Great News today! Brent is amazing and has aced his GRE test! I did not know it was possible to get 100% but he did! Congratulations Doodle, you ROCK! Alex and Lukas are very proud of you! I have a feeling Valerie is glowing with pride tonight too!
Wednesday, September 30, 2009
Little Snail- A Poem by Tom
Little snail oh little snail, I have to say I turned a little pale,
when your news came my way, I started to pray.
Happy times, are in my memory set,
so trust in those and do not forget.
You fight an enemy you can not see,
so sharpen your fangs and I'm sure it will flee.
There may be times you're feeling quite frail,
just use your poison beautiful snail.
Do not retreat inside your shell,
I know it must be hard, when you feel so unwell.
Keep your chin up and fight, one day at a time
feeling down is not such a crime.
Little snail oh little snail, I've no doubt you will crawl out the other side victorious,
Now wouldn't that victory, simply be Glorious.
Tuesday, September 29, 2009
Deep Breaths, Snail
Tuesday turned out to a be big day for our little snail. The cat-scan results came back showing a couple spots of pneumonia however the doctors said they caught it really early so they changed her medicines to go after it and told her she needs to walk a lot more. Then Valerie had an allergic reaction to the new antibiotic and had a rash from head to toe etc. Honestly it is a miracle that she has not reacted before, she is severely allergic to penicillin and we have always been scared when she got sick because she was so limited in what she could take. So, they changed her meds again and got the reaction under control. Please pray she reacts ok to the new drugs and her pneumonia clears up quickly.
Valerie decided to take things into her own hands in the afternoon or rather the fabulous hands of Ian the hairstylist. She is a fuzzy snail now and making use of the wonderful hats and such that people have sent her. Mom says she looks cute because her beautiful eyes look huge now! Valerie is upset about it because she thinks she really looks like she is sick now but glad she made the choice.
The final results from the spinal tap came back and there are no signs of the leukemia in her spinal fluid or brain! This is amazing news!
I have not mentioned it before but in the middle of all of this, Brent is studying for his GRE or entrance into grad school test. I understand very little of what Brent does mostly because he is a math genius economist and I can barely do Alex's homework. I do understand this, he has a 4 hour test today, Wednesday, that he has put a lot of pressure on himself for. We all know he is brilliant but it is a difficult test and since he has a few distractions right now we would like to pray for peace and clarity while he is taking his test. We know he can do the rest!
Valerie decided to take things into her own hands in the afternoon or rather the fabulous hands of Ian the hairstylist. She is a fuzzy snail now and making use of the wonderful hats and such that people have sent her. Mom says she looks cute because her beautiful eyes look huge now! Valerie is upset about it because she thinks she really looks like she is sick now but glad she made the choice.
The final results from the spinal tap came back and there are no signs of the leukemia in her spinal fluid or brain! This is amazing news!
I have not mentioned it before but in the middle of all of this, Brent is studying for his GRE or entrance into grad school test. I understand very little of what Brent does mostly because he is a math genius economist and I can barely do Alex's homework. I do understand this, he has a 4 hour test today, Wednesday, that he has put a lot of pressure on himself for. We all know he is brilliant but it is a difficult test and since he has a few distractions right now we would like to pray for peace and clarity while he is taking his test. We know he can do the rest!
Monday, September 28, 2009
O2 for the Snail
We have lots of numbers and tests to update you on today. Valerie's preliminary spinal tap test came back good and they are running some more tests. Valerie has been put on oxygen because she was not getting enough and they are doing a chest ray and a cat-scan to make sure she is ok. Her WBC's were 200, RBC's at 8.9 and platelets only at 10,000 so they gave her platelets today. She is feeling better today because of the oxygen and platelets are just fabulous!
For anyone in Denver, Cathryn has set up a Team Snail for the Light the Night Walk on Thursday night. Visit
For anyone in Denver, Cathryn has set up a Team Snail for the Light the Night Walk on Thursday night. Visit
Saturday, September 26, 2009
Good Luck Ladybug For the Snail
They say that when a ladybug lands on you it is good luck. Well, this ladybug tried really hard to land on Valerie. Sorry for the bad picture but I took it with my phone. This ladybug landed on Valerie's 8th floor window!A Tropical Snail Focus
I think it was the first day we were here but Brent told Valerie that when this is all done she could pick any trip for them to go on. She chose Kauai! Brilliant idea for many reasons but it has given her something to focus on in some bad situations like the inside of an MRI or during a lot of pain. So we took the tropical theme to another level! Here is a pictures of her room:
Tropical everything! Bright colors, the digital frame filled with 700 pictures of everyone and everything she loves and all of the cards taped to the wall.
Snail's "Vegetarian" Snack
Yesterday was a really hard day for Valerie. She had the spinal tap and the bone marrow biopsy at the same time and all of the pain meds they gave her made her really sick. She had to spend 4 hours laying flat on her back after the procedures but thankfully she was able to sleep for most of that time. All of this took up a good portion of the day and she was also able to sleep pretty well last night.
We are in waiting mode this weekend because we will not get the results of either test until at least Monday. Today has been a good day so far with no real events to speak of except she is getting 2 Twilight "not so vegetarian" snacks today. She will need red blood cell and platelet transfusions about every other day now. We are so grateful for the people who do this out of the kindness of their hearts or for college beer money, either way it is keeping her safe and she feels so much better afterward.
I head back to Colorado again tomorrow so my update will be late in the evening.
We are in waiting mode this weekend because we will not get the results of either test until at least Monday. Today has been a good day so far with no real events to speak of except she is getting 2 Twilight "not so vegetarian" snacks today. She will need red blood cell and platelet transfusions about every other day now. We are so grateful for the people who do this out of the kindness of their hearts or for college beer money, either way it is keeping her safe and she feels so much better afterward.
I head back to Colorado again tomorrow so my update will be late in the evening.
Symptoms To Look For?
I have had a lot of people ask me what were the symptoms that lead Valerie to go to the doctor. Well first of all we are grateful that she listens to Brent because Mom and I had been telling her to go for a couple of weeks but she finally did because he said she should. The doctors said that Valerie had only been sick for about a month. My disclaimer for this is of course that these were Valerie's symptoms. I have no idea if this is normal or what someone should look for. Each thing was not that weird but together they were nasty.
First she had really weird muscle spasms in her legs. Kind of like a charlie horse you might get in your leg but in her ankles and feet for about a week. She could not even drive and the pain was horrible. Next she had horrible bruises that she just thought were from rough surf when she and Brent went boogie boarding. After that we thought her chiropractor had broken her ribs during an adjustment. Turns out he might have but only because her bones were delicate from the leukemia. The last symptom was a ton of tiny broken blood vessels all over her body.
Lesson here, listen to your body! It is telling you something! Even if you are young, go in for yearly check ups and be demanding for your health. Valerie's doctor just thought she had taken too much Motrin over the weekend because of her ribs. Valerie had to insist she run blood work. I can't even think about what would have happened if the little snail had not been persistent.
First she had really weird muscle spasms in her legs. Kind of like a charlie horse you might get in your leg but in her ankles and feet for about a week. She could not even drive and the pain was horrible. Next she had horrible bruises that she just thought were from rough surf when she and Brent went boogie boarding. After that we thought her chiropractor had broken her ribs during an adjustment. Turns out he might have but only because her bones were delicate from the leukemia. The last symptom was a ton of tiny broken blood vessels all over her body.
Lesson here, listen to your body! It is telling you something! Even if you are young, go in for yearly check ups and be demanding for your health. Valerie's doctor just thought she had taken too much Motrin over the weekend because of her ribs. Valerie had to insist she run blood work. I can't even think about what would have happened if the little snail had not been persistent.
Friday, September 25, 2009
Stem Cells? Or Snail Cells?
Thank you for all of the wonderful offers to get tested for the stem cell transplant. The doctors are telling us that after Vanessa and I they will go directly to the national transplant list and not test any other family members or friends. Valerie has very specific markers that will make it harder to match but he is very confident they will find a match quickly. After siblings, anyone has the same chance of being a match for Valerie. If you would like to be put on the transplant list please visit www.marrow.org or www.sandiegobloodbank.org however this will put you on the national registry and not specifically for Valerie! You will possibly be saving someone elses loved one!
For more information on stem cell transplants you might want to look over this: http://www.leukemia-lymphoma.org/attachments/National/br_1203086953.pdf This pdf is about 60 pages and I have not read the whole thing but it is the best info we have found.
The tentative schedule of events that the doctor shared with us last night is as follows:
Today, spinal tap and bone marrow biopsy (she is down there as I type this). She was very anxious about these procedures so they gave her Adavan.
Between now and around the 2nd week of October Valerie is going to be recovering from her first round of chemo.
The 2nd week of October she will probably get to go home for a week or so. During this week she will be going to appointments and getting ready to check back into Scripps and planning to check into UCSD for the transplant. This is also the week that Vanessa and I will be tested to see if we match.
Around the 3rd week of October Valerie will back into Scripps for another round of chemo. The time that it takes to work all of this out will be too long for her not to have another round, the leukemia will be back.
After this 2nd round she will have some recovery time and then she will be transferred to UCSD for a massive chemo which they call transplant preparation. Right after that will be the transplant.
Of course this all depends on what they find in the spinal tap today. If they find leukemia in the spinal fluid then we have a whole different plan of action to tackle. The MRI came back clean yesterday, which is a praise!
There is still a long fight ahead, keep praying!
For more information on stem cell transplants you might want to look over this: http://www.leukemia-lymphoma.org/attachments/National/br_1203086953.pdf This pdf is about 60 pages and I have not read the whole thing but it is the best info we have found.
The tentative schedule of events that the doctor shared with us last night is as follows:
Today, spinal tap and bone marrow biopsy (she is down there as I type this). She was very anxious about these procedures so they gave her Adavan.
Between now and around the 2nd week of October Valerie is going to be recovering from her first round of chemo.
The 2nd week of October she will probably get to go home for a week or so. During this week she will be going to appointments and getting ready to check back into Scripps and planning to check into UCSD for the transplant. This is also the week that Vanessa and I will be tested to see if we match.
Around the 3rd week of October Valerie will back into Scripps for another round of chemo. The time that it takes to work all of this out will be too long for her not to have another round, the leukemia will be back.
After this 2nd round she will have some recovery time and then she will be transferred to UCSD for a massive chemo which they call transplant preparation. Right after that will be the transplant.
Of course this all depends on what they find in the spinal tap today. If they find leukemia in the spinal fluid then we have a whole different plan of action to tackle. The MRI came back clean yesterday, which is a praise!
There is still a long fight ahead, keep praying!
Thursday, September 24, 2009
NEED SNAIL PICTURES!!!
If you have a moment or are going somewhere cool, email me a picture of you with the snail! She saw Lynn's yesterday and it made her laugh and we need more of that! mwilson16@hotmail.com
Also, you can make comments on this blog! Let me know if you have any trouble.
Also, you can make comments on this blog! Let me know if you have any trouble.
Ok, Plan B or S
The majority of Valerie's day was uneventful yesterday mostly filled with napping and talking. Her WBC's were coming back up to 300 and both the internist and infectious disease doctors were happy. Last night her hematology oncologist came in to tell her the results of the genetic testing that they have been conducting on the leukemia bone marrow sample they took the first day she got to the hospital. (Yes, it normally takes this long.) Protein mutation in her stem cells. That means that even if her body makes new good WBC's, they will not be able to see the bad Leukemia cells. They are in camouflage. So there are two things we need to do:
1)There is 3% chance that the leukemia is in the spinal fluid. To check for that, today the neurologist is doing an MRI today and possibly a spinal tap. She is very worried about the spinal tap and if they have to do one we need extra prayer to calm her fears. Let's just pray she does not have to have one. If it is in her spinal fluid they have to use a different kind of chemo, regular chemo will not pass the blood brain barrier.
2)Even though the oncologist thinks she is in remission now, the type of cancer cells she has, conventional chemo will not cure her completely. She will have to have an extremely large dose of chemo to kill off all of her bone marrow and then a stem cell transplant. Vanessa and I have the best chance of matching her (18%) because even though stem cell transplants are basically just blood, they have to match like a bone marrow transplant. We have always been really close sisters and we joke that in our family the genes run thick so let's pray one of us matches. If Vanessa and I do not match they go to the national registry, friends and family.
We are writing down questions to ask the doctor tonight. This was a lot of information to get yesterday and Valerie was very upset (of course). If you think of any questions, please email me at mwilson16@hotmail.com
Valerie's spirit was broken last night but as usual Brent came thru and used that magic that we are so blessed that he has. He talked and joked, using that perfect mix of serious crazy smart and funny and sweet that he has. He calmed her down and now we are ready to start Plan B. Plan B is a harder plan, it is not that one we were hoping for but it is still a complete cure and it is indeed a plan.
1)There is 3% chance that the leukemia is in the spinal fluid. To check for that, today the neurologist is doing an MRI today and possibly a spinal tap. She is very worried about the spinal tap and if they have to do one we need extra prayer to calm her fears. Let's just pray she does not have to have one. If it is in her spinal fluid they have to use a different kind of chemo, regular chemo will not pass the blood brain barrier.
2)Even though the oncologist thinks she is in remission now, the type of cancer cells she has, conventional chemo will not cure her completely. She will have to have an extremely large dose of chemo to kill off all of her bone marrow and then a stem cell transplant. Vanessa and I have the best chance of matching her (18%) because even though stem cell transplants are basically just blood, they have to match like a bone marrow transplant. We have always been really close sisters and we joke that in our family the genes run thick so let's pray one of us matches. If Vanessa and I do not match they go to the national registry, friends and family.
We are writing down questions to ask the doctor tonight. This was a lot of information to get yesterday and Valerie was very upset (of course). If you think of any questions, please email me at mwilson16@hotmail.com
Valerie's spirit was broken last night but as usual Brent came thru and used that magic that we are so blessed that he has. He talked and joked, using that perfect mix of serious crazy smart and funny and sweet that he has. He calmed her down and now we are ready to start Plan B. Plan B is a harder plan, it is not that one we were hoping for but it is still a complete cure and it is indeed a plan.
Tuesday, September 22, 2009
Go Team Snail!!
Valerie's nickname had always been "Peanut" but sometime in college Vanessa decided to start calling her "Snail". I honestly have no idea how it started but it stuck so Valerie Gail became the "Snail". After Valerie's diagnosis she decided that a snail is not usually much of a fighter so she was a ferocious, venomous snail! And so Team Snail was born. My friend Ben made this snail for Valerie and it has such wonderful details. All of her favorite colors, stars stamped on its shell, baby fangs and a "peanut" colored shell.
We have come up with a great way to show Valerie how much we are thinking about her. Copy this snail and take a picture of you with it anywhere! Make a t-shirt, put it on your phone, on the fridge or whatever create thing you can come up with! Try to take your picture with your snail in the most creative place you can! Need some inspiration... MckMama started a name gallery for her son Stellan and we need a Snail gallery for Valerie. Have some fun with it and email me pics so I can post them to share!
We have come up with a great way to show Valerie how much we are thinking about her. Copy this snail and take a picture of you with it anywhere! Make a t-shirt, put it on your phone, on the fridge or whatever create thing you can come up with! Try to take your picture with your snail in the most creative place you can! Need some inspiration... MckMama started a name gallery for her son Stellan and we need a Snail gallery for Valerie. Have some fun with it and email me pics so I can post them to share!
The Snail Days After
She is down to 100 WBC's today and her platelets are at 19,000 so she feels bad. The sores in the throat are bad and are making it very hard to eat or drink anything. Yesterday she had a pain level 6 on the 1-5 scale so she needed a double dose of pain meds. Please pray for pain management. She still has no infections which is an answer to prayer and she is almost at lowest of 0 WBC's. Yesterday they started giving her Neupregen to build her WBC's back and will continue today. She told Mom today, she just wants to start feeling better and everyday she seems to feel worse. Mom tried to remind her that the end goal is a cure and she tried to smile. Please pray for her spirit, the nurses all agree it is the best medicine!
We love you all, thank you for the continued support and prayer.
I will be flying back to San Diego tomorrow night and practically passing my mom in the air so, the next update will be Tuesday night or Wednesday.
We love you all, thank you for the continued support and prayer.
I will be flying back to San Diego tomorrow night and practically passing my mom in the air so, the next update will be Tuesday night or Wednesday.
Sunday, September 20, 2009
Snail's 1st Round Down!
Platelets down to 50,000 and WBC's at 300, soon they will be 0. An answer to prayer! Valerie had her transfusion yesterday and it went great. She was hoping to have more energy than she does but she did not have a bad reaction which is always a possibility when transfusing.
She finished her first round of chemo today!!! Now the waiting starts but first a quick trip outside! The nurses got permission to put a mask, gown, etc on her and take her outside for the first time in 10 days. She got to go out by the waterfall and the rose garden and even saw her favorite "hoppy" bird (I think they are sparrows). We are hoping this treat will lift her spirits a bit since she has been pretty down since Wednesday.
Thank you for your continued prayers!
She finished her first round of chemo today!!! Now the waiting starts but first a quick trip outside! The nurses got permission to put a mask, gown, etc on her and take her outside for the first time in 10 days. She got to go out by the waterfall and the rose garden and even saw her favorite "hoppy" bird (I think they are sparrows). We are hoping this treat will lift her spirits a bit since she has been pretty down since Wednesday.
Thank you for your continued prayers!
Saturday, September 19, 2009
Snail's Last Bag
Last bag of chemo went up today so tomorrow is a huge celebration!!! 1st round, check! Everyone can have a little mini celebration at around 2:30pm Pacific Time. She is really really tired today and very sick to her stomach. It has been a long day but she should receive the transfusion soon and that should make her feel better. My mom sent out an update to some of you this afternoon so I apologize if you are seeing this twice:
"I wanted to thank all of you who have prayed for Valerie, called or e mailed us or sent flowers and cards. They have all been so very appreciated. I am limited to the e mail I have with aol so if I don't have someones e mail they are not included in this I would appreciate it if you would send this to other family members and friends who may to be in this list. Valerie is in day 6 of the first 7 day chemo set that is meant to take her blood counts (red and white, platelets and all) way low killing all bad cells, the problem is it kills the good one too. She still need all the prayers she can get, specifically pray for a full recovery, without leftover side effects. Right now pray against infections within her body and that when the first chemo group is complete on Sunday morning she can begin to regenerate good healthy cells within her body. Unfortunately the did let her know that she will have other courses of Chemo with her specific type she has to be in hospital. Please also pray for her emotional state it has sunk in in the last two days, she is "with it" enough to be understanding what has happened and what she is in for in the near future. She has a very hard road ahead of her. Because the costs that wont be covered (they are going to be "scary") our family has set up a Foundation where she can receive donations to assist her. Any donations for Valerie can be made out to "Valerie Seastrom Foundation" and sent to either my home, (744 Amanda Pines Drive Parker, Co 80138) Chris Rediger (7535 S. Jackson Gap Way, Aurora Co 80016) or directly to the bank at U S Bank, 22675 Aurora Parkway, Aurora Colorado 80016. I want to thank Chris, Greg and GayLynn for making this happen for Valerie. I find it still very hard to leave her side. Things change hourly here and we are grateful for a terrific team of Dr's and nurses that study her numbers and medical treatments everyday and change course or stay on track accordingly. Everyday is a new adventure and with the strength from our Lord in Heaven she will get through this! Thank you again for all your prayers and gifts for Valerie. PS if you have an extra second pray for Mom to stay strong too, I am finding it though sometimes."
I added a lot of people to the distro today so let me recap a few things:
Valerie has limited visitors because her immune system is so low, even though I know she would love nothing more than to see her friends and family.
If you would like to send her an email please send it to me and I will get it to her right away.
If you would like to send a card or something please send them to: Valerie's apartment at Valerie Seastrom 4445 Fanuel Street #5, San Diego, CA 92109 (her roommate can bring it to the hospital) or Brent's apartment at Brent Faville 2032 Cypress Ave. #19, San Diego, CA 92104 (he lives really close to the hospital and goes home every once in a while).
She is not allowed to have flowers but any flowers she received early on she was able to enjoy and then I took a ton of pictures of all of them. This gave us a great idea! Bob bought Valerie a beautiful and huge digital frame and I built a memory card with about 200 pictures to brighten up her room. She loves to see everyone's smiling faces and watches it everyday. 200 sounds like a lot but it was actually a quick job because I did not have my picture files and they repeat a bit too often. While I am home I am going to build a bigger card with probably about 500 pictures so if there are any you did not send me before please do by Monday morning so I can make sure it is ready for when I leave on Tuesday.
If you were just added and want to get caught up, just scroll down. All of the past emails are below.
Go Team Snail!
"I wanted to thank all of you who have prayed for Valerie, called or e mailed us or sent flowers and cards. They have all been so very appreciated. I am limited to the e mail I have with aol so if I don't have someones e mail they are not included in this I would appreciate it if you would send this to other family members and friends who may to be in this list. Valerie is in day 6 of the first 7 day chemo set that is meant to take her blood counts (red and white, platelets and all) way low killing all bad cells, the problem is it kills the good one too. She still need all the prayers she can get, specifically pray for a full recovery, without leftover side effects. Right now pray against infections within her body and that when the first chemo group is complete on Sunday morning she can begin to regenerate good healthy cells within her body. Unfortunately the did let her know that she will have other courses of Chemo with her specific type she has to be in hospital. Please also pray for her emotional state it has sunk in in the last two days, she is "with it" enough to be understanding what has happened and what she is in for in the near future. She has a very hard road ahead of her. Because the costs that wont be covered (they are going to be "scary") our family has set up a Foundation where she can receive donations to assist her. Any donations for Valerie can be made out to "Valerie Seastrom Foundation" and sent to either my home, (744 Amanda Pines Drive Parker, Co 80138) Chris Rediger (7535 S. Jackson Gap Way, Aurora Co 80016) or directly to the bank at U S Bank, 22675 Aurora Parkway, Aurora Colorado 80016. I want to thank Chris, Greg and GayLynn for making this happen for Valerie. I find it still very hard to leave her side. Things change hourly here and we are grateful for a terrific team of Dr's and nurses that study her numbers and medical treatments everyday and change course or stay on track accordingly. Everyday is a new adventure and with the strength from our Lord in Heaven she will get through this! Thank you again for all your prayers and gifts for Valerie. PS if you have an extra second pray for Mom to stay strong too, I am finding it though sometimes."
I added a lot of people to the distro today so let me recap a few things:
Valerie has limited visitors because her immune system is so low, even though I know she would love nothing more than to see her friends and family.
If you would like to send her an email please send it to me and I will get it to her right away.
If you would like to send a card or something please send them to: Valerie's apartment at Valerie Seastrom 4445 Fanuel Street #5, San Diego, CA 92109 (her roommate can bring it to the hospital) or Brent's apartment at Brent Faville 2032 Cypress Ave. #19, San Diego, CA 92104 (he lives really close to the hospital and goes home every once in a while).
She is not allowed to have flowers but any flowers she received early on she was able to enjoy and then I took a ton of pictures of all of them. This gave us a great idea! Bob bought Valerie a beautiful and huge digital frame and I built a memory card with about 200 pictures to brighten up her room. She loves to see everyone's smiling faces and watches it everyday. 200 sounds like a lot but it was actually a quick job because I did not have my picture files and they repeat a bit too often. While I am home I am going to build a bigger card with probably about 500 pictures so if there are any you did not send me before please do by Monday morning so I can make sure it is ready for when I leave on Tuesday.
If you were just added and want to get caught up, just scroll down. All of the past emails are below.
Go Team Snail!
Friday, September 18, 2009
Snail's Shower
Great morning before I left to go home for a few days. She slept really well and got to take a shower and wash her hair which made her feel SO much better all by itself. I was on a plane in the afternoon so here are the numbers I was given. Her platelets were super high (well, you know what I mean) at 99,000 and White Blood Cells (WBC's) at 500 and no that is not a typo. Red blood cells are low and the doctor was hoping to wait until Friday to transfuse her.
Thursday, September 17, 2009
Crazy Killer Snail!
I am sorry for the delay in my email update I spent the night at the hospital so that Brent could get a good night sleep and Valerie has had a rough day today.
To fill you in on yesterday first, we had great news! Her wbc's were down to 4,000 and her red blood cells were a little bit low but safe with platelets holding steady. The amazing part was the doctor walked in almost laughing because her ldh (ratio of dying cells basically) was 17,600! A normal high for chemo is 600! She was killing the leukemia 29.3 times the normal high. Her oncology hematologist said he has never seen a kill rate as high as hers! She is avoiding any of the major complications that could happen from loosing this many cells this fast, so far! She is cautiously optimistic and is terrified that people are going to stop praying. I know you are not going to but because I am a good big sister I will make sure. Everyone needs to keep praying, we are not out of the woods yet and although we are thrilled to celebrate the small victories we are still in a marathon not a sprint! :)
Today's update:
About
I would like to take a moment to mention Valerie's boyfriend, Brent. Nettie and Jessa Faville are on this distro and are Brent's mom and sister and forgive me, I am a little tired and not as eloquent as I would like. I adored Brent the second I met him months ago but I had no idea how truly amazing he was. He has been Valerie's rock the entire time and is the person she looks to for everything. I realize this is a lot for him but he is so quick with the right words, consistent with his facial expressions when the doctor talks and unbelievably wonderful. I feel truly blessed to have him as part of our family and grateful beyond words that my baby sister has him to lean on. Thank you, Nettie, he is truly a gift!
I will be continuing my updates from
Tuesday, September 15, 2009
Snail's Bessie and Elle
Good Morning All,Well after much needed sleep I can fill you in on Valerie's Monday. Well as Monday's usually go it was a hard day. She woke up feeling really nauseous and then all of the sudden had horrible pain in every joint of her body. After enough pain killers to take down an elephant she finally was comfortable or at least fairly ok. She finished the first kind of chemo yesterday, it is an awful brown orange color and Valerie has been calling it pumpkin juice. So, just the clear chemo or "cheap vodka" is left to go. We have names for everything! She received platelets again yesterday (bag of beer, do you notice a theme?) and she felt much better after that as well. Now for the good news... her white blood cells are down to 25,000!!! To recap a normal person is 10,000 and she was at 133,000. The doctors were very happy and said she does not have any of the side-effects that happen when leukemia "zucchini" dies this fast but that may be why she is having the joint pain.
Other nicknames include:
IV stand= Bessie the cow (udders and everyone has to move out of her way)
Leg compressors= Jelly fish
Breathing exercise thing= Elle (has a trunk like an elephant)
Platelets= Heferwisen (some kind of beer)
Monday, September 14, 2009
Snail's Like Milkshakes
Today was the second day of chemo and proving to be a bit harder than the first however, Valerie did wonderful and fought thru. Her platelet count was down to 18,000 (normal is 140,000) however the White Blood Cells were down to 95,000 (normal 10,000). She was a little nauseous and pretty tired but she still managed to take 2 walks around her floor and ate a pretty good amount. For those of you who do not know, Valerie is gluten-free and that is proving difficult with the hospital food but today they sent her a nutritionist and she created a protein milkshake that Valerie can have. YEAH! Milkshake was a big hit and gave her the strength for her second walk. She is showing some signs of Tuberlosis (sp?) which is when the WBC can bunch up trying to get out of the kidneys but the doctors feels it is manageable and not something to worry about now. Keep praying everyone, she can feel the peace and positive energy from all of the prayers and love. She is our little tiger my Mom says but my step-dad says she is the bunny from the Monty Python movies? I have no idea but all I know is she is tougher than I ever could be and it is because she knows she is loved!
Thank you for all the amazing pictures! I will give her the frame tomorrow and I just know she is going to freak!!!!
Sunday, September 13, 2009
Snail's 1st day of chemo
Hello Again,
The email list is slowly growing but if you know of someone I need to add just let me know via email and I will. Valerie had a great day today which is an answered prayer. She was eating and talking and being much more like herself. Tomorrow may be harder because with her second day of chemo and the side effects will start setting in but we are thrilled for the day we had. Platelets were 23,000 today so they dropped down but she held them for longer than they thought she would. The doctor said he was "very pleased with how she was responding". Yeah!!!
I will update again tomorrow but for now, sleep.
Saturday, September 12, 2009
Not Snail Mail
This is the first of a daily email that I will be sending out to update everyone on the Valerie Family and Friends list. If there is someone I have forgotten please email me their address and I will add them right away. We love all of the amazing messages, flowers, texts and everything else and we are truly blessed however, I am trying to streamline communication and make sure everyone gets some info asap. Here is the update I sent out last night and I will send another today after I get more email addresses.
Friday, September 11, 2009
Snail's Love Flowers
Thank you for all of the amazing flowers! They brought a huge smile to Valerie's face and still do thanks to a decent camera and a beautiful digital frame.
Thursday, September 10, 2009
The Day That Turned Into Snail Hell
Ok here is the update, Valerie has Acute Myloid Leukemia M4 stage. It could be better, it could be worse. The meds they gave her last night are starting to work her white blood cell count is now 111,000 yesterday it was 133,000. Platelets are now 42,000 instead of 1,000. WBC are supposed to be 10,000 and platelets 140,000. She will be doing chemo for 8 days and then at least 3 weeks of recovery. She will be in the hospital for 4 weeks. There are a lot of other meds that make up the cocktail. She has a 75% chance of remission and she is young which is good. We are still taking it hour by hour, day by day. She needs to get thru this week first. She loves loves loves all the flowers but she will not be able to have them after the next couple of days, she can have pictures and drawings and balloons. What she needs more is prayer. Thank you for all of the love she is a blessed girl to have all of you!
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