Thursday, January 24, 2008

01/24/2008

Hello Everyone-

There is a petition to have a childhood cancer awareness stamp put in place. Here is a link to the petition, please take a minute and sign it and forward this to all your friends.

http://www.thepetitionsite.com/petition/521710130

Here is the proposal:

As parents whose lives have been forever changed by this disease, we hope that this stamp could be given designation as a symbol for childhood cancer awareness.

By age 20, one child or teen in 330 is diagnosed with cancer. Each year, 12,400 new cases of childhood cancer are diagnosed in the United States. Each school day, 46 children or two entire classrooms of children are diagnosed with cancer. Each day researchers, scientists and physicians come a little closer to finding successful treatments for many childhood cancers, yet approximately 2,300 children and adolescents die each year. More children die of cancer than of any other disease, including asthma, diabetes, cystic fibrosis, congenital anomalies and AIDS, combined.

Motivated by the extraordinary success of the breast cancer stamp, the existence of a "Childhood Cancer Awareness" stamp would serve to promote the awareness of this disease that is plaguing our children.

No parent ever wants to hear the words, "Your child has cancer." Yet one in 330 families in the United States are handed this fate. Please help to promote the necessary advocacy for awareness and research that a "Childhood Cancer Stamp" would provide.

Thank you!

Monday, January 14, 2008

01/14/2008

The MRI results are in and the doctors are saying the tumor is stable.

They said it was a “mixed bag”, one part of the tumor looked good; and one part showed ½ centimeter of growth but the doctors are considering it “stable”. The growth could be tumor growth or swelling from the new drug. The doctors expect to see some growth in the first rounds of the present treatment -- but ½ centimeter is less than they usually see.

Clinically Caitlyn is good and they are proceeding with her treatment today. Treatment usually takes about 4 hours, so they won’t be home till later tonight. The next MRI will be in 8 weeks.

Thank you to everyone for the extra prayers and positive thoughts. Please continue to pray for Caitlyn and her family.

If you would like to leave a message for the family please sign the guest book:
http://pub41.bravenet.com/guestbook/add.php?usernum=3437245337


Thanks again

Tuesday, January 8, 2008

01/08/2008 - Happy New Year!


Well, we made it to 2008. We spent New Years Eve at CMH getting our Chemo. We made it back to grandmas house by 4:30. This is a record for us to get out of CMH. It helped that we were nearly the only ones there. Caitlyn had dinner at Grandmas with her brothers while Jason and I went out for a quick dinner. The snow was so beautiful that evening that the kids and I had fun walking up and down our block in the picturesque snow scene. We also had fun ding dong ditching a few of our neighbors after we sprinkled confetti on their door steps. ( it was only 9pm). They figured out who did it because Jackson went back to tell them who did it. I will never commit a crime with this one.

Caitlyn continues to do well on the outside. Meaning no physical symptoms. It's whats going on inside that has us curious. Is this new chemo working? Will it be our miracle? Well, we will know on Monday she has her next MRI then. So please send some very strong prayers our way. We need a good report. Things look too good on the outside to handle anything less then good.

Thank you for keeping Caitlyn in your hearts and prayers. I'm sorry I don't update as often as I should. But no news is good news. We hope everyone has a good new year. The words thank you are not enough for all that our friends, family, and community has done for our family this past year. When I think back to when Caitlyn was diagnosed I felt a rush of love and compassion that instantly surrounded our family. This came from people whom we knew family and dear friends. It also came from people whom we did not know. That was the most surprising to us. It is so easy to take for granted our live's and the people in them. We do this without intention. It's normal and we all say we want to Cherish life and our families more but day to day life makes that hard. Until something like this hits you and knocks you out of orbit in your own world. This has opened our eyes to the kindness of the world. It is not always easy to see the kindness or the miracles you just have to look at the world in a different way and it is there.

We are moving forward with a new year and new hope that we will have a miracle. For to look back and feel dispair will only make us unable to move. If we are unable to move then we can not see the miracles that each day brings.



Kara