The fundraiser dinner and silent auction was held on Friday night in Idaho Falls, and we are still just speechless at the kindness and generosity that was shown to our family. I didn't take any pictures, but I am hoping to get my hands on some soon.
It was simply amazing!
There are just too many people to thank, and we know that we will miss some, and we know that there are many, many people who contributed and helped that we simply don't know about. We had so many donations to the silent auction and raffle and bake sale. It was so wonderful to see people that we had not seen in a long time.
Collectively to you all, we just want to say Thank You!
Also, I'm sorry I didn't get to talk to more of you that came. I literally lost sleep Friday night thinking of the people I saw that I didn't get to talk to and didn't really get to thank. Please know that it means so much to us that you came.
Don't forget! We are still taking orders for Kickin' It With Brynlee T-shirts and I have the wristbands in stock as well. Just click on the tab at the top of the blog for details.
And now it is time for some Brynlee news...
So we have had a relatively quiet two weeks since we finished the last cycle of chemotherapy. Brynlee's blood counts did not drop as low after this last cycle of chemo as they have after every cycle that we have had so far. However, last Thursday she was still low enough that we needed to continue her Neupogen shots. By Monday, her WBC and ANC had taken off and sky rocketed up to 30.9 and 24.4. You would think that it would be a good thing to have all of those WBCs fighting off any potential infections or illnesses, but when it gets to high it can cause joint and bone pain and can be very uncomfortable for Brynlee. So obviously we stopped the Neupogen shots after Monday's blood work, but it takes a little bit of time to come down, and she was grouchy and irritable most of the week. She was still at 17.5 and 12.6 by Thursday. However, since her counts were so good we were able to take Brynlee to the fundraiser on Friday. I was glad that we were able to take her to the fundraiser and that so many people could see her and meet her. We have kind of been a little bit isolated over the last two years. It seems like it has been hard for us to get out of town much, so even our immediate family has not seen much of us these past two years.
On Tuesday, Brynlee and I were able to go to an actual PT appointment at PCMC rehab. We have not been able to have an outpatient therapy appointment since she relapsed, and we had to meet with yet another new therapist since the last one we had is having her baby soon. I am okay with this therapist, but we pretty much spent the entire hour talking about Brynlee so that she could understand where we have been and where we want to go. She was a little bit blunt with the reality of Brynlee's abilities, but I was also very blunt with her and told her that until the day comes that Brynlee can comprehend everything and tell me that she does not want to pursue trying to walk, I am going to do everything I can to leave that door open for her in case there is any kind of possibility. We know that Brynlee will spend the majority of her life in a wheelchair, but we aren't just going to give up on helping her to get stronger. Even in a wheelchair she will eventually need to be able to transition in and out of it and hopefully be able to live as independently as possible. So hopefully we can get back on track with all of the physical therapy business. It's been hard to really do much over these past two months.
Tomorrow we will start cycle #4 of relapse chemo (#12 overall), and we and her doctors are hopeful that this will be her last round of chemotherapy. The two weeks in between chemo go by way too quickly. It seems like we were just there! One of these days I am going to try and figure out how many days and actual doses of chemo she has actually had.
And finally, I thought I would include a picture of Brynlee in her newest hat. My friend's mom crocheted this USU Aggies hat for Brynlee. We love it! How talented is she?!
Go Aggies!
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