29 November 2007, 6:33pm EST
Well we have good and not-so-good news today. Good news First!

Somebody is growing little black eyelashes!!! Isn't that awesome? Kara is a little piggy, Megan is going back to Kroger to get more sugar wafers. Megan & Kara will be on their way to Dandridge tomorrow! They'll be home until next Wednesday!

No-so-good... Kara's ANC went from 1700 down to 500 today, (this is due to stopping the G shot). Her platelets are the same, 29. Her hemoglobin is low, but she doesn't need a blood transfusion. They will check her counts next Thursday, but they really don't think she'll be able to start her next round of chemo. This Topotecan is known to cause diarrhea, vomiting, fever and low counts. It's tough stuff,but by the looks of things, we think it is killing cells better than the other chemo. That's what we want to see. Kara seems to be coping with it real well so we are happy and thankful of this. They may go ahead and have their Christmas with the kids this week. The chances are Kara will be in the middle of chemo on Christmas.

Megan has concerns about the health of the other children here at home and the chances of them giving anything to Kara, especially since her ANC is only 500. St Jude OK'd the trip home because they have all been , or will be on antibiotics for 24 hours by the time Kara gets home. By the way, yes, Lauren has strep throat too. The school called this morning and wanted someone to pick up Erica today. She had vomited 3 times. The doctor looked at her also and says she has a stomach virus. So....we may need to keep her away from Kara till we know she's completely over it.

It's been a crazy week for us. We hope there aren't anymore illnesses or surprises unless it's good ones. Remember us in prayer and the other children at St Judes, some of them haven't had very good news this week and they all need God's healing power. Not just for thier bodies, but their minds too. Lets pray believing God is going to do this. We all know He is able, surely we can muster up enough faith as big as a little mustard seed. God is in control of all their lives and maybe this is His way of stirring us up to pray more. For whatever reason, He has me stirred and I know many of you are too. I never want to question His will, I just want His perfect will for our lives. God bless.

28 November 2007, 9:42pm EST
I just talked to Megan and she was laughing telling me how much Kara is eating. She's eaten cereal, hotdogs, lunchables, and she just ate 3/4 pkg of sugar wafers, just since Megan went to the store this afternoon. Kara weighs 33.4 pounds now! Yeah Kara! She had her counts checked today and her platelet's are at 29, so they're checking them again tomorrow. The magic number seems to be 50. She asked that we pray that the counts go up so they can start this round and the sooner they do the better the chances for being home for Christmas. We want this to be in God's time though. His timing is perfect. A perfect example would be what's happened this week. We wanted them to come home, but it didn't work out. It was a good thing too. Brent went to the doctor on Monday, Erica went Tuesday, they both have impetigo, and Brook & Skylar went today, they both have strep throat. They're all on antibiotics now. Tonight Lauren is running a fever and complaining of a sore throat, so we'll be taking her tomorrow. We're sure she has strep throat too. Can you imagine Kara being around all this? See God is in control and he knows best. He is definitely protecting our little Kara. Thank God for His caring and love, He is wonderful! God bless and have a good night.

27 November 2007, 3:48pm EST
Megan and Kara were out getting a sandwich when I talked to them this afternoon. Kara ate some of her own pizza and she also ate some of Megan's turkey sandwich from Subway. Megan said she also ate 2 bowls of cereal this morning. Go Kara!!!, and she's not even on steroids right now. They did some exercises last night in their room and I guess they really had a good time. Megan said Kara was a little fussy when she got up today, but she's over it now and in a good mood. We'll see how her counts are doing tomorrow. I'd say from the sounds of things they'll be able to start chemo on Thurs. Let's pray for that and for their safety, we don't want them leaving the House at night, no since in taking any chances. Well that's all for now.....God Bless.

26 November 2007, 8:20pm EST
There wasn't much to update so I thought I'd wait till I got the report after Kara's doctor appointment. Kara's ANC is up to 1200, so we can stop the G shot AND her antibiotic that's been going through her IV. She's still on an anti-fungal medicine and 1 other med. She needed platelet's today. The doctor said her platelet's need to be 50 before they can start another round of chemo, so he wants to check her counts on Wednesday. If they are where they want them, he'll start her chemo Thursday. We were kind of hoping they could come home for a few days, but this is ok. We don't want to give her cancer any kind of a break, and they may not be able to be home for Christmas if we postpone it another week. It wasn't too bad to be there for Thanksgiving, but to miss being home for Christmas too, would really be hard for the kids to deal with. She's gained weight the last two office visits, and Megan said she's eating well and has been really happy. She still has her moments, but they aren't as often right now. Tony & Lauren had a rough drive home yesterday. It rained most of the way and they had several delays. It took them 8 1/2 hrs. Normally it's around a 6 hour trip. Lauren got car sick and he had to stop and clean her up and change her clothes. Bless her heart, she's such a trooper, and she's so happy to be home and playing with her toys. I guess they seem new to her again. Erica & Brent are happier since they got home too. It shouldn't be too much longer and they'll all be together again. This really shows us how important the family unit is and how separation can effect everyone. And it really keeps us on our knees praying. I don't know what would happen if we didn't have the Lord to go to and help us carry our loads. Even Erica is calling on the Lord to help her cope with this. I know everything is going to be fine since God has never failed us and He is faithful! We're so thankful for all you prayer warriors out there who are also very faithful, God loves us all!

24 November 2007, 8:34pm EST
Well, things are going as well as we can expect in Memphis. Kara had her appointment this morning and she needed blood, so that takes about 3 hours, then they got some good news, her ANC is at 100 today. That's good to know that she's starting to recover now. Her ANC was at zero for at least 8 days this time. She will see Dr Furman on Monday, they will check her counts again, and he'll tell Megan when Kara can start the next round of Topotecan. I can't go to Memphis this week, and Tony needs to work this week, so he's renting a car and bringing Lauren home with him tomorrow. Megan will be there with Kara by herself. We don't like to let this happen, but I'm sure the good Lord will take very good care of them. Tony's going to try to go each weekend and take the kids, he'll leave Lauren there because I can stay the next week. I should be able to stay every other week for awhile. These are our plans for now, we'll see how it goes. We are almost done with chemo, we can't slow down the treatments now. I hope and pray the topotecan is knocking out the cancer this time, we'll know within a month. What a wonderful Christmas present to find out that there isn't any evidence of cancer!!!! That's all any of us want. Erica and I went shopping today and she's still having a rough time. She is getting weary of not being with her Mommy. God bless you and thanks for checking in.

22 November 2007, 10:44pm EST
Happy Thanksgiving Everyone! I just talked to Megan and she said they had a very nice day. Kara started eating better yesterday and today they ate a real good dinner at the McDonald House. The dining room was full of residents, they had to wait for a table. They sat with TJ Goodrich's parents. TJ also has neuroblastoma and is in transplant right now. He's doing real well. She asked that we all pray that he continues to do so well. He has stage 3 cancer, so he was so fortunate to find his sooner than most. His mother noticed a lump on his side and had it checked out. Praise God for this! We have sooo much to be thankful for this year, and next year we'll even have more to be thankful for! Everyone is so good to us, and we're so blessed to have such good friends. God is Wonderful.
The next appointment for Kara is Saturday. They're checking her counts again. Her blood was getting low, so Megan thinks she may need blood. It would be great to hear that her ANC is finally going up and her body is starting to recover itself. Have a good night and hope you all didn't eat too much turkey or ham. God Bless!

20 November 2007, 7:52pm EST
Everything is going a lot smoother for Kara today. We know your prayers are helping her. They got a little concerned yesterday evening, she had diarrhea several times so they took her to the hospital and her triglycerides were still good and she wasn't dehydrating, thank God for this, so they sent them back home and are to continue trying to get her to drink as much as possible. She's had very few loose bowels since then so we're thankful of this also. They did get outside a little today, the weather was so nice. It's going to be a strange Thanksgiving this year for all of us, but we are most thankful Kara is still with us and doing good. We'll miss the family being separated, but there is always hope for next year! God is so good to us. God bless you all.

St Jude Video Once Isiah is on the dance floor you can see Lauren in the left hand side of the video on a bicycle, she has on a white sweater

19 November 2007, 5:51pm EST
I'm sorry that there wasn't any updates this weekend, but it's not too easy to get it done at the McDonald House. The Lee's are doing pretty good. Kara is having a rough time, but she's holding on and is trying her best to deal with all of this. She started crying Saturday evening, she was in misery, she began to itch all over and you could tell she was in torment. They took her to the hospital and found out that this is a side effect from the Topotecan. They are treating her with benedryl to help control the itching, and it seems to be working, but it's obvious when it wears off. This side effect usually shows up sooner, but they say each child is different and they aren't sure how each body will react. It's sure a hard chemo for her, she needed more blood today and her platelets are getting very low again too. Her counts are still zero and the doctor doesn't expect her counts to start back up until the first of next week. So they may have to delay the start of her next round of chemo, which is suppose to start on Monday. She's being checked again Wednesday of this week. They have to give her time to recover more from this round. She was happy to see all of us and was pretty cheerful, she can be so sweet, you can tell it's overwhelming sometimes for her. She needs more rest lately and the little bit of hair she had is almost gone now. Someone has been knitting some cute hats for her and Lauren, they are getting quit a collection of them.
We were so scared that Kara would get sick this weekend because Erica started complaining of a headache around Nashville. She slept most of the way and when we got to Memphis she said she was really sick. She started vomiting, and we took her to a motel with us that night, and thank God, she was fine the next day. She had to wear a face mask most of the time, but she didn't mind, she didn't want to take a chance of making Kara sick. We used lysol spray and antibacterial wipes everywhere all weekend long, I know they have the most sterile room at McDonald House. We didn't take Kara out of McDonald House all weekend and stayed until this morning instead of coming home yesterday. Please pray Kara doesn't catch anything, she has no resistance from anything right now. As low as her body is, it would be critical for her. I hope you are all doing well, and thank you for checking in on Kara, keep praying and God bless you.

16 November 2007, 3:20pm EST
Today has been a little rough on Kara. They needed to go to the medicine room to get her daily chemo and Kara's been sick at her stomach several times and she can't keep any food down. She just wanted to go back to McDonald House and go to bed. Her counts are at "0", and her plateletes were too low, so they are giving her some more. They're also giving something for nausea, then she can go to McDonald House and rest. After a good rest she'll be feeling better. Let's pray for that anyway, also, that we all have a good night sleep, and a safe trip this weekend. Thank you and God bless you all.

15 November 2007 5:05pm EST
Good news from Memphis, Kara is being dismissed from St Jude today. She still has to take antibiotics, which they instructed Megan on how to administer them. Kara talked to me and she was so happy to be able to go to McDonald House. The nurse told Megan to expect her counts to be very low for possibly a week. She is to start taking her G shot on Saturday, so this should help some. We will have to stay away from crowds this weekend, but that'll be fine. We can hardly wait to see them.
Marlo Thomas was visiting St Jude today. Megan said there's a lot of people in the halls. Just a little excitement today!
Thank you all for remembering to pray for the St Jude kids, and God bless.

14 November 2007 10:23pm EST
Today has been a quiet day for the Lee's. The good news is that Kara hasn't had a fever since yesterday. If nothing grows on her cultures and the fever doesn't come back, she may be dismissed tomorrow. She's still on antibiotics and IV fluids, but she's eating and drinking good, so they may take her off IV fluids. She went down stairs to the cafeteria with Megan today and that was a treat. She's a strong little girl and doing fine. Let's pray that the chemo is doing it's thing too. We're so thankful to God for helping us another day. He is truly faithful! Have a good night. God Bless!

13 November 2007 9:19pm EST
The doctor says it's a typical 2nd week of Topotecan......Kara was admitted to St Jude tonight with a fever, and her ANC is at zero. She is still cheerful and playing but is taking longer naps and running a low grade fever. They don't expect her counts to go up until she starts her G shots again, which that should be this Saturday. They did get moved to the McDonald house today. Yeah!!! They are in Room #25. It's on the first floor, this will be a nice change....no steps! We hope they get to stay there for a while this time.
Megan and Tony wanted me to ask for a special prayer for a dear friend in Connersville, Rev Dexter Worrell, he is really feeling bad and needs a touch from God. We'd love to hear that he is out of pain and back on his feet again and we know God is able to do this for Bro Dexter. Thank you for praying and checking in on Kara we really do appreciate you all very much. God Bless!

12 November 2007 8:31pm EST
I talked to Megan a little while ago, and Tony and her both talked to Erica & Brent. They were happy and have had a good day. Kara needed a transfusion today, and her ANC was 800. We are thankful that she didn't run any fever this weekend. They told her doctor that they kept her in all weekend and he said that this won't make much difference, it seems a fever is inevitable with this chemo. They are still at the Grizzly House. It's a good thing we didn't go to Memphis last weekend, Erica got sick too, and so did Aunt Dina. We will try to go this next weekend if we are all well. Thank God for his healing and protecting power. God bless

***** Click here to see Kara and Lauren featured in the latest St Jude advertisement in the Memphis newspapers.

10 November 2007 1:58pm EST
It looks like the web site is back up and running. Thank you Jeff!!
Today's update from the Grizzly House is good. Kara wanted Fruity Pebbles for Breakfast, and then she wanted pancakes, pop tarts, and yogurt for lunch. YUCK! But we are thanking God for all things, yucky food combinations and all! Her counts are low, so they'll have a quiet weekend, especially since Erica & Brent couldn't make the trip to see them. Brent started getting sick at school yesterday and Aunt Dina had to go get him. He's had a stomach virus, and was sick until 8:30 last night. Since then he has slept real good and is eating a little today. He wants to make brownies and eat strawberries in a little while, so I'd say he's doing fine, and Erica wants to dip the strawberries in chocolate, . He's still got a sour throat, but no fever, so we'll keep him here at our house for the rest of the weekend. Megan said it'll be boring for them since we can't come visit, but we don't want to get Kara sick. She said Lauren has a runny nose and is sneezing a lot. She thinks it's her allergies bothering her. They'll probably go for a walk at Mudd Island since it's suppose to be around 66 degrees this afternoon. Monday she starts another week of topotecan, it's going to be interesting how this week goes. Pray she doesn't run a fever and have to be admitted. The last time Carson had topotecan he was in the hospital for 12 days. This is bad stuff, but we are thankful for it. Thanks for checking in and writing in the guest book, it's good to hear from you. God's plan is being fulfilled each day. Megan says she is getting confirmations of this and this is so comforting. God is teaching us all to have more patience also.

James 1:2,3: My Brethren, count it all joy when you fall into various trials, knowing that the testing of your faith produces patience.

It would've been nice for Kara to be healed sooner, but God knows best and His timing will be perfect timing! We are so thankful for what He's done and will be doing for Kara. He's a marvelous God!!! "HOPE." !!!

08 November 2007 7:57pm EST
Well Kara has had 4 days of the new chemo and it seems to be doing what it's suppose to. Praise God for this! It must be a very strong drug, her ANC, (white blood count), has gone from 1600 to 600, in just these 4 days. Normally the ANC starts to drop in the week after treatment. This is a big change from what we're use to. This makes us hopeful that it's killing the bad cells quickly. She won't have any chemo on Sat & Sun. Then they'll start again on Monday. The doctor said she may have counts of zero by the first of the week. Megan said Kara's hemoglobin is at 8. If it goes below 8 they'll do a blood transfusion. She expects that they'll need to go to the hospital this weekend for a transfusion or a fever. If she does run a fever, they will still continue to give her the chemo. The only way they adjust this chemo is if her counts stay at zero for too many days. (I don't know what too many is!) We are planning to take Erica & Brent to see them on Saturday and come back on Sunday. We'll have a quiet weekend, since we'll have to keep Kara away from crowds, buffett bars, and fast food. It'll be great to see them though.
Thank you for stopping by and checking in on Kara. They enjoy hearing from you too. Remember to pray for them and remember there is always HOPE!!!

06 November 2007 8:21pm EST
They've all had an interesting and good day today. It started out at 9am in the medicine room for Kara's chemo. They got it started around 11am and she also needed platelet's, but they were 3 units short in the blood bank. So the good man that Tony is....he went off to give his. Lauren went with him and the nurses kept her occupied. They wanted to know when his lips started to tingle, but he just ignored it....thinking it would go away. To his surprise, the tingling only spread to his whole body...then he tells them. They gave him a calcium tablet and then the tingling stopped. I guess this is common for your calcium to drop when they take platelets, but you're suppose to tell them before it spreads to the whole body.......They said his blood was very rich and they got enough platelet's for 3 children. St Jude likes to keep plenty of blood and platelet's on hand. When you donate there it stays there for the St Jude children. Employees and families give on a regular basis. This is wonderful!
Megan said Kara is in a much better mood since she can roam around the hospital and play in the play areas. She's been confined to certain areas for so long, she's really enjoying her freedom. She gained a pound last week. That's good, hopefully she'll get back to her normal weight soon. They were told that as soon as a room is open, they'll be moving to the McDonald House again. I'll let you know what room when they get there.
Erica and Brent are doing well at home. They're busy with field trips and school projects. Chris Crisp is helping Erica and Brooklyn tonight with a speech for their class. Erica is doing hers on neuroblastoma. I would love to be there and hear her. Maybe she'll practice it for me and I can tape it for Megan & Tony. I have some funny videos of Kara, but I can't figure how to send them. I've tried a couple times, but I'm not doing something right. If I ever learn how, I'll send some for Kara's web site.
Carson got a negative on his VRE! Yeah Carson!!! God Bless and have a good night.

05 November 2007 4:05pm EST
I just heard from Megan and she's happy that Kara is out of isolation! But.... there aren't any rooms in the McDonald House available, so they may have to stay at Grizzly, or they may send them to Target House. She'll find out today. At least Kara can go to the dining room and play room now! Thank God. Please keep praying for Carson to get out of isolation ASAP. That sweet little guy has been in isolation for months. The topotecan started today. They monitored her to see how she did and also to get a target rate for the chemo. She did fine. She won't have to be an inpatient for this, she'll be going to the medicine room each day for the treatment. This is a blessing! It will only take about 45 minutes each day. Dr Furman said that they have been using topotecan on the children that are relapsing and it is working on their neurblastoma. This is wonderful news! Megan asked him about the bone marrow biopsy and he said in June Kara's marrow was almost full of cancer cells, now it just had a couple spots. Thank you Lord! My prayer is that she will be healed and will never have a relapse. This is my prayer though for all the kids with cancer. It's a horrible disease.
Kara also had a flu shot today....another pokie, poor Kara. All in all it's been a good day! Hope you are all doing fine and enjoying this beautiful weather! God Bless!

03 November 2007 7:40pm EST
It's been a good weekend for the Lee's and I'm sure Kara has gained some more weight. She's eating so well and seems to be hungry all the time!
I'm happy to say we have a treatment plan for Kara. The St Jude staff has been on the phone with Megan and they have been making arrangements to start another round of chemo on Monday morning. They are going to start her on the new chemo drug Topotecan. This is the new drug that is being used for on a study trial right now to see if it's going to be a better drug treatment for neuroblastoma. They know that it works well, but aren't sure of the long term side effects. Carson is one of the kids that started on this new study and he is doing very well. Kara will have 5 days of Topotecan, 2 days off and then 5 more days. She will rest for a week, then start on a mixture called ISE, this is a 3 drug chemo mixture and she has had 1 of the drugs before, sisplatin, this is the one that can damage the hearing. Megan thinks she'll have a week of this recuperate and then another week of ISE. This will be a total of 4 more rounds. Then she'll be reevaluated for the transplant. That's the plan.......this should take us into the end of the year. We are comfortable about this and are sooo thankful for St Jude. Megan is positive that they made the right decision when they brought Kara to St Jude. We know God is in this and He is helping all of us and blessing us daily. We are so thankful for His mercies and grace that He's shown to us.
We have wonderful news about Natalie Tanner!!! She's the little 6 month old baby that was sent home for hospice care. This week she was back at St Jude for an MRI. The local paper in their hometown had been following her story and a writer and photographer made the trip to St Jude with them. They expected to hear of how much more the cancer had advanced since her treatments had stopped...........but instead the doctor informed them that the tumor has shrunk! He has never seen this happen and now they are going to start treating her again. This is amazing news and I can only imagine how her parents must feel. She's a little miracle baby!!!! You can read about her yourself on (see Kara's link page).
I'll let you know how tomorrow goes. She will be monitored real closely to see how her body reacts to this new drug. We will be praying that she doesn't have any adverse reaction and she can tolerate it well. God Bless!