Back in town. What is with this heat?

Hi everyone,
Doug is back from Calgary/Toronto and Alexa and I are back from San Diego.

San Diego recap:
We got there on Friday morning and she was still experiencing some slight stomach pain but then was finally able to eat a full meal Friday night, before her 2 Saturday games. The team had 3 tough games (losses) and as it turns out, they lost to the team that won it all. It was a very good experience for everyone in many ways.
The vacation part of the trip began after the Sunday morning game when we went to Mission beach with the team and the girls body surfed and battled the waves for a few hours - very therapeutic for them, the parents and the coach. We then went to Sea World on Monday and then on Tuesday we went to the Hotel Del Coronado and Coronado beach all day long with 3 other mom/girl travel partner pairs. The 80 degree, slight wind weather was amazing compared to what is going on here...

Lost on the trip was one of Alexa's soccer cleats (after the last game-phew) and her bathing suit bottoms at Coronado beach ;-) yikes...we quickly bought boarding shorts that matched, so she could continue to swim later that night while watching the Sea World fireworks from the pool of a travel partner's friend's house. Then the clasp of the top of her bathing suit broke....it just wasn't meant to last....the suit and the fun - we got home late yesterday afternoon to the crazy heat.

Kourtney's update:
She is still in Toronto, having a great time and wanting to stay longer than the planned 15 days, she comes home Wed. 8/5.

Doug's update:
Had a good time visiting with his brother and girlfriend in Calgary and then in TO, he went to a good friend's 40th b-day party and enjoyed visiting with friends and family.

Other updates:
- I celebrated my 7 year Anniversary at T-Mobile this week.
- Doug and I are celebrating our 15th Wedding Anniversary today, 7/30.
- I end the 3rd round of my GM-CSF shots tonight. Ya!


Thanks all!
-Keri

Thursday update - SURF CUP here we come

All,
Alexa is feeling much better today after sleeping until 3pm (12 hours of much needed rest). She is eating bananas, crackers, apples, toast and drinking pedialite to help get her hydrated. She's still a little tender but much better. Thank goodness!

Now, we are packing for her big soccer tournament in San Diego - Surf Cup - and we take off tomorrow morning. After the tournament, we will visit Sea World :-) Doug and Kourtney are in Toronto visiting Doug's family.

Follow the soccer action on the following links:
Here is the team BLOG that you can look at on Sat, Sun, Mon and see how the girls are doing, Photos, etc.. http://chowfun-musubi.blogspot.com/

Here is their schedule: Eastside FC '98 Red (WA)
http://www.gotsport.com/events/schedule.aspx?EventID=5350&Sex=Girls&Age=11


And the Results link:
http://www.gotsport.com/events/resultsgrid.aspx?EventID=5350&GroupID=73808
Thanks everyone!
-Keri

Back to the ER - Wed. night 11:00pm

At 11:00pm Alexa had worse pains than the day before, this time in the middle of her stomach area and a bit higher. She couldn't walk when she had them, and the pain came in waves. So we went back to the ER as directed by her discharge papers. Even though we were just there a few hours earlier, we had to go through registration process again, which took time and Alexa was in lots of pain during it all. I called my dad to join us, since I had by then, started to feel the side effects of my shot treatment. So if we had to make an important decision, he was there to help me. THANKS DAD!

She had another IV inserted and more blood drawn to check her blood count again, her liver and pancreas. It all came back normal and they reviewed the original ultrasound from the other day and it did show her gall bladder as normal.

The ER doctor finally gave her a couple Tylenol once they ruled out surgery since her labs were normal. Then she was prescribed antacid medication and medication to help coat the stomach to help her with the pain before eating. Also the results of a test for an ulcer-like bug will be back in a couple days.
It is 3:30am and we are now home to conquer the night and hope these medications help her until the virus has left her body.
Thanks all!
Keri

Home at last - 8pm

Hi,
We just got home and Alexa is still not feeling well and has some stomach pain, but it may have to do with the lack of food over the last 48 hours, the car ride home or that her 1/2 dinner roll and 1/4 banana is now digesting. We will see how the night goes, but believe the worst is behind us.

Thanks!
~Keri

3:30 Update

Hi,
Alexa doesn't have an appetite, she only had a croissant in the morning and a few crackers today. She has an IV, so is getting plenty of fluids.
So we are still in the hospital, being observed and they are running some more tests to see if they can find the issue.

We hope to be discharged after dinner, if she eats.

Thanks!
Keri

Alexa gets to eat

Hi everyone,
After a night in her own corner room, she feels a better. They took blood this morning and the surgical team just came by to check out her stomach. There is a little tenderness, but not like yesterday.
They are going to let her eat, and she (we) are VERY happy about that. We will be here while they monitor her after eating and then I hope they discharge us by late afternoon.
Doug is on his way to the airport to try to make his flight to Calgary.

Thank you for your prayers!
-Keri

Alexa at Children's hospital for the night

Hi all,
Alexa was awakened by stomach pains at 7:45am this morning. She had soccer practice from 9-10:30 –so I told her that she should go, and see if she can go to the bathroom, or get sick and then she would feel better, thinking it was something she ate last night. She didn’t eat anything for breakfast. Then she got sick in the car on the way to practice (we were prepared) and then she felt better – so she practiced for about 30 minutes. I had a meeting at work, so I left just before she stopped playing since she started not to feel well again – she had ¾ doughnut after practice then got a ride home. By the time I got home from my meeting– 11:30 –she was on the couch still having a sore stomach and having extreme pain about every 5-10 minutes, then she’d be ok, then pain again. I took her to the Dr. at 2:30 –they felt her stomach and the right side was tender and they told me to take her to Children’s to check for appendicitis. On the way out of the Doctor’s office, she got sick again. She felt better and slept on the way to Children’s. We got to Children’s at 4:00pm and they took a urine and blood sample. Then they did an ultrasound to check her appendix and kidneys (for kidney stones). The ultrasound showed a normal appendix except the tip was slightly swollen and there was some slight irregularities around it. Her white count was up a bit showing she is fighting something, be it a virus or appendicitis or gall bladder. Plus, there was blood in her urine which could be kidney or puberty related.
The surgeons decided to watch her overnight – Doug is there with her, I came home to take my shot and will return in the morning. They will check the tenderness tomorrow morning, maybe take another ultrasound of it all, and the gall bladder too. If she is feeling better, and no tenderness, they will give her breakfast to see how she does. If there is still tenderness and the ultrasound shows more, then she will have surgery to remove her appendix or gall bladder tomorrow.

So PRAY for it to be a 24 hour bug…..

Kourtney made it to Toronto with only a slight airplane delay here in Seattle. Doug postponed his Calgary trip tonight until tomorrow, pending Alexa’s status. Alexa and I will still plan on going to San Diego on Friday and if she plays in her soccer tournament will be determined by if she has surgery tomorrow or not.

We will update the blog tomorrow when we know more.....our cell devices do not work in the hospital.

Thanks all for your support again!
~Keri

July 8th update - GOOD NEWS

Hi All,

1. I heard today from Dr. Kaplan that my PET/CT was "Totally, completely, unequivocally normal." There is No Evidence of Disease - NED again! :-) So since I have no disease to measure, I don't qualify for the T-Cell treatment I mentioned yesterday and they will save my cloned cells for me if I ever need them later, which I plan on NOT needing!

I will now just continue with the GM-CSF shot treatment schedule (2 weeks on / 2 weeks off) beginning again on July 17th and wait for ipilimumab treatment in Sept. I will still need to have those 4-5 moles that are either extremely atypical, non-invasive melanoma and invasive melanoma surgically removed prior to Sept.

2. Alexa will have her one moderately atypical mole surgically removed at the end of Aug. after her last summer soccer tournament. She will need to rest for 2 weeks after surgery- no soccer or swimming. Her plastic surgeon, Alexadria, was very nice and Alexa says she wants to sleep during the procedure so she won't have to feel anything.

Wonder if we will get a family discount for all of these procedures?

It is a very good day! Thanks for all your prayers and support!
~Keri

July 7th - Tests and appointments

Hi everyone,

Updates:
1. I have another PET/CT scheduled for today. Then I meet w/ Dr. Kaplan on Thursday to go over the results and discuss a clinical trial that was just proposed to us.
The new trial is a phase I/II trial to evaluate cellular adoptive immunotherapy using T-Cell clones for patients with metastatic melanoma. I gave blood back in Feb, prior to all my treatments and they have cloned my white blood cells and now will put them back into me with a couple other drugs (low doses of chemo & IL-2). There are a few more tests that I need to take to ensure I qualify (brain MRI / Eye test) and we have to discuss the use of IL-2 and see if that is a necessary part of the trial, as my liver doesn't fair well with it. If we do not do this trial, I will continue with the GM-CSF shots on July 17th for 2 more weeks, either way I will still be able to do the ipilimumab trial, once it comes to the UW later this year.

2. Both girls went to the dermatologist in June. Alexa (10 yrs) had to have a very small mole shaved off from her inner right thigh It was not cancer, yet a moderately atypical mole that they want to fully remove. So we meet with the plastic surgeon on Wed. July 8th to discuss the procedure and recovery time. Kourtney was clear. :-)

I will update the blog at the end of the week when we know more on all topics :-)
Thanks for your support!
~Keri