31 December 2007, 3:11pm EST
Kara called and was so excited, there was good news from Memphis!!!
She said, we are coming home to Dandridge today, and NO more shots! Yeah Kara! Thank you Lord!
The Clinic visit went well. Her counts are up, so he said to stop the G shots, and they will start chemo next Monday, so he's letting them come home for a few days. They're to take Kara to Children's hospital in Knoxville on Thursday to have her counts checked and then call St Jude's and then they'll decide what kind of chemo to do this next round.
I hope you like her new pictures that are posted.
Megan said it's hard to explain why, but Kara has eye brows coming in and little dark hairs on top of her head. I'm anxious to see this. The last round of chemo had drugs in it that would make more hair fall out, but not so with Kara.......
We don't have anything planned tonight or tomorrow, just be with family here in Dandridge. I hope you all have a blessed new year with lots of good health and happiness. I hardly ever make resolutions for the new year, but this year I hope to live each day as if there may not be a tomorrow. We aren't promised tomorrow, so I hope to get my life in order and not be too concerned about what really isn't important in this life, if those dishes pile up in the sink.......I'll let them go and pick up a story book and read to the kids instead. Erica & I didn't get that toffee made that I promised, so we're going to do that this week. I've been promising a certain family member fudge for several years now, so Gary, I'm really going to do it! I Thank God for helping Kara, for friends, my church and family, and especially for all the wonderful prayer warriors out there. God Bless You!

29 December 2007, 8:56pm EST
Posted new December pics. See Pictures page

Yesterday was a rough day for the Lee family. Kara had her blood checked and she needed a transfusion and platelet's. Her ANC was up to 400, and she tested positive for the VRE bacteria, so she's back into isolation again. Those of you who check in regular know that this isn't new for us and this is just another thing to deal with, and it's not serious. The bad thing about it is they had to move out of McDonald House and into Grizzly house yesterday too.
They did have some excitement yesterday though, Central Florida & Mississippi State football players came to St Jude yesterday and the kids got to talk to them and get some autographs. This was a big treat for them, especially Brent. One of the coaches says that he tries to take some team members to a children's hospital each year to let them see just how fortunate they are.
Today has been good. They didn't have anything planned, so they went shopping a little. Mamaw & Papaw Lee may go see them tomorrow, so that'll be good for them. Then Monday they'll see the doctor again at St Jude and they'll discuss when next chemo will start and what type of chemo they'll do. Please help us pray that the best decision will be made for Kara and God will continue to help them and give them His peace and love. God Bless and have a great weekend.

27 December 2007, 10:24pm EST
Good News! Kara's counts are @ 100 today and no more fever, so they let her out of St Jude. They want to stay together tonight so they booked a room in a motel for all of them. The kids get excited about this. They were able to see the pictures that were taken during Kara's photo shoot today, Tony didn't get to see them though, Kara's IV started beeping so he had to tend to it. They let Megan choose 4 pics and they made copies of them for her. Tony can go back and see them again another time. They did say they would mail the poster that is hanging up in the Atrium room when they take it down. It may be a year from now though. Not much else is happening. Please keep Kara, Bryce, and Madelyn in prayer. Thank you and God Bless.

26 December 2007, 10:39pm EST
It's been uneventful at St Jude today. Which is good news. Kara is still an inpatient, her counts are still zero, and the good news is, she doesn't have any fever. They may release her to McDonald house tomorrow if nothing is growing on the cultures and still no more fever. The doctor did take her off of her septra medicine. She took this everyday to prevent pneumonia. He said it is also known to keep the white cells down, so he said a week off of septra wasn't going to cause pneumonia. It would be good news if this is what kept her counts down so long after the topotecan chemo. We'll see if it makes any difference with her now. When I called this evening she was getting her dressing changed and she doesn't like that at all. I forgot to tell you that last Sunday morning she got her G shot and she didn't cry at all. I think she was showing off for Daddy and Papaw. We are so proud of her for this! She's a big girl since she turned four. They are all having fun playing together and going to the cafeteria together, but Erica is anxious for them to get back to McDonald House so they have more freedom to roam around.

Please remember little Madelyn and Bryce. Madelyn is nearing the end of her battle and it's so heartbreaking for them and all who know her.
Madelyn,
Bryce

God bless everyone.

26 December 2007, 12:32am EST
Merry Christmas!
A wonderful day for the Lee's. Another day of NO Fever for Kara! Thank God for this. Although it's not a happy thing to spend Christmas in the hospital...St Jude was true to their word. They tried to make it up to Kara and also all of her siblings! Tony & Brent stayed the night with Kara, so this morning Tony called Megan and said to hurry and get over to St Jude because Santa was on their floor! They missed Santa, but you could sure tell he had been there. The room was full of 8 bags of toys, and a bag for Megan & Tony too. The bags were around 3' tall and 3' wide. Tony emptied 1 of Kara's bags on her bed and you could barely see her little head poking out of all the packages. Each child got 2 bags. I'm glad he took a picture of this. Toys, games, balls, and even clothes. One of the nurses said that Christmas had just exploded in Kara's room.
They had a surprise visit from Kane & Stephanie Hauri and their family. I'm so glad they could stay and spend the day with them. When I called, they were all in the cafeteria eating and the kids were singing Christmas songs. Habitat for Hope brought over a very nice meal for them. This is a couple who had a daughter at St Jude, now they have bought property in Memphis and have started a ministry to help other families who are at St Jude. They are a very nice and helpful couple.
Megan has asked that we all remember Madelyn Beamon and Bryce Norwood and their families in prayer. They both received negative news last week on their scans and are strong Christians depending on the Lord for peace and guidance and divine healing at this time. I'm thankful that new discoveries are being made at St Jude by the researchers for neuroblastoma. This progress is great.....I just wish a cure would be found soon. Let's pray 2008 is the year of THE CURE!!!
We hope you all are making wonderful memories today! God Bless.

24 December 2007, 10:32pm EST
Merry Christmas Everyone!!!

It's been a good weekend for the Lee's. Mike, Tony, Erica & Brent made it to Memphis Saturday and we were all glad to see each other. It had been 2 weeks. We celebrated the twin's birthday by going to O'Charley's. After waiting nearly an hour to be seated, we had a great meal. The kids were starved and ate up the 1st round of rolls so fast it was amazing! Free appetizers and free desserts were offered since we had to wait so long. Brent did a pretty good job of almost finishing his 5 layer chocolate cake. Tony told them about chocolate being poison for dogs and Lauren started to cry. She was worried about herself being killed for taking a bite of the cake. It was one of those moments that is sad and funny at the same time. When we got back to the McDonald house, we were too full to eat the cake and cup cakes that Megan had made for their birthday, but the kids still found room for a cup cake.
Sunday we went to St Judes to see the picture of the twins that is hanging up in the Atrium room. (I'll send a picture of it to be posted, it's beautiful). Then, Mike & I headed back to Dandridge. We received a call about 2 hours later and Kara was running a fever and they were admitting her into the hospital. They said it isn't a bad thing to be in the hospital on Christmas, they would make it up to Kara. I guess Santa comes around and he's very generous to the kids. Her fever reached 103, but then it's down now and they're giving her antibiotics, fluids and she is eating a little. They took cultures too, so we may know in a few days if there is anything growing on the cultures. Pray it's not VRE or C-Deff again! We weren't sure how this round of chemo would go for her. Her counts sure dropped fast this time. They are at zero. Hopefully it won't take as long for them to recover this time. Please pray for this to go smoother this round.

We hope you have a wonderful Christmas this year. We hope you and your families are healthy and happy and have a blessed new year! Please continue to pray for Kara and checking in on her and thank you for your love and support, all the cards and gifts, they are wonderful. God Bless!

19 December 2007, 9:30pm EST
Just to let everyone know, Mary is unable to make daily updates from the McDonald's House as they are having computer problems, so please be patient, we understand everyone had become accustomed to the daily updates.

On Friday Kara was very irritable and moody. On Saturday they began administering the DEX steriod to her through an IV which helped with the nausea caused by the chemo. She was feeling much better and spent some time playing in the playroom. On Sunday the chemo seemed to be bothering her again and she was very irritable and moody, (which makes it very hard on Megan and Mary), they gave her Benadryl for the itchiness that she was experiencing and Hativan(sp?) which provided a calming effect for these moods swings she was having. Thankfully the meds seemed to work. Her appetite has slowed down some too. Mary and Lauren were in the dark Sunday night, literally. Someone had an accident and it had knocked out power to one of the power grids that supplied power to the McDonald house.
On Monday they released Kara to the McDonald house with the IV fluids still intact. On Tuesday she started the G-shot and was able to get unhooked from the IV's. They went to the Mall and Kara was in a good mood, they had a good time. Wednesday was a good day, they saw Dixie the Clown there at the McDonald house. On Thursday they are scheduled to have some lab work done and they have an appointment with the doctor. Although it's been said that alot of the patients get real sick with this latest type of chemo, we are thankful to report that it hasn't been so with Kara, she has had no vomitting and no fever, only the mood swings. Continue to pray for all of them and we'll make another update as soon as possible.

14 December 2007, 4:00pm EST
Kara is being admitted to St Judes today. They are going to go ahead and start the chemo ICE (this is basically three types of chemo combined) tonight. Her ANC is up to 1200 and her hemoglobin and platelets are both good. It has been 31 days since Kara started her last round of chemo, this may indicate that her body is having a bit more of a struggle rebounding against this last type of chemo, which was the Topotecan. The doctor said the results of this mornings test showed some improvement over the first scan, and the topotecan is still working inside her body now. He wanted to go ahead and start the next round tonight instead of waiting till Monday. The ICE chemo is usually harder on the patient than the others. The ICE is administered for four days. Megan has asked that everyone pray that Kara's bone marrow is able to keep up with the chemo.

13 December 2007, 10:30pm EST
I heard from Mary last night, she apologized for not having placed any new updates in the last few days but they have been quite busy and the computer at the Grizzley House has been acting up. It sounds like she may soon purchase her own laptop with a wireless connection so that she doesn't have to depend on their computers.

On Tuesday Target sponsored a Christmas gift exchange for all of the children at St Jude. They gave each of the children (to include siblings...good for Lauren) gifts of their choice, Mary said they were nice gifts too, most in the $25 range and also provided the families with $10 gift certificates for each of the children.

On Wednesday night they attended the monthly birthday party hosted by St Jude. Kara and Lauren were two of the four children that celebrated birthdays. They provided Papa Johns Pizza and cake for everyone and also gave gifts to the children, again to include siblings. Happy Birthday Kara and Lauren!!!

They have had a very busy week, they have now moved back into the McDonald's house and are in Room 29. They were able to unpack and get settled in on Wednesday and they went to the store to pick up some groceries.

On Thursday Kara went to St Jude to be injected with some type of radioactive medicine that will cause any tumors that she may have to glow, today @ 7:00am they will be doing a scan to see if anything shows up, pray that it doesn't. The scan will take about an hour and they won't know the results until Monday. On Monday they will begin the next round of chemo, the doctor has said that the type of chemo they use on this next round will depend on the results of this test.
Kara's system is still weak so they will be spending a quiet weekend there at the McDonald's House.

Note from Webmaster: I would like to motivate everyone that reads this today to take a moment of time and sign the guestbook, even if it's just a few lines it can mean so much, especially here at Christmas time while Megan, Mary and the kids are in Memphis away from their families. Your few words can be a great encouragement. You can be sure that they take the time to read each of the entries. They love to hear from all of you. Also, if you are so inclined, the mailing address for the McDonald house is located on the Contact Info page.
A word fitly spoken is like apples of gold in pictures of silver. ~ Proverbs 25:10-12

10 December 2007, 8:07pm EST
I'm just getting a chance to update. We arrived at the Grizzley House last night around 10pm. We didn't get here in time for the lab work to be done, so she had an 8am lab appointment this morning and then a nuclear medicine appointment (This is to check how the kidneys are flushing out), then we saw the doctor. Her ANC is only 600 today. Her other counts are all normal though. He's not sure if she has had a little virus to cause her white counts to still be low or if it's her body saying, this chemo is really tough and give me some more time to recover. It's not necessarily a bad sign, because if the tumor was causing her white counts to stay down, she'd be having some bad symptoms. She is actually playing and acting great, she seems to have more energy than she's had in a long while and her color is real good. She has gained another 2 pounds too. He thinks this topotecan is really killing a lot of cells. So he wants to check and see what the topotecan has done. They have a scan scheduled for this Friday. She needs to get a radioactive injection on Thursday to prepare for the scan. She will be sedated for the scan and it should take about an hour. He said we could start chemo today, but she would probably need to be in ICU by the end of the week, so he wants to start either topotecan or ICE on Monday. He'll decide aftr the scan results are in. We're concerned yet encouraged at the same time. We're so glad we didn't take her out places while she was home, as low as her counts still were, she could've gotten a really nasty bug.

There is a big picture of Kara & Lauren in the atrium room. This is the room where all the flags from all the nations are hanging. It's a really cute picture. We were surprised when we heard it was hanging there. The girls think it's neat to see themselves and they just laughed. We'd love to see the other pictures from the picture shoot they had.

We'll be moving to the McDonald House in the morning, we're looking forward to this. There aren't any appointments scheduled so we won't be rushed. God Bless you all and thank you for checking in. Keep praying!!

05 December 2007, 5:44pm EST
St Jude just called and they've received the blood work results for Kara. They said the white blood count is still too low for her to start chemo. If they start now, her counts will be at "0" by the end of this week, so they want them to come Sunday, have lab work done Sunday night at St Jude, then Monday morning they'll decide which treatment to start Kara on next. Her counts are recovering and they should be better by Monday. We're happy to have them home a little longer, but yet we don't want to give this disease any advantage. The good Lord is still in control and we needn't worry, instead continue to trust in Him to take care of Kara as only He can. Keep praying and God Bless.

05 December 2007, 11:57pm EST
Hi , I'm finally getting an update in, I'm sorry it's been several days. No news is usually good news, right? Well it is in this case! Kara has done real well at home. Thank God for no fevers, unexplained bruising, or grumpiness. She is eating real well and hopefully she gained more weight. She's had a great time with family. St Jude just called and they want Kara to go to the local hospital and have a blood draw. If the platelets are 50 or above she can start chemo this week. Tomorrow morning they have an appointment to see the doctor and decide which chemo treatment she'll start next. It may be Topotecan again for 2 weeks as outpatient, or ICE (iphosomide, carboplatin, & etopeside) for 3-4 days as inpatient. If her counts are too low, this appointment and chemo will be rescheduled. I'll let you know more later.

Other happenings.....they did have Christmas last Saturday and they had a great time. Mike & I had Christmas with them Sunday, it was so much fun. Just sharing this time together is the best present I could hope for. Kara's been able to spend a little time with all the family that lives close, within 1-1/2 hours anyway, and this has been a blessing especially since she's feeling so good and is so happy. She knows it's time to go back and she's just taking it all in stride, it's so good that St Jude makes their stay so nice that the kids don't dread returning. She has such wonderful doctors, nurses and aides that she looks forward to seeing them again. This really helps.

We want to brag on Erica a little. She did a speech on Neuroblastoma for school and she came in 3rd for her class. Last night they had the county competition and she made it in the top 9 for the county. There were close to 100 kids there and she did great. A big thanks to Chris & Heather Crisp who coached her, she couldn't have done it without them! Yeah Erica!
Thank you for checking in on Kara and God Bless!

01 December 2007, 1:57pm EST
Things have been hectic here. Megan & Kara made it home in good time yesterday, with no problems, Thank God. It's always crazy when she gets in because she has to pack up everything and bring it all home if she's going to be gone more than 3 days. So she was up late unpacking. Tony and the kids had the house all sanitized and the tree up when she got home. They decorated it last night before bedtime. Today they're finishing their Christmas shopping. They plan to have Christmas with the kids tonight. Instead of wrapping the gifts, they are going to hide them and video the kids finding them. The kids are excited about this. It will be total chaos, but they'll have a ball.

Kara seems great. She is happier and more playful than I've seen her in a while. For her counts to be so low, she's doing really good. I think we'll have Christmas with them tomorrow. Brent is here and he's going to help me put up the tree, so I better get going.
Kara's little eye lashes are so wonderful....she likes to show them to ya, she's excited about them too. God bless and thank you for being here for Kara & family, we are so blessed.