one of our children have been through a CBC to rule out cancer.  How often does that happen?  My nightly prayer is for good health in our family.  We thank you for your continued prayers for our family, especially Maggie.  We pray that she remains cancer free forever.

This is a picture from a trip to the Cleveland Zoo--One of our favorite things to do this summer.

3 Years

Today marks 3 years off treatment for Maggie.  It was 3 years ago today that we spent the last night in our house not knowing what the next 10 weeks would bring.  Those ten weeks would prove to be the hardest trial we ever faced, even more difficult than being told our daughter had cancer.  We (I) are still traumatized by the events that we faced 3 years ago (as well as almost 5 years ago).  But, we are happy to say we have our little girl and she is a thriving, normal 5 year old.

Just a couple of weeks ago we had Maggie's parent teacher conference and listening to what the teacher had to say made us very proud.  Physically, Maggie can keep up with her peers, though she is timid (and considering that Maggie has only been walking a little over 2 years).  Intellectually, Maggie is right where she needs to be.  She was described as a quiet, respectful, sweet little girl.  We've always known this about Maggie--she really is a sweet, gentle spirit.  Our hearts are exploding with pride and love for her.

Maggie also took her first ballet class this past month.  She spent 4 Sundays dressed in her leotard and learned dance.  This past Sunday they had a mini recital since it was the last class.  Again, we were so happy and proud of her.

It's hard to believe how far we've come and we look forward to continuing this normal journey with Maggie and the rest of our growing family.

The love of big sister and little brother.

Maggie got an award on the last day of ballet.

Maggie and I had a date and went to Miss Molly's Tea Room.
She loved pouring the tea (aka lemonade).

Our Annual Christmas picture

A Peace-Filled Christmas

We continue to remain busy in the Bixler house.  Maggie is doing very well.  She is enjoying preschool and counts down the days that she gets to return.  We all went down to Dayton on Monday for Maggie's clinic appointment to see Dr. French.  He was happy with the way she looked and her counts checked out well again.  We are especially happy for that.  She goes to get her counts checked every three months and it feels like a week or two before we go, something comes up that starts to make us worry.  This time it was petechiae-like spots on her trunk (petechiae often are a symptom of low platelets).  This of course had us scanning her body multiple times daily checking to see if there were more petechiae or more importantly, were they going away.  In the end, they did disappear and did not seem to cause any harm, but it really stressed us out.

With Maggie's doctors appointment and good counts, we have been blessed with a worry-free holiday, the best Christmas present we could ask for.  We go back to visit the clinic in March where Maggie will receive an echo, EKG, and have more involved blood working looking at several organs and how they are functioning.  Please continue to pray that Maggie will remain in remission always and she will not have any long-term effects to the chemotherapy treatment.

Since our last post, Maggie and Colin celebrated their birthday.  Maggie turned 5 and Colin turned 2.  We had several celebrations with our family and Maggie got to go to Chuck E. Cheese for the first time.  She had been asking to go for awhile and we finally took the plunge.  We all had a great time and she was asking to go back the next day.

And finally, we had some family pictures taken by a college friend in November.  She posted some of these pictures and a reflection of our family on her blog.  To view the pictures and read her comments you can click on the following link http://www.runningchatter.com/2012/11/i-offer-no-apologies-for-this-picture.html.  She did a great job of capturing our family on camera.  Thanks again, Summer!

We wish you all a Blessed,  Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year!

Big Family Moments

It has been too long since my last post.  I have wanted to post, but time doesn't allow for it with all the new changes that have entered our life.  But, for now, I have a moment and want to share what we have been up to in the last 4 months.

First, Maggie had her last clinic appointment to see Dr. French almost 2 weeks ago.  Andy and she made the trek down to Dayton together.  Her blood counts looked great (Andy didn't ask for the numbers and they didn't give them so even though it was very hard for me not to know the numbers, I am moving forward knowing she is good).  Maggie told me she talked to Dr. French for the first time.  She is really opening up to others and while her talking was probably a few words, it was an improvement.  Maggie is now 2 1/2 years off treatment- another little milestone.

A big moment in our family's life was the introduction of Grant Sebastian on August 13.  He weighed in at 9 lbs. 6 1/2 ounces.  Another big baby for us!  I was worried about how Colin would welcome him and handle the change, but he has shown us that he is very flexible and ready to be a big brother.  Maggie has been wonderful.  She loves on Grant and wants to hold him all the time.  She is a big help, getting diapers, burp cloths, giving him baths, and calming his fussiness.  Even Colin has joined in the help of trying to change his diaper, not necessarily something I'm ready for, but he is trying to be helpful.  Grant has been a very good baby, sleeping much of the day, and getting up every 2-3 hours during the night.  He seems to be pretty laid back, which is a good quality considering the crazy family he has been born into.  He is able to sleep through the screaming and yelling of children playing (for the most part).  Not to say though that Andy and I aren't really tired and back to the old sleep deprivation that we remember so well with the other two children.

We have struggled for the last almost 4 weeks of illness, which has been very frustrating.  Colin started with the stomach bug for 5 days, gave it to Andy and Maggie, and now we are dealing with colds in our family.  So much so, that we had to take Colin to the ER this morning due to retraction in his ribs, fast breathing, and grunting.  Thankfully he doesn't have pneumonia, but it's just one more thing.  Everyone is sick except for Grant, and I pray it stays that way.  We can't afford to have Grant sick.  So, I am very ready to have some normalcy in life- life that doesn't consist of illness.

Another big moment in our life was Maggie's first day of preschool!  She is going twice a week in the afternoons and was to begin on September 11, however, do to the stomach bug, she missed her first week.  Andy and I were so disappointed, but Maggie didn't seem to mind too much.  She started this Tuesday and loves it!  I was very worried there would be tears, but she left my side and didn't even turn back.  She has really matured in the last year and we are so proud of her.  Four years ago, we weren't sure she would ever see this moment, but here she is and we have met another HUGE milestone!

Maggie's first day of school- 9/18/12

Grant- 5 weeks old

Colin being Colin- 9/16/12