Sunday, August 20, 2006.
Today Claire received her last dose of chemotherapy, of her first full cycle, and she is accepting it unbelievably well to date. She was cleared and graduated to a soft / moist food diet yesterday (previously on only pureed food) due to her current loss of neurological control to ensure all intaking food or drink goes down her esophagus not her bronchus (leads to the lungs), the two tubes are right next to each other. Claire proceeded to special order and eat 5 grilled cheese sandwhiches, 2 chocolate milkshakes, chocolate pudding, and a soft chocolate chip cookie. Anyone that came into the room, including housekeeping, she would stop and hold up her hand with five fingers pointing straight up and share her cheese sandwhich eating record. Of course her appetite will vary during treatment and yesterday was widely unusual, but the nurses loved it when she would request "another cheese sandwhich please" before even finishing the last. Oh, and in pure Claire style, by the last sandwhich refused to let anyone feed her as she had to "hold it and eat it by myself mom". The pictures above were taken yesterday and you can see the pure joy and sunshine Reese brings to Claire during her visits. We have now added daily "Reese Therapy" to Claire's treatment plan and believe it equals all medical therapy available. Even one of our other angels, Dr. Yim, a pediatric oncologist, gave Claire a look of utter disbelief and pleasant surprise of her current heathly state during his morning rounds today. Claire is on a state of the art anti-nausea medical regimen, not available at UCDavis, Oakland Children's Hospital or Kaiser currently. We learned / confirmed she is receiving medical care from some of the leading pediatric oncologists, neurosurgeons and aligned oncology healthcare professionals known nationally. She is definitely in the right place for the best chance to fight and survive her cancer. Her occupational/physical therapy was lightened during the last few days as her reaction to all the chemotherapy agents was so unknown and frightening. I am beyond thrilled to say that I am running out of adjectives to adequately describe her "unbelievable" and "astounding" neurological advancements. Here is a small example, on Thursday, Aug. 17th, just four days ago, during her therapy session, it took two of us to slowly and carefully move Claire's legs and arms into a doggy style / infant crawl position on a soft mat and she was unable to even try to push her self up with her arms, let alone, raise her head. Today, I asked her to roll over on her side by herself while laying flat on her bed to help me if she wanted her pillows adjusted - I am the mean therapy mom always making her work. She voluntarily continued, after her successful side roll, to place herself on her stomach, bend and raise both knees underneath her and then proceeded to stretch her arms out in front of her and raise her entire body up unaided (again similar to an infant crawl position), to top off her remarkable act, she then independently lifted her head up and looked around. If anyone has ever had their newborn acheive this monumental step, you can recall your full body elation and celebration.....that doesn't come close to the absolute rush and pride that overcame me. It was equally exciting to see Claire's smile as she too was just as proud. I could not stop leaping for joy and praising her, so she performed her new accomplishment two more times for me. I floated around her hospital room for the rest of the day and am still walking a little lighter even now. Her speech continues to improve and expand beyond our wildest dreams at this point. I even had to firmly remind her of good manners during a received phone call today. She did not lose the mysterious instinct, like all children, to want something or demand your full attention ONLY when you are on the phone - I immediately stopped and practically started to cry during the call as it was like any other day at home with her. Overall it was a really good day for her and large relief for us that her chemotherapy treatment was so kind to her this time. I did notice today that her largest achievements and overall significant changes have all occurred on Sundays....it can't be just a coincidence. Thank you very much.