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Friday, September 28, 2007 - 8:30am

For those of you considering ordering items from our store, just wanted to remind you that the first ordering period is coming to an end on October 1st.  All items ordered prior to October 1st will be produced and delivered somewhere between the 10th and 14th of October.  You can continue to order items at ANY time, but if you order after October 1st, your order will not be received until later in the month or early next month.  We will advertise the new ordering timeline on the store page by October 2nd.

So if you were thinking about ordering, you may want to do so by the end of this weekend.  Thank you to all those who have ordered already!  We appreciate your willingness to support and advertise Team Hailey!

We are all doing pretty well on this end.  For the first time, we saw some noticeable (although not severe) side effects in Hailey after her treatment on Tuesday.  For the first couple days she was a little more tired, irritable, and worn out, she threw up a little bit once, and her overall appetite was lower.  These are all expected side effects of chemo.  Its the first time we have really noticed that she seemed to be feeling the effects.  All in all it wasn't too bad.  Bath time continues to be the worst part of our day.  She still hates it.  Hopefully that will change soon.

Anyone see the show "Private Practice" Wednesday night on ABC?  Personally, I wasn't a big fan of the show (didn't think the writing was very good) but at the end they had a scene that surprised us and hit way too close to home.  The story line was about a mother who was having a mental breakdown over the death of her 10 year old son...who had died from a glioma brain tumor!  I actually walked out before the scene was over (choosing not to expose myself to the unnecessary sadness) but Shannon watched the rest of it and we both agreed it was interesting and ironic that they chose a brain tumor as the disease, especially the kind Hailey has!  So Shannon attempted to contact someone at ABC to find out why they chose that tumor.  It's a long shot, but we were wondering if there was someone related to the network or the show that has a family member or friend with that tumor type.  If so, they may be someone valuable to the Fight PLGA cause.  Anyway, it was just strange, and all too real, to see it in the storyline of the show. 

Tuesday, September 25, 2007 - 6:33pm

Hailey's platelet counts jumped back over 400,000 so we were able to get a full chemo treatment today.  Grandpa Meltz went with Hailey and I so Shannon could stay home with Faith and give her some one-on-one time.  The treatment itself was pretty typical...Hailey hated just about every second of it.  My dad and I took turns carrying her around or distracting her with everything we had in our arsenal.  We got through it.

So far she is doing fine following the treatment. In fact, I am sitting at the kitchen table right now watching her and Faith do the "doopa dance" to a new CD they got in the mail today.  The "doopa dance" is really quite a sight.  I guess you have to see it to truly understand, but the point is she is very happy and seemingly unaffected at this point by the treatment today. 

We battle on...

 

Thursday, September 20, 2007 - 9:13am

We were unable to get a chemo treatment on Tuesday.  When Hailey's blood test results came back, we were informed her platelet count had dropped to 66,000.  In order to do the chemo, we need her counts to be at 100,000 or higher.  The drop in her counts is most likely from the third chemo drug we administered to her at home (Temodar) a few weeks ago.  Apparently that chemo drug can have a delayed onset like this, meaning the counts can be fine for weeks after the treatment ended and then drop for a period of time. 

So, we are scheduled to go back again next Tuesday.  If her counts have come up to 100,000 or very close, we will start up the next phase of her chemo treatment.

Otherwise things are well with Hailey.  She continues to be her usual happy self.  She loves to play outside, go to school, go on swings, climb on chairs, push child sized buggies and shopping carts around, play in the sand, run around on the trampoline (when no one else is in there but her), play duck duck goose...most of the usual things kids like to do.  Our biggest battle is coming around bath time.  For some reason, she has grown to HATE being in the water.  It has become a 2 person job.  One of us holds her, the other washes her up while she screams and kicks and yells "Ouwie" the entire time.  We think it has something to do with her recognition of her feeding tube every time her shirt is off.  She is very sensitive to it when she can actually see it connected to her body.  When shirt is on, she doesn't make a peep about it.  Shirts off, crabby Hailey comes out.  I guess we can't blame her.  Her poor little body looks like a battlefield between the port, her feeding tube, bandages and left over residue from bandages, and of course her very skinny physique. 

Big sister Faith also seems to be doing well.  All in all we think she is handling things as can be expected.  Of course she is 3 (and a sensitive 3 year old at that) so it is impossible to say how this is affecting or changing her for sure, but she seems to be doing fine so far.  We will continue to try to make sure she understands that she's just as important as any of us in this whole picture and keep a close eye on her in this process as well.  

Thursday, September 13, 2007 - 8:19pm

The teamhailey.org website is NOT quite ready. It will only be a couple more days...finishing touches are taking place last minute as they often do in a project of this size and nature. We'll post a journal entry when it is officially up and running. Otherwise things are going well in the Meltz house. We had a full week off from trips to Madison and Hailey continues to be her usual self. Chemo starts up again this coming Tuesday. Our reprieve went too fast!