Happy St. Patrick's Day!

Well you have all kept me quite busy today, I know what it means to "work" from home (or the hospital) right now. The funny thing is we've had more visitors today than ever before, we set a record in one day! Let's try and hit 700 tomorrow. Tuesday is a big blog day right? Keep spreading the word!

In light of some new visitors, I'd like to post a short little history of what's been going on with Chelsea. This brief explanation should help catch some of the new readers up to date. Of course you're always welcome to go back and read the whole thing!

Chelsea was diagnosed on September 26, 2007, at 20 months old, with
Acute Myeloid Leukemia (AML). As many as 1 in 200 children with Down
syndrome will develop leukemia in their lifetime. Fortunately the
prognosis is good. Children with Ds still have to endure the strenuous
chemotherapy treatments, but something about their extra chromosome
makes their body more sensitive to the drugs. While this means smaller
doses than for typical children, it also means they have much more
severe side effects later in life. Chelsea has completed 4 rounds of
chemo and is currently receiving her 5th round. Because AML is an
aggressive cancer, it must be treated aggressively. Each time she
comes in for chemo, she must stay for 3-5 weeks in the hospital until
her bone marrow recovers from the drugs, otherwise her body would be
very fragile and she would likely suffer from life threatening
infections that would cause little or no harm to those of us with
strong immune systems. When she does go home between treatments, it's
only for 1-2 weeks and she usually has to stay at home. On the rare
occasion we're allowed to venture out, she has to wear a mask at all
times to keep her healthy. She has one more round for a total of 6
rounds of chemotherapy. Surprisingly after all of the dangerous
sickening drugs they've pumped into her little body, she's remained
happy, spunky and as loving as ever. When everyone else is feeling
sad, or depressed or complaining about how bad cancer sucks, we all
just look at Chelsea and her beautiful smile. If she can do it, so can
we!

Uh-oh, I'm all tangled up (this is nothing new!)


bup bup bup!!!




We didn't have a party or a parade, but who needs that when you've got a balloon?!!! Chelsea's counts are coming down quickly! Her ANC was only 500 today, down from 4,400 on Saturday. The chemo's working. She's drooling a lot today too, so she may be getting mouth sores...although she ate very well tonight, a whole plate of spaghetti. What a mess!