Those of you close to the family know that Brent and Kristen had to take their dog, Whisky, to the Humane Society after the news of ViviAnne's Leukemia. The whole family tried really hard to find him a good home but we never found the right situation for him.
I just got word from the Humane Society that Whisky was adopted on August 2nd. Great news! He is in a good home and living the life he deserves.
Sunday, August 24, 2008
An overdue update...
Posted by Aunt Stacey
Sorry for the delay in updates. It was a relatively good week with not much to report. ViviAnne is officially in the second phase of Chemotherapy, called Consolidation, and has a new drug and treatment protocol that includes weekly Lumbar Punctures. She will be going to the clinics on Fridays now, as opposed to Wednesdays. Her last visit went well. Her counts are down a bit which is expected to happen from time to time. She had lost 5 pounds since the previous week's visit, which is a good thing.
ViviAnne has officially come back to us now that she is off the steroids. She is back to her talkative, silly, loving, articulate self. She is even back to interacting with Cooper. For the whole month she was on the steroids, she had very little to do with him. Now she is back to trying to Mother him and boss him around. I cannot find words to describe how happy we all are to have our hilarious and adorable little girl back.
She is still not quite herself physically. Though a lot of the swelling and weight gain has gone away, her belly and head are still very swollen. She has a tough time getting around and struggles to sit down and stand up. Kristen and Brent decided to get her started on Physical Therapy which begins on Tuesday at Kosair's.
Me and Andy are in town to watch the house and help take care of Brad all week while Grammaw and PawPaw are on vacation. Yesterday Brent and Kristen and the kids came over for dinner. The main focus of the evening was Uncle Brad's new Nintendo Wii. ViviAnne LOVED it! Kristen could hardly pry her away from it when it was time to leave.
Thank you again to everyone who has donated to ViviAnne's fund. It is truly making a difference in her life.
Sorry for the delay in updates. It was a relatively good week with not much to report. ViviAnne is officially in the second phase of Chemotherapy, called Consolidation, and has a new drug and treatment protocol that includes weekly Lumbar Punctures. She will be going to the clinics on Fridays now, as opposed to Wednesdays. Her last visit went well. Her counts are down a bit which is expected to happen from time to time. She had lost 5 pounds since the previous week's visit, which is a good thing.
ViviAnne has officially come back to us now that she is off the steroids. She is back to her talkative, silly, loving, articulate self. She is even back to interacting with Cooper. For the whole month she was on the steroids, she had very little to do with him. Now she is back to trying to Mother him and boss him around. I cannot find words to describe how happy we all are to have our hilarious and adorable little girl back.
She is still not quite herself physically. Though a lot of the swelling and weight gain has gone away, her belly and head are still very swollen. She has a tough time getting around and struggles to sit down and stand up. Kristen and Brent decided to get her started on Physical Therapy which begins on Tuesday at Kosair's.
Me and Andy are in town to watch the house and help take care of Brad all week while Grammaw and PawPaw are on vacation. Yesterday Brent and Kristen and the kids came over for dinner. The main focus of the evening was Uncle Brad's new Nintendo Wii. ViviAnne LOVED it! Kristen could hardly pry her away from it when it was time to leave.
Thank you again to everyone who has donated to ViviAnne's fund. It is truly making a difference in her life.
Tuesday, August 19, 2008
PawPaw's Words
An Email from PawPaw (Brent & Stacey's Dad)
Stace,
"HOW IRONIC"
Grandmother, Grandfather, and Grandma Batts stopped by the other night and brought dinner. They pulled into the driveway in front of me as I getting home from work. Grandfather gets the wheel chair out of the trunk and we help Grandma Batts get in it for the short stroll to the kitchen steps, then we help her get out of the chair and make it into the kitchen.
I look over and there is ViviAnne, sitting on a pillow in one chair and her legs propped up in another chair in front of her. She sits there, rubbing her eyes as if she is tired, but I think she is just worn out, it has been a long day.
"HOW IRONIC"
After dinner I took Coop for a Gator (a Gator is a John Dere Utility Vehicle) ride. It was funny, Brent and I were standing in your mom's garage and Brent says,"watch this." He hands Coopie the keys to the Gator and that little turd took the keys, walked to my garage, climbed up in the gator and tried to put the key in the ignition. Luckily he has not figured that part out exactly yet. I put on his his hat and we went for a ride.
After our ride we went into the living room and everyone was sitting there talking, Brent and Coopie were playing on the floor, etc., and it dawned on me; here is Grandma Batts going on 93 years old, sitting there in her chair, leaning over to the side of the chair and trying to talk over Brent and Coop playing. You know how she talks with that slow quiet voice and I look over at Vivianne and there she sits on the couch, leaning over on Kristen, the words coming out of her mouth are slow and quiet.
Everyone decides it is time to go home and me and Brent help Grandma trying to get up out of the chair and into her wheel chair. I then look over at Kristen bending over and picking up ViviAnne to carry her to the car.
We go outside and Kristen puts Vivianne in her car seat. Then Grandma Batts waddles slowly over to the car, leans in and gives ViviAnne a kiss.
"HOW IRONIC"
To see the almost 93 year old Grandma and this precious almost 3 year old kiss and part ways as to say "hang in there". You watch these two and you realize the are both fighting their battles at 90 years difference in age.
DAD
Stace,
"HOW IRONIC"
Grandmother, Grandfather, and Grandma Batts stopped by the other night and brought dinner. They pulled into the driveway in front of me as I getting home from work. Grandfather gets the wheel chair out of the trunk and we help Grandma Batts get in it for the short stroll to the kitchen steps, then we help her get out of the chair and make it into the kitchen.
I look over and there is ViviAnne, sitting on a pillow in one chair and her legs propped up in another chair in front of her. She sits there, rubbing her eyes as if she is tired, but I think she is just worn out, it has been a long day.
"HOW IRONIC"
After dinner I took Coop for a Gator (a Gator is a John Dere Utility Vehicle) ride. It was funny, Brent and I were standing in your mom's garage and Brent says,"watch this." He hands Coopie the keys to the Gator and that little turd took the keys, walked to my garage, climbed up in the gator and tried to put the key in the ignition. Luckily he has not figured that part out exactly yet. I put on his his hat and we went for a ride.
After our ride we went into the living room and everyone was sitting there talking, Brent and Coopie were playing on the floor, etc., and it dawned on me; here is Grandma Batts going on 93 years old, sitting there in her chair, leaning over to the side of the chair and trying to talk over Brent and Coop playing. You know how she talks with that slow quiet voice and I look over at Vivianne and there she sits on the couch, leaning over on Kristen, the words coming out of her mouth are slow and quiet.
Everyone decides it is time to go home and me and Brent help Grandma trying to get up out of the chair and into her wheel chair. I then look over at Kristen bending over and picking up ViviAnne to carry her to the car.
We go outside and Kristen puts Vivianne in her car seat. Then Grandma Batts waddles slowly over to the car, leans in and gives ViviAnne a kiss.
"HOW IRONIC"
To see the almost 93 year old Grandma and this precious almost 3 year old kiss and part ways as to say "hang in there". You watch these two and you realize the are both fighting their battles at 90 years difference in age.
DAD
Monday, August 18, 2008
3rd Birthday Party Weekend
Written by Mommy (Kristen)
ViviAnne came back to us on Friday. She was happy and playful and only spoke of food on occasion. It melted my heart to have her back. Although she still can not walk well and is still having anger issues, for the most part she was herself. The whole family loved having her smile back in their lives!
On Saturday we did her 3rd birthday party. It was about 10 days early but her counts are good right now so we had Grandparents over to Kim’s (Grammas house) for a small dinner plus cake and ice cream. She was crankier on Saturday, but I think it was just due to her being hungry and also being around more than a few people is a bit overwhelming. Still it was a good day and she loved being the princess for the day, AGAIN.
We are definitely in the day-to-day stage still. Even with the steroids leaving her body and slowly seeing a return of her sweetness she still battles with pains and tummy aches that she can’t describe or explain. But we took Friday for what it was, A GREAT DAY, and Saturday for what it was, an okay day but no horrible rages.
Aunt Stacey will be posting pics from the party later today, so check back later to see the Princess in action.
Friday, August 15, 2008
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