Quick update!

Happy Mother's Day to all. Just wanted to give you all a quick update from this past week. We went in on Monday and Thursday to have lab work done. We've been giving her the Neupogen shots for 10 days now. Even while receiving the shots we found out on Thursday that her white cell count was ...2.5, down from 13 on Monday and her ANC count was 325, down from 11,310 from Monday. So we knew that this weekend would consist of staying inside and not taking Madelyn out. We had originally planned to go to church on Sunday and then brunch and then take our Mom's out to dinner for Mother's Day, but b/c of the circumstances, we decided to just stay at home and cook for everyone. While I was at Wal-mart on Friday, I found a little kiddie pool that I picked up for this weekend. I decided that since we couldn't go out and have fun, we would have a blast while staying in. And from the picture above...you can see that that is exactly what we did...had a blast.

We did get some good news this week. After the VMA/HVA test that the did at the end of April we found out that they are all within normal levels. When I say normal, I don't mean normal for a baby w/cancer, I mean normal for a baby Madelyn's age w/out Cancer. This is fantastic news. When we first started Chemo in Feb. if you all remember, her VMA count was 911, a baby her age w/no cancer's top normal range is 22.5, as of April 30 Madelyn's VMA level was 16.7. Back in February Madelyn's HVA level was 432, a baby her age w/no cancer's top normal range is 36.4, as of April 30th Madelyn's HVA level was 23.5. Like I said, good news right?!?!?!

We are so torn w/emotions for these next couple of weeks. Tomorrow (Monday) we have a follow up Eye. Dr. appt. w/wonderful Dr. Cheeseman, Opthalmologist. He is the Dr. who diagnosed Madelyn and had to break that life changing news to us on December 15, 2006, then after that appt. we go to the clinic for bloodwork. On Thursday we are scheduled to have her port accessed and bloodwork done at 12:30 in the clinic, then off to the hospital to Peds. Sedation for her MRI and her bone marrow biopsy. The following week, Wednesday, May 23rd, we will have the radioactive injection for the MIBG Scan. Then we wait for the wonderful news that we are N.E.D.- No Evidence of Disease. We have talked about after we get this diagnosis, we will have a big party on June 16th to celebrate the wonderful news and to thank everyone for all of the continued support and prayers!

Keep praying and we will keep you all informed of the outcomes.