Seventh Grader

At 7th Grade open house with Naomi. Picture quality is due to a stinkin 12 y.o. Trying to shove my camera phone away. Sigh. My little girl is all grown up.

Charlotte's Haircut

Hair started falling out yesterday, so we are at Grandma's to get a short haircut.

Snip, snip

All done. It kept coming out as we trimmed.

Professor Charlotte explains cancer

After coming home from work, I decided to convince Charlotte to join me in the front yard on top of a picnic blanket with some coloring books. It took unveiling a can of Pringles, but she finally agreed to go outside - something she hasn't done for weeks.

Mady, Cooper, and Lily joined us as we colored, and Charlotte decided to explain her cancer to the McDaniels.

Professor Charlotte: "First there is the platelets. They are like Spiderman. They shoot webs to heal cuts. I don't have a lot of platelets, so they gave me some in a tube into my body. Then there are White Blood Cells. They are like PacMans, eating germs in your body. My White Blood Cells are being couch potatoes. Then there is Red Blood Cells, they carry oxygen so you have energy. I had to get some of that put in me too."

Cooper: "Can I have some of your Pringles?"

Charlotte: "No! Mom says I can't share food anymore!"

Naomi's 12th Birthday and Charly's 2nd Chemo

Today was our first return to Primary Children's since our discharge Monday. It was also Naomi's 12th birthday. It is only because of our friends and family we were able to pull of both.

Naomi already had planned a party where a Mary Kay lady showed the girls how to take care of their skin and properly apply makeup. Naomi was accommodating about reducing her guest list slightly. Kristen, our Mary Kay specialist, and Ashly helped Grandma Moore juggle 6 tweenage girls. By all accounts, the party was a great success.





Charly and Grandma work on crafts in mom's room while Naomi's birthday party goes on in the family room.

Meanwhile, Sean and I took Charlotte for an appointment at 8:30am at PCMC for chemo and another spinal tap (also called a lumbar puncture or "LP"). Chemo went relatively quickly. We were done by 10. Then we brought her downstairs to the Rapid Treatment Unit. They put her out for her LP with general anesthesia, and they were done within 15 minutes. Charlotte quickly regained consciousness and woke up happy and high as a kite. She chattered on and on, making the nurses giggle. Since she once again skipped breakfast, she chowed down a bag of Cheetos in 2 minutes flat. Then she got a bag of Goldfish. Her platlettes were low, so the clinic doctor decided it would be best if she received a transfusion before going home. We went back upstairs to the Oncology clinic for the transfusion. Since it was now going on 11:30, they allowed her to order a tray from the hospital kitchen.



The past few days Charlotte hasn't been eating much. Her jaw has been very painful for her, and she has been reluctant to eat. They said the jaw pain is a known side affect of the chemo. However, they also said that the steroids she is on was going to affect her appetite, and she would be eating more than a grown man. Today was the first we have seen the promised "carb craving". When ordering her lunch, she requested a taco, a baked potato, and rice. Mom thought that was a little much, so we just got a taco. After she finished the taco, she was still hungry and ate a bag of Doritos.

We arrived home only a half-hour late for the party. Grandma Moore gratefully left the tweens to spend time with Charlotte. Mitch and Deb stopped back here on their way home from California to Virginia. They came at the perfect time. Sadly, they head home tomorrow morning.

Chemo will continue every Friday this month, ending with another spinal tap and bone marrow sample taken at the end of the month. How her numbers look at this point will tell us where we go next.

For those who are inquiring about school, it definitely looks as if Charlotte will be home schooled for the entire 1st grade year. Her ability to fight off infection is compromised by the cancer, and the chemo makes it worse. Until her body has a fighting chance, she will stay home. I am hoping everything goes great, and she will be ready to go back in time for 2nd grade. We'll just play it by ear.

Now, I must go. Charlotte is demanding green beans to go with her Chicken Alfredo.



Our first chemo appointment after leaving the hospital. I dressed her bear to match her. 2 minutes later, the outfit was removed. Charlotte was disgusted because "Happy is a boy, MOM!"





Heading Home

SEAN: Update on Charlotte: Great news! It looks like she may be discharged today around 4pmish! Once home she will continue on her medications and we'll be watching her closely. So thankful for everyone and your support!

SEAN: Charlotte is back at her home sweet home. She didn't eat much, but we did manage to get her two evening meds down. Since Charly has a compromised immune system, we have to keep our home stocked with Lysol, bleach, hand sanitizer, etc. Infection control is just one of the many things we'll become experts at to keep her safe and healing. Additionally, we're going to become very familiar with all types of chemo drugs and weird medical jargon.

ALYCIA: Finally, after 4 hours, Charly's discharge was finalized and we came home from the hospital. This will ultimately be a 2-3 year fight, with hopefully the most difficult being these next 6-9 months. Everything is dependent on how she responds to the chemo and the meds. She has already started chemo - right now it's 2-3 different meds that are classified as "Chemo". Then we have another half dozen to go along. Steroids (or "Scare-oids" as some of the nurses call them) are taken these next 30 days to increase the effectiveness of the chemo - vincristin (I'm spelling it wrong, but I don't want to get up and dig through the 300-page information booklet to get the right spelling). The steroids have caused Charlotte to have high blood pressure, so she's taking a med to get that back down. The steroids also cause acid reflex, so she has another med for that. We have Tylenol and something else for pain. Mostly she is complaining of headaches - a side affect of the steroids and high blood pressure - and jaw pain - that is a side affect of the chemo. We have Miralax - because the chemo will make her backed up. Another med for upset stomach from chemo. We also have to give her antibiotics every Monday and Tuesday, since she is so susceptible to infection.

I see our biggest daily battle will be to get Charly to eat, drink, and poop. Our biggest weekly battle will be to endure chemo up at the PCMC oncology clinic. Friday we go back up for a lumbar puncture, on top of Naomi's birthday party. My mom and Ashly, our neighbor, are going to back us up to help keep the party on if there is a time conflict. Then the rest of this month has weekly chemo treatments on Friday mornings. At the end of this month, there will be another lumbar puncture and bone marrow sample. What follows will depend on the test results. If her cancer cells are proving resistant, they'll step up the meds. But we hope we will see everything move in the direction we want it to.

Thanks again for the sincere offerings to help. I promise to use you all if something comes up. Today's funny/sad quote was Charlotte's response to dinner, "mom, the smell of that pasta is making my ears hurt!"

xoxo to all. Alycia

“Thanks Jana and the Mills crew! Our new addition is now named Cheeto.”

Our Primary leaders decorated our house for Charlotte's return.