Hip, Hip Hooray!! No chemo this week

After 11 long weeks of Miss Sassy Pants having to go to the hospital for chemo we had our first week off and man did it feel good. We decided to celebrate and use the gift certificates Grandma Burnside gave to us for Christmas and go to the movie and lunch. Izzy has been dying to see Justin Bieber and the boys went to some other movie. We then had lunch at Applebee's and really just enjoyed the day.

This is Izzy and I waiting for the movie to start


This is Tommy and I at lunch


Last night after work I was trying to catch up on a few things online. I was writing back to someone who had left a really sweet comment on Izzy's blog and telling her about the things I've learned with this experience. I wanted to be able to share it with everyone because it is really close to my heart right now. Through this whole thing my Mom has continued to remind me of how important it is to learn from what we are all going through. I really believe that Heavenly Father gives a trials and experiences to teach us something. I have learned a lot and I know I will continue to keep growing from this, but this past week I've really focused on not complaining about what you don't have or feeling bad for yourself for what your dealing with in life. Sure it's not always easy, but who ever said life was easy is crazy! The thing is as sassy as Izzy is she doesn't feel sorry for herself. She has never once said it's not fair that she has to go to chemo each week or why does she have to stop going to dance or pre school and the other kids don't. And honestly not once has she told me that it isn't fair that she doesn't have any hair, in fact instead she has been putting these beautiful scarfs on her head or a long sleeve shirt to make her feel or pretend that she does. This incredible child of mine doesn't want anyone to feel sorry for her because she knows there is no reason to feel sorry for her. She is going to continue on with her life and make the most of what she is going through.







Much Love,

Jennie

Dentist appointment at Primary's

Today Izzy had a dental appointment at PCMC this picture was taken on the way there. I really hate to see her go into surgery. I know this one doesn't compare with her kidney/tumor removal or when they removed her PORT, but it is still really hard. While we were in the waiting room I'll I could think about is how tough she is. She fought us on putting on the pajamas they make her wear, but other than that she was cooperative and brave.

Maybe she didn't want to wear the pj's because she looked so dang cute in her normal clothes ;) When Miss Sassy Pants comes out of sedation she is pretty mean. Today the nurse said she was trashing and pulled out her tube that went into her nose. Hence the reason why Dustin now sends me to get her from the recovery room. Her counts are very low so they were very careful to keep us in our own separate room while she recovered. We came home and she has been sort of out of it most of the day. We were all suppose to go to the Monster Jam with HopeKids, but because of her counts and everything she went through today Izzy and I stayed home and had a girls night in. We watched the Hanna Montana movie and had chocolate ice cream. The picture below is of the boys in their HopeKids t-shirts. They told me the seats were fantastic and it was really loud, but lots of fun.

Aren't they some handsome fellas? I think so!

Much Love,

Jennie

Skating for the first time with Relay for Life

We had a great time last night at the kick off party last night for Relay for Life. Izzy had so much fun that we decided when she is done with her treatment we are going to have a huge party with all our friends and family to celebrate. We signed up a team in honor of Izzy and her fight against cancer. I am so excited to help raise funds for the American Cancer Society!! What a great way to celebrate, remember and fight back. The event for 2011 is being held August 12-13. It is an over night event where teams camp out and walk the track to celebrate those who have beat cancer, remember those we've lost and fight back with those battling now. We would love it if you wanted to become part of our team. You can email us at miss.sassypantsvscancer@gmail.com.

First time skating, it's harder than I remember.


Izzy and baby Elouise. She finally was able to meet my dear friend Kristen's baby girl.


Tommy had fun riding his scooter and learing how to skate for the first time.


Ally and Izzy. Ally is a sweet friend of mine who has kicked cancers butt more than once. She is an inspiration to us! Before we shaved Izzy's hair I showed her pictures of Ally on facebook and told her how beautiful Ally is and when Izzy saw her last night she pulled off her hat and showed her that she had no hair too. You can see in the pictures she was eventually skating without her hat on.


Tommy gave Izzy a rose. Too funny!


Miss Sassy Pants won one of the raffles. She was saying in this picture that it's too heavy.


Much Love,

Jennie

Gnomeo and Juliet with HopeKids

Saturday morning Miss Sassy Pants and I were able to go to a private screening of Gnomeo and Juliet with Hopekids.  Hopekids is an organization for children who are fighting life-threatening illnesses.  They put together special events and activities so they can meet and get to know other kids who are facing similar illnesses.  She was really excited about going to the movie.  I told her she would see kids just like her that didn't have hair and probably had a PICC line in their arm. When we were walking out of the movie she said "I didn't see anyone just like me", I told her it was probably because they were wearing a hat like she was. She also wondered why her Uncle Bobby wasn't there because she said he is special and doesn't have hair either. She is right about that, he is pretty special and we think it was so neat of him to shave his hair. I will forever love this picture below!



Much Love,

Jennie

Valentine Day Chemo

Today Izzy had chemo and was very cute about wanting to do valentines for the medical staff at PCMC. It made me a little sad that she wasn't able to go to her Valentine parties at pre school or dance, but then I remembered that she will have the rest of her life for Valentine parties and what's important right now is keeping her healthy while her immune system is compromised. She got 2 valentines from Primary yesterday and she was really excited about it. Thanks Freddy and Mason! She misses going to Primary and seeing her little friends at church.

Here is Miss Sassy Pants getting an arm squeeze. She really dislikes this part of the appointment. And I know this isn't the best picture, but I hope you can see why I call her Miss Sassy Pants. She was so upset she had to get her blood pressure taken and I told her to smile so I could take a picture of her in the cute new skirt she got, but she was not having it.



No more than 5 minutes later she was happily passing out her valentines to the nurses at clinic. She gave one to each of her doctors too. Her counts were good and they just keep telling us that they are impressed at how well she is handling the chemo. She won't have to go back for chemo for another 2 weeks. Unfortunately, we will be up there on Friday for some dental work and we are hoping everything goes smooth.

After she got her chemo it was off to ICS. We were so glad to run into one of our favorite nurses Caitlyn. She helped Izzy through some tough times. You can see her in one of the pictures on this post, she is walking with Izzy after her surgery. It's kind of weird how you become attached to these nurses and staff. She had a tech that's name was Tommy and we'd call him Tommy the Tech, he was really cute. She was looking for one nurse in particular when we got there and he wasn't on ICS, and luckily Caitlyn knew where he was. If you've been to PCMC you might know him, his name is Irish. Izzy took a liking to him because he liked to tease her and she liked to play with his fart machine. He was on the 3rd floor and when Izzy saw him she got all shy. I had to laugh because he looked like cupid. He had a Valentine tutu on. I don't know how some of these nurses do it sometimes. When I see them I get a little emotional because I think of all that they helped Izzy get through. I will forever be thankful for all the members of the staff at Primary Children's Medical Center who took care of Miss Sassy Pants!!

Happy Valentine's Day and Much Love,

Jennie

What round are we on?? I'm not keeping track or anything

Monday Izzy had another round of chemo this one was a double dose. They also did a ultra sound and a chest x ray to make sure the chemo is doing what it is suppose to do. I don't know why, but I was a little nervous about the whole thing. As it turned out there was not reason to be nervous because the tests all came back great, except for the fact that she's missing her right kidney. LOL! We will continue with the test about every 3 months.

Miss Sassy Pants doctor saw Izzy's head she told her she looked cute and told her Dad it was nice of him to be supportive and shave his hair too. Ha! We all laughed. I know if he didn't already have the same hair 'do as Izzy he would have shaved it all off in a second though. My little brother Bobby wanted to be show his love for Izzy so he actually did shave all his hair off, even his moustache is gone, which is a relief. I was at work when he sent me the picture message and it brought me to tears, he responded with the text that read "You don't have to cry Jen, I'm the one who has to go to church on Sunday".

I have a friend at eBay who is putting together a benefit show for Izzy on February 24th. He is looking for anyone who is interested in helping out with the show by donating items for the silent auction/raffle. Victor is a great person and the first day I got back from work after Izzy's diagnosis he told me how much he wanted to do this for our family. If you have anything or know of any local businesses who would be interested in donating anything from gift certificates to crafts please contact him at victor.fitch@gmail.com. He would like to get an idea of what they will be featuring in the raffle/silent auction to include it in promotions leading up to the show, so please contact him asap.

Much Love,

Jennie

Dentist appt and Chinese New Year

This is Izzy after her dentist appt. We found out that she has a mouth full of cavities, well not really, but she does have some work that needs to be done. We recently had her 6 month check up so I was surprised that she had any cavities. Her oncologist tells us they don't see it happen too often with chemo, but it is known to be a side affect. They tell us it more typical in kids that are also doing radiation. Her dentist wants to remove the broken tooth and put in a space maintainer and take care of some cavities in her molars. We are lucky that her dentist does treatment once a month at PCMC, so he would be able to take care of her there. Miss Sassy Pant's oncologist and dentist will need to consult with one another and decide if it's work that needs to be taken care of immediately or if it can wait 2.5 more months when she should be done with chemo.



Kathleen Owens in our ward brought our family some fun decorations, hats, and a gift card to a local Chinese restaurant to celebrate Chinese New Year. It was so thoughtful of her and it was fun for our family to have a new little tradition to look forward to. Thanks Kathleen!! Dustin's little brother Kevin went on his mission to Taiwan. So this picture is for the Abernethy's in Louisiana. We love and miss you guys! Happy Chinese New Year Hunter, Noah, Kevin, and Katie!

I'll be back soon with some updates on Izzy's chemo appointment yesterday.

Much Love,

Jennie