Justin is my 10 year old nephew from New Jersey. He was born premature, has ADHA, and yesterday was diagnosed with Type I Juvenile Diabetes. He is still in the hospital learning the ropes of his "new normal." He is doing well but is also having a tough time understanding that he can not just eat whatever or whenever he wants without checking his counts and giving himself shots. I did some research on the Internet about Diabetes and found out that type 1 diabetes occurs when the body's immune system attacks and destroys certain cells in the pancreas, an organ about the size of a hand that is located behind the lower part of the stomach. These cells -- called beta cells -- are contained, along with other types of cells, within small islands of endocrine cells called the pancreatic islets. Beta cells normally produce insulin, a hormone that helps the body move the glucose contained in food into cells throughout the body, which use it for energy. But when the beta cells are destroyed, no insulin can be produced, and the glucose stays in the blood instead, where it can cause serious damage to all the organ systems of the body. For this reason, people with type 1 diabetes must take insulin in order to stay alive. Justin will be seeing an Oncology Doctor, cancer doctor, just like Liz. Please keep Justin and his family in your prayers so that Justin will have and lead a healthy and successful lifestyle for the rest of his life.
Liz is finally done with the dreaded Delay Intensification I phase. Last Tuesday she took her last chemo of this phase and now we are in the count recovery phase. We had her blood drawn this morning at Liberty and her counts are back. ANC (immune system) 220. She is going up, last week she was at 140. What this means is she is neutropenic, absolutely NO immune system. WBC (white blood cell) 0.9, Hemoglobin ( blood in the oxygen) 10.8, and Platelets 75k. Liz received two units of platelets last week. The fist unit was from a single donor. The second unit was from six different people because they are short on platelet donors. If you have an hour to give and would like to help out with the shortage, call Hoxsworth Blood Center in Mason at (513) 451-0910 to set up your appointment. To give blood you do not need an appointment and it only takes about 25 min. from the whole sign in to donating your blood. We are looking for her ANC to be 750 and her platelets to be 75k to move on to the Interim Phase II on Tuesday Aug. 4.
Here is the 411 on Lizzy's next phase. There is NO day 29! This means that she will forge through this phase no matter what her counts are. Interim II will last 57 days from the start date.
Day 1 Liz will receive Vincristine, IV Methotrexate, and IT Methotrexate. IV is intravenous and IT is Intrathecal,
through her spine.
Day 3,4,or 5 she will receive the Peg Asparaginase shots.
Day 11, 21, 31, and 41 she will receive Vincristine and IV Methotrexate
Day 31 she will receive the peg Asparaginase shot and IT Methotrexate
All of these are chemos but should not effect her counts too bad and she will be able to start school! She is very excited about that and I am thrilled that she will feel "normal" for a little while. If Liz starts on time, Aug. 4, she will end the phase September 29th, go into Delayed Intensification II on Oct. 6, with it ending sometime around Dec. 15th and WE WILL BE IN MAINTENANCE! Light at the end of the tunnel.
The Brown's and the Lothrop's will be manning a booth at the Mason Heritage Festival Aug. 22, from 10 a.m. to 8 p.m We are looking for friends of Joel and Lizzy's to help hold down the booth for an hour or two hour increments starting at noon and going through 6:00 p.m. If you or your child is interested in helping out to raise awarness for The Leukemia/Lymphma Society and also help in raising money for Light the Night walk for Team Blazin with <3 please give me a call at 513-349-5966, email me at rlothrop@cinci.rr.com, or reply on the blog with the time you can do. Thanks in advance for your help.
Please pray for the follow:
My nephew Justin and his diagnoses
Bobby and Leah, Lizzy's friends on A5 South. Their health continues to get better
The staff
Minimal side effects for Liz. She has had a few bad days in here
Continuing to pray for all of you and ask for God's blessings upon you.
Christine
6 comments:
We are praying for Justin and Liz. I am excited about Liz being able to start school and will pray it happens! We would love to help with the Heritage Festival Booth.
Annette
December is within reach!!! What a wonderful Christmas gift reaching maitenance would be. Also praying for your nephew. Seems I hear of more and more children with this diagnosis....good news is they are all doing well and I'm confident Justin will too.
Prayers continuing!!!
Just Wanted to let you know i'm still praying constantly for u Lizzy :) and i will be keeping Justin in my prayers as well. I'm so happy to see the light at the end of the tunnel-Praise God :)
Thank you everyone for praying for our son Justin and my niece Elizabeth. Christine, you amaze me with your strength. I hope I will be as strong as you!
Love, Cec
liz,
wow i just looked through every entry on this blog going back to the very first entry when you were first diagnosed. i read joes story again, which is one of my favorites. reread some entries, not all but bits and pieces :) i listened to every song put on here, watched every video there is to be watched, and smiled and eventually cried at every picture i saw. doing this i realized all over again EVERYTHING that you have gone through. its been a long trip to where you are now and there is still a good length ahead of you so i have heard. but you will make it i know you will! im so glad to hear youll be able to start school, how exciting! i keep praying for you and now i will add justin into my prayers. and before i end this comment id like you to make sure that you remember you are loved always and forever by so many people, you are the life and soul and inspiration of so many peoples lives (at least mine :])stay strong and BELIEVE! i love you girlie!
<3 paige
That's awesome that you get to go back to school Liz! I'm so happy for you. Wish we could help out at the booth on the 22nd but we have a wedding to go to. Christine, whenever you need volunteers for anything, call me. I love to help out whenever I can. Thanks for coming last night. It was great to see you guys!
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