Miss Sassy Pants & her adventures against cancer

1 year ago...

2011-11-28T10:04:00.002-07:00

It's been a while, so much has gone on in our lives. We had an amazing time in Florida and are so grateful for Make-A-Wish!

Last night marked the day we rushed Izzy to the hospital after finding a lump in her belly. It was technically Nov 29, 2010 (a date I will never forget), but it was the Sunday after Thanksgiving. I remember driving in the snow and having to put Primary Children's hospital in my navigation because I had only been there one other time and it was for my nephew. I still don't know how I got through it. I guess the saying "You never know how Strong you are until being strong is the only choice you have" rings true. I can remember trying to convince Izzy to drink the contrast so the ER doctors could do a CT scan. I remember dialing my parents number at around 2am and not being able to say a word because I was crying so hard, so Dustin had to take the phone and explain what was going on. I remember my parents getting to the hospital so fast and while I was trying to process everything my Mom as asking the doctors questions I never thought of. I remember being so afraid. I hate you cancer! My little girl kicked your butt, but you took so much from me and my family that I will forever do what I can so that one day we can conquer childhood cancer.

More to come...

Much Love,

Jennie

http://youtu.be/eWBaMu7pMJo

First ever CureSearch for childhood cancer walk in Salt Lake City,Utah!

2011-07-16T01:10:00.009-06:00

Wow, it is amazing to see this walk turn out the way it did. I cannot thank those who got involved enough. We had 1,400 registered walkers (including virtual walkers), there was 40 teams, and we raised a whopping 72k and counting! Our team alone had 280 team members and raised over $6,400! Wow, when I first became passionate about CureSearch I was determined to get at least 100 walkers on Izzy's team, when we hit 100 I KNEW we could double it, but to almost triple my initial goal is outstanding! I could not have done it without each and everyone who signed up and participated. I found you will always be surprised at who will be there for you. I had people I hadn't seen in years register for the team or make a donation. It is amazing what you can accomplish is you just ask!

This picture isn't the best, but it's the only one I got of my little family. Dustin was in Cooperstown, NY umpiring baseball so unfortunately he wasn't there.

My regret is not getting a big team photo with all the Sassy Pants Supporters. I hate that I wasn't able to visit with each and everyone that came to be a part of this extremely important event. It was so hard juggle being part of the committee, the team captain, and with our cancer friends. I know some people don't understand why it means so much to me seeing as how Izzy is done with treatment, but cancer and specifically childhood cancer will forever be apart of me. How can you go through something so traumatic and not learn and want to give back and make a difference? I can understand that childhood cancer isn't going to be every one's cause (however, it is a brilliant one), but I do challenge everyone to have a cause and make a difference.

This is most of our CureSearch 2011 committee. These ladies are absolutely amazing, there is no doubt in my mind that they have some of the biggest hearts and will continue to make a difference in the world of childhood cancer. Our committee consisted of cancer Moms, each one of us has a child who has or had cancer. Some of these incredible women were jumping in on our planning conference calls, while in the hospital with their child. So, when I hear people say they don't have time for something I think of these ladies who on top of taking care of their child they helped plan an outstanding event that celebrated and honored children with cancer. And really who better to plan something of such nature than people who really know what it's all about? My part of the walk was coffee (props to Brew Monkey and Destiny and Bart Quarnberg), and some of the entertainment. I was touched by so many great people who came out to help with the event. It definitely wasn't easy asking people to come volunteer their time, and I had LOTS that turned me down. So those that were able to come just thrilled me. We had jugglers from BYU, clowns and balloon artists (thanks Tiny, Sammy, and Jeremy), face painters (you were awesome Sharon, Leah, and Macy!), Julie the awesome air brush tattoo artist, all the mascots with Utah Furries, Cinderella with Princess parties, Salt Lake Police Department, and Salt Lake Fire Department. I don't know if people realized that this event was planed with ZERO budget. We had to get every thing from the food to the entertainment donated or volunteered.

Opening ceremonies started with a balloon release for all of the children who lost the battle against childhood cancer. It was very hard to watch, and when I look at this pictures and see the pain in the faces of these loved ones, it breaks my heart and it makes me want to fight even harder to find a cure.

Then they asked all the cancer kids to come up and announce their name is the microphone. These are just a few of Izzy's cancer friends (Cami, Livi,and Ashlynn), while they were waiting to receive their medal for being a champion.

Izzy saying her name is the mic, I was pretty proud!

All the CHAMPIONS! Huge thanks to Kristina Partridge for all the great pictures!

So again, thank you for all your support! I know we wouldn't have been able to raise the amount of funds that we did without every one's help and it's not too late you can still donate for another 2 months.

At the end of the walk I was interviewed by Jessica Gail of KCPW, you can click on the link below to hear the interview.

Walk for Children’s Cancer Boosts Research Money Hit by Recession

Much Love,

Jennie aka Miss Sassy Pants Mom

youtube video of Izzy's cancer journey

2011-07-03T17:26:00.002-06:00

My sweet friend Destiny and I spend a LONG time putting all these pictures together and making a video of Izzy's fight with cancer. I hope you will take a few minutes to watch it.

Much Love,

Jennie

Camp Hobe

2011-06-26T10:04:00.010-06:00

Both Tommy and Izzy were able to go to Camp Hobe this year and they LOVED it! Tommy actually went for 4 nights and when I went to pick him up after missing him so much I said "Did you miss me" and he said "Mom, why I was having fun". Somehow I knew he'd be just fine, although he was completely covered in dirt and I'm not sure how well he brushed his teeth or if he even did at all. I'm just happy he got to meet some friends and have a good time. He deserves it! Because he was up at camp the week before Miss Sassy Pants I only go the 1 picture of him below. I wish I wouldn've taken one of him when we picked him up.

Izzy went to Camp Hobe the next week for Monday and Tuesday during the day. She also had such a great time and was able to hang out with her cancer friends and meet new ones too. Now almost everyday she asks me if she either gets to go to camp tomorrow. I tell her she won't go for another year, but she doesn't seem to understand.

It was so neat to see all the volunteers at Camp Hobe! They have nurses, doctors, teens, life guards, cooks, and just about anything else you can think of that you need to run a camp. The hearts of these volunteers must be so big that they would sacrifice 1 to 2 weeks of their Summer to help out at Camp Hobe.

I had a great time hanging out with other cancer Moms while Miss Sassy Pants was at day camp. I have really met some amazing people through this cancer journey. One day we had craft hour and the next day we had a support group. During our support group we went around the room and told one good thing and one bad thing we've taken away from our child having cancer. To hear some of these ladies talk about the good and bad of childhood cancer is very touching.

There is only 12 days left until the CureSearch for childhood cancer walk on July 9th at Liberty Park. Izzy's Team "Miss Sassy Pants Kicks Cancer" has 171 members and we really want to hit 200. We also have raised $4,418.00 and I know we can get to $5000! Please walk with us and support childhood cancer research. Registration begins at 8am and opening ceremonies and the walk is at 9am. The walk is 2.1 miles around the park. Being on the committee it hasn't been easy to plan an event with zero budget, but we've been lucky to have people volunteer and donate. We will have clowns, balloon artists, face painters, princesses, music, food, and more! To register and walk with us click on the link below. It's only $10 for adults and FREE for kids under 16. Make sure to register your kids so we have an accurate count for food and entertainment. I hope to see you all there!

Join Izzy's team "Miss Sassy Pants Kicks Cancer"

Much Love,
Jennie

Wish Granted!!

2011-06-11T18:41:00.005-06:00

If that isn't a happy face I don't know what is. Izzy's wish to go to Disney World was granted and we are all so excited. I haven't been able to update Izzy's blog as often as I would like, but I can assure you she is doing well. Miss Sassy Pants is going to Summer school at Aunt Sand's because she basically missed her first year of preschool, plus we just love Aunt Sand's.

On Mr T's birthday we were able to go to the Bee's game with HopeKids. We sat in a suite and had such a great time. I was able to meet some wonderful families all of which had a child who had/has cancer. It is amazing to be able to talk to these families and see how much they have gone through. Check out these cute pics of the kids getting their faces painted. I was able to get the face painters to come to the CureSearch walk on July 9th, so I'm super excited for that.

And my most favorite picture of all...

That's all for now, but please don't give up on me I'll be back to post more. I'm off to send messages to my AMAZING CureSearch team. I'll leave you with a link to register and join us for the walk on July 9th at Liberty Park. This event is so important to me and with the help of others we can REACH THE DAY when every child with cancer is guaranteed a cure!!

http://www.curesearchwalk.org/saltlakecity/misssassypantssupporters388

Much Love,

Jennie

CT scan, chest x-ray, and ultra sound clear!!

2011-05-10T14:50:00.006-06:00

This post is long over due, I have wanted to sit down and blog but never seem to have the time. I'm so excited to let everyone know that Miss Sassy Pants tests all came back clear. Last Monday she went in for a CT scan, chest x-ray, and an ultra sound. It was so hard to keep her still for all of these procedures, luckily my Mom came to help me, sometimes it takes 2 people to keep Izzy's entertained and under control. The doctor look a long time to come into the room to discuss the results, which really had me on edge. Then Izzy's nurse came in and told us the doctor was running behind, but didn't want us to worry about the tests because they all looked good.

Here she is pretending to remove the picc line from one of her dolls. This helped her to understand how it works when they take her line out.

Then, here is her nurse removing the line that went straight to Miss Sassy Pants heart to give her chemo, anti biotics, and anti nausea medication for the last 4 months.

What's next you ask? Well we get a little break from having to go to PCMC on a weekly basis and don't have to go back until July. Then for the next 36 months Izzy will go in for scans, xrays, and ultra sounds to make sure the cancer doesn't come back.

I don't know if I will ever fully believe that Izzy is safe from cancer. It may sound dumb to some of you, but this experience has rocked my world so much that I feel like I will always worry that it will come back. Don't get me wrong, I'm well aware that the relapse for Wilms tumor is low I just can't help but think that we will forever be affected by this terrible disease.

If there is anything I can hope it is that people stop being so naive about childhood cancer. It's real and it really sucks! I never thought a child of mine would have cancer, in fact I don't know that I knew anyone under the age of 18 who had cancer. Cancer stole many things away from Izzy and our family during her treatment and it will forever be a part of her life, she has scars all over her body to prove it. I know her hair will grow back and she may forget a lot about this whole experience, but me I don't know that I will ever be the same person. I do know I will forever be an advocate for childhood cancer research though. And I hope that those of you who still follow Miss Sassy Pants blog will be there with me. Izzy isn't the only child I know now that has had to battle this ugly disease, you can look at the side bar and find blogs of Izzy's friends who are still fighting and it's not an easy fight.

For those of you who are on facebook you may be tired of my status updates about the CureSearch walk on July 9th, but I am bound and determined to bring awareness about childhood cancer and how important it is. The walk is a 5k (3 mile) or 1 mile walk around Liberty Park. You can bring wagons and stroller to the walk and kids can register for free. Adults are only $10. This walk isn't just about walking, it's about supporting a cause to help reach a day when there is a cure for childhood cancer. It's a day to celebrate and honor children from Utah who have been affected by children's cancer. The event will have prizes, music, food, and fun activities for the whole family. My dream is to one day have as many participants and support as I saw at the Susan G Komen walk/run for breat cancer las Saturday. If you would like to register for Izzy's team please click on the link below and select the Register button at the top of the page. If you can't attend the event or you live too far away you can be a virtual walker. Please help me make this event into something to honor Izzy and other children who have battled cancer. They deserve it!

http://www.curesearchwalk.org/saltlakecity/misssassypantssupporters388

Much Love,

Jennie

No More Chemo Party at Classic Skating!

2011-04-25T02:04:00.003-06:00

Izzy is done with her chemotherapy and we want to celebrate with everyone. Izzy had 4 1/2 long months of mostly weekly chemo that would wipe her out and make her loose her appetite. There were times when all she ate was Trix, S'more granola bars, Lucky Charms, or Ramen Noodles. Oh, and you can't forget the M & M's and Hershey bars compliments of Pa. So here's to NO MORE CHEMO and hopefully getting her to eat a little better....

Time Saturday, May 7 · 5:00pm - 8:00pm

Location Classic skating
9151 S. 255 W
Sandy, UT

Please come out and have some fun with us at Classic Skating in Sandy. We will have a room reserved where kids can play Wii, get a picture with a real life 4 year old cancer survivor, and even an autograph picture from Miss Sassy Pants herself. Izzy will be signing pictures for $2 with the proceeds going to her fundraiser for CureSearch walk on July 9th at Liberty Park. You can also purchase a pink silicone wristband for $2 that has Miss Sassy Pants/Izzy Abernethy on it.

You can also register at the celebration to join Team Sassy Pants Kicks Cancer for the CureSearch walk on July 9th. We are trying to hit 100 team members.

We will be providing the pizza, drinks, and dessert!!

If you would like to go skating the price for a wristband for the skating rink is $7, plus $1 for skates, or $3 for scooters or blades. If you would like you can bring your own skates, scooters, big wheels, or small bikes with training wheels from home. Please feel free to do any other activities at Classic that you would like. Below I've included a link to the website.

http://www.classicskating.com/sandy/sandyhome.html

No gifts please! Please RSVP on the facebook event or as a comment on the blog so we know how many people to plan on.

Much Love,

Jennie

No More Chemo!!!

2011-04-16T15:37:00.007-06:00

I'm a little behind with updating the blog about Miss Sassy Pants, but I am excited to announce that Izzy had her last scheduled chemo appointment on Monday. We go back in on May 2 for scans and xrays and if everything looks great then they will remove her picc line. Then after that we will continue with scans and xrays every few months for a few years.

Izzy and I waiting in her room to meet with her doctor

Dr. Sato one of Izzy's incredible Oncologists. She has been so good to us. I can't tell you how many times we talked to her on her cell phone, she has been there for us with whatever questions small or large we've had. Plus, you trying getting Izzy to sit still while you listen to her heart, not an easy task.

We sat in the infusion room and Izzy got her last round of chemo. Once she was finished all the staff at the clinic came out to sing a song and congratulate Izzy with being finished with therapy. They gave her this basket of gifts and made the darling sign. I was crying my eyes out with tear of joy and relief. My heart was so full of love for these nurses and staff for making her feel so special.

The thing that really made our last visit so awesome was being able to meet Jessica and her parents. They were in clinic ironically enough and we were finally able to offically meet and tell our stories to each other. The Dads were tryig to get the girlies to lift up their shirts to take a picture of their scars, but they weren't having it. Izzy and Jessica are only 3 months apart and they share the fact they both had a Wilms Tumor and had their right kidneys removed.

As we walked out the door Izzy was able to ring the bell....one thing we've been waiting for since she was first diagnosed.

Much Love,

Jennie

Dinner, hair show, and silent auction in honor of Miss Sassy Pants

2011-04-07T02:22:00.002-06:00

Anyone and everyone is invited to come out to a charity event put on by the owners/staff from both Life Aveda Salon and Spa and Rumrz Grill. They have gone to a lot of trouble to put together this great event to benefit Izzy. My little sister Jessi is one of the managers at Life Aveda and I know she's very excited about it as, am I. Below are more details if you are interested in attending.

Date/Time: Wednesday April 13, 2011 dinner from 5pm-7pm and hair show/silent auction to follow
Where: Rumrz Grill at the District in South Jordan- 11565 S. Main District Drive

The dinner prices are $20 for adults and you have a choice between the bacon wrapped steak or the pork chops and $15 for kids for chicken fingers. You have to purchase the dinner tickets before in advance and they are selling out so if you are interested please be sure to contact Life Aveda Salon and Spa at 801.727.2600. However, if you can't make it out to the dinner please come to watch the hair show and see the incredible silent auction items and raffle drawings. I have heard of a few of the items that will be there and they are amazing!

**If you would like to donate items to the raffle or auction please get in touch with Cindy at Life Aveda 801.727.2600**

Much Love,

Jennie

Make-A-Wish

2011-04-04T02:21:00.026-06:00

Wow Sassy Pants supporters, Make-A-Wish was awesome. Magical is the word that best describes Izzy's first visit to declare her wish. I can't say enough about this amazing organization.

Here she is standing in front of the welcome Izzy poster

When we got there our Wish Granters introduced themselves and took us on a tour of the Make-A-Wish building. It was super neat. Liz and Derek are both volunteers for Make-A-Wish. You've probably drove past the Make-A-Wish building, it's located right near the RC Willey in Murray. They took us outside to the wishing pond and gave us each a wishing token. Both Tommy and Izzy threw there's in to make a wish, but Dustin and I held on to ours. Everything is going so well right now that I want to hold on to that token for when I really need it.

I don't know if you can see very well, but at the bottom of this pond are lots of tokens from sick little kids asking for a magical wish. This I imagine is suppose to get the children thinking about wishing.

I obviously need a new camera, but if you can tell there are stars at the top of the ceiling. Those stars represent each child who has had their wish granted.

They also have a big board filled with pictures of children who have had their wish granted and what their wish was. I'd have to say that the majority of the wishes were Disney, or Hawaii. Then there were some that were more unique like the boy who wanted to meet "he who should not be named" from Harry Potter or the little boy who wanted a pirate ship playhouse. Yes, both of their wishes were granted. We got to see our little friend Connor who recently had his wish granted for a Home Theater. His picture is on the second row very right.

We then went upstairs to play a game called "The Wishing Game", pretty fitting right? It was really fun, and Izzy actually has this game at home although she hasn't played it yet. She got it with her tree from The Festival of Trees. Our neighbor The McPhee's bought if for her and the theme was "Make-A-Wish". This game again helped to get Izzy's mind thinking about what she would wish for. The granters before hand told us that this is the one of the only times you really want to force your child to be selfish and think of themselves and what they would truly want as a wish.

I enjoyed hearing Tommy's wishes and Dustin's too, but most of all it was funny to hear what Izzy was wishing for. Then we got really serious and they started asking Izzy what she really wanted to wish for. They ask for 3 wishes in case they aren't able to grant the first or second one. This is what Izzy wished for in her words..."Disney World, a cruise with no parents (Tommy chimed in and said that's the Nickelodeon cruise) or Taylor Swift concert, and a merry-go-round in her backyard with only pink horses, because I hate purple." Yes, she tried to double up her second wish. Silly girl. Her wish granters wrote them down and put them in a metal capsule thing. Then they asked Izzy if she remembered her key to the wishing tower. She got all anxious because her Dad teased her and said we forgot it.

Dustin helping her get the key in so she could open the door to the wishing tower.

We walked into this really amazing room with lights and a big cone shaped statue of some sort. The floor was like frosted glass.

During the wishing game we had all made a wish for Izzy. Once we were in the room we all told her what we wished for. Then lights started to go on and off and she was told she had to follow the bright light on the floor. It lead her to this...where she dropped her capsule in and then held the small cone shaped object that as she continue to follow the lights lead her back to the big cone in the ground.

It turns out that was the top of the wishing wizards hat. She put it on top of the hat and

Then the wishing tower went dark

And then got really bright, signifying that the wizard had got her wish.

Then we went downstairs to the party room and her wish granters gave Izzy a gift bad with a pink dog, some red vines, a book, a wand, a cute purse, and they gave Tommy a book too.

We had cookies and ice cream and then I filled out paper work with Liz. At this point they will talk to her doctor to see when he will give her clearance to go and start looking into granting Izzy's wish. As soon as we hear we will definitely let you all know!

The visit was so incredible and magical, I'm so thankful Izzy was able to go and that these amazing volunteers were so sweet with her and Tommy.

Much Love,

Jennie

To learn more about volunteering for Make-A-Wish click on the link below, they have a super awesome cook book you can purchase at the building and a big percentage if not all goes back into Make-A-Wish. You can also donate your sky miles, time, or do a fundraiser.

Ways to help Make-A-Wish

Time flies when Izzy doesn't have chemo

2011-03-23T03:11:00.008-06:00

I have been meaning to give an update on Miss Sassy Pants, but to be honest we have been enjoying the time off from chemo.

Pa and Chelle flew Dustin and Tommy to Arizona for Spring Training over the weekend and Miss Sassy Pants and I had a girls weekend. Unfortunately on Friday when the home health nurse came to draw labs and change the dressing on Izzy's picc line they found that her ANC was very low. It hasn't been this low since we left the hospital on Christmas Eve. I had to do some rearranging of my schedule because when her counts are so low they like you to keep her away from kids and crowds. So on Monday morning Izzy and I went to clinic thinking that is was a high possibility that we would have to put off the chemo for another week due to a dramatic drop in Izzy's ANC. However, we lucked out and her counts were back up. It's kinda strange to say that we were excited to get chemo done, but it was more that we were excited to be a little closer to finishing up with the treatment.

Here she is enjoying some cereal while we waited for chemo. Miss Sassy Pants appointment was at 9:30 and we didn't leave the clinic until 1:30 so it made for a LONG day. Not more than a couple minutes into driving home I turned to check on Izzy and she was fast asleep. She was exhausted!

I have been so happy to meet some Moms of cancer patients these past couple weeks. Thank you for reaching out to me! It's true that sometimes the only one who can really understand how you’re feeling is another cancer Mom. I've learned a lot from Binley's Mom Kristin who wrote this amazing post on Brinley's blog about the things she has learned. I only wish I could write and express my feeling as well as she does. Check it out, but be sure to have your tissue handy. I have read the post over 50 times and I can't get through it without tears in my eyes and my heart not pounding.

We signed up a team in Izzy's honor for the CureSearch walk on July 9th. Curesearch benefits funding for Children's Oncology Group research. They hope to "Help reach the Day when every child with cancer can be guaranteed a cure." Can you even imagine? If you'd like to join the Miss Sassy Pants kicks cancer team click on the link below. If you can't make it to the event you can always be a virtual walker or make a donation.

http://www.curesearchwalk.org/faf/search/searchTeam.asp?ievent=452894

Oh yeah, and some very exciting news is that Miss Sassy Pants was nominated for Make-A-Wish!! Our little family gets to go meet with her wish granters on Monday March 28th. I have heard some amazing things about Make-A-Wish and we are very happy to get to be apart of such a truly incredible organization.

Much Love,

Jennie

Hollywood Connections with HopeKids

2011-03-10T15:45:00.010-07:00

This past Saturday we got to go to Hollywood Connections with HopeKids, the HopeKids and their immediate family had it all to ourselves from 9:00am to 10:30am, then your family and friends were able to come do all the fun stuff at a huge discount price and half of it went back to the HopeKids organization.

Miss Sassy Pants has been really into wearing scarfs, but most of the time she likes them draped over her head and she pretends it's her hair. Sometimes I can convince her to let me tie them, but it just depends on her mood. She liked this horse the best she told me because it had jewels on it.

They loved going on the bumper cars, Sassy Izzy was pretty good at maneuvering I was impressed. She got to where she would purposely make it so she would go around in circles. It was pretty funny.

Here's the Hoggan's minus Kimmie (she was running a race in St George).

And here is some of the Burnside's.

All the little kids tried to roller skate, but it was kind of hard for them. Tommy was much better his second time around. Here's Lyssie, I wish I would have got more pictures of all the kids roller skating because it was so cute.

My friends Destiny and Melanie brought their families, it was so nice to see them.

I always wish I would have taken more pictures when I get home and look at my camera. We had lots of family and friends who were able to come spend time and enjoy the fun things at Hollywood Connection. Thanks HopeKids!

WRD for Hope

2011-03-08T12:14:00.002-07:00

Have seen the movie "Whip It" with Drew Barrymore and Ellen Page and have wanted to watch real women's roller derby?? Well this Sat Mar 12 at 7pm at the Salt Palace you can see Black Diamond Divas vs Hot Wheelers and the best thing is 40% of the proceeds go to HopeKids!! The half time is Mini Bout with the Wasatch Junior Rollers. The tickets are $10 in advance or $13 at the door, children 5 and under are FREE! Also Legends Pub and Grill is hosting the after party and they told me if you bring in your ticket stub after the match you can get free dessert! How aweseome is that?! HopeKids is super close to our heart right now and has made it possible for Izzy and our family to do some really neat things that normally we wouldn't be able to. So go out and support a great cause this Saturday!

Last weeks chemo appt and ER visit

2011-03-07T17:00:00.007-07:00

Last Monday Izzy had chemo, don't you just love her fashion sense? Where is that button that reads "I dressed myself!"? At clinic we were able to finally meet Jessica. She is the little girl who has a Wilms Tumor like Izzy did. Jessica's Mom told us they were going in for a CT scan to see if they would be able to do surgery to remove the tumor. I later found out on her blog that Jessica is going in for surgery tomorrow March 8Th. Please keep their family and the staff at PCMC in your prayers, we are hoping for a speedy recovery for Jessica.

Unfortunately Izzy got sick this time from the chemo. Once we got home from the double dose she just sorta hung out. She kept telling me her tummy felt like a giant was stepping on it. She laid around most of the day and around 4:30 she started getting a temperature. I let her sleep for a bit and then all of the sudden her temp spiked and it 101.5, which is WAY too high. We are suppose to take her to the hospital if her temp gets to 100.3. So off Izzy an I went to the ER. They are always awesome about making sure we don't have to sit in the waiting room because her immune system is compromised. They give us a triage room to sit in and wait our turn away from all the sickness. While we were there Izzy did a little bit of this

But mostly a lot of this

The nurse gave her some fluids, antibiotics, and Tylenol. Around 11:30-midnight her labs finally came back, her counts were good and so they let us go home. It was a little tough lugging her all the way back to the car. It made me miss Dustin more because he is always so great to go get the car so we don't have to walk so far. It's a good thing Miss Sassy Pants is a light weight.

Izzy didn't have chemo today and she won't have it next week either. Yay for 2 weeks off of chemo. The home health nurse will still come once a week to change the dressing around her PICC line and also draw her labs to make sure her counts are doing okay.

We had a great time at Hollywood Connections on Saturday with HopeKids, stay tuned for some pictures on the next post.

Much Love,

Jennie

Benefit at W Lounge and Zumba Fundraiser

2011-03-02T16:23:00.011-07:00

My friend from eBay put together a great benefit show for Miss Sassy Pants at W Lounge in Salt Lake City. We were so appreciative of those of you who were so willing to donate items for the raffle. Those of you who won prizes were really lucky because there was some awesome stuff. I wanted to give a huge thanks to Victor for putting some much hard work into the event. This is a picture of him below at the event where he was manning the donation table.

Then Saturday my dear friend Lesina held a Zumba fundraiser at One Nightclub/Lounge. Thanks to the owner Aj for letting us shake it there. We had the very talented Alice Lopez, Natalie Montoya, and Miss Sassy Pants very own Auntie Vanessa instruct us through 2 hours of Zumba. It was a lot of fun. I was interviewed by one of the producers of KSL Octavia Palepoi who is Lesina's sister in law. She was so sweet and helped me to feel a little less nervous for the interview. There was clips shown on the 6pm and 10pm news that day. Izzy was able to see her pictures on the 10pm news and thought it was really cool that she was on t.v. Click on the link below to see it. Sina and I go way back to Elementary/Jr. High days. I have some great memories of hanging out with the Palepoi girls playing night games and church ball.

http://www.ksl.com/index.php?nid=148&sid=14530175

These are the ones who made the funderaiser possible. Minus Octavia, who I wish I had a picture with because she was so awesome to push the story on the news.

The whole group of Sassy Pants supporters!!

Thank you to those of you who were able to come out and show your love and support to both the W Lounge Benefit and also the Zumba fundraiser! I am also always very touched and so amazed at the people who come to these events that don't even know us, I think the reason why is because you expect or hope that your family and friends will be there, but when people show up that you've never met it can really make you feel good.

Much Love,

Jennie

Hip, Hip Hooray!! No chemo this week

2011-02-24T12:46:00.012-07:00

After 11 long weeks of Miss Sassy Pants having to go to the hospital for chemo we had our first week off and man did it feel good. We decided to celebrate and use the gift certificates Grandma Burnside gave to us for Christmas and go to the movie and lunch. Izzy has been dying to see Justin Bieber and the boys went to some other movie. We then had lunch at Applebee's and really just enjoyed the day.

This is Izzy and I waiting for the movie to start

This is Tommy and I at lunch

Last night after work I was trying to catch up on a few things online. I was writing back to someone who had left a really sweet comment on Izzy's blog and telling her about the things I've learned with this experience. I wanted to be able to share it with everyone because it is really close to my heart right now. Through this whole thing my Mom has continued to remind me of how important it is to learn from what we are all going through. I really believe that Heavenly Father gives a trials and experiences to teach us something. I have learned a lot and I know I will continue to keep growing from this, but this past week I've really focused on not complaining about what you don't have or feeling bad for yourself for what your dealing with in life. Sure it's not always easy, but who ever said life was easy is crazy! The thing is as sassy as Izzy is she doesn't feel sorry for herself. She has never once said it's not fair that she has to go to chemo each week or why does she have to stop going to dance or pre school and the other kids don't. And honestly not once has she told me that it isn't fair that she doesn't have any hair, in fact instead she has been putting these beautiful scarfs on her head or a long sleeve shirt to make her feel or pretend that she does. This incredible child of mine doesn't want anyone to feel sorry for her because she knows there is no reason to feel sorry for her. She is going to continue on with her life and make the most of what she is going through.

Much Love,

Jennie

Dentist appointment at Primary's

2011-02-18T22:25:00.005-07:00

Today Izzy had a dental appointment at PCMC this picture was taken on the way there. I really hate to see her go into surgery. I know this one doesn't compare with her kidney/tumor removal or when they removed her PORT, but it is still really hard. While we were in the waiting room I'll I could think about is how tough she is. She fought us on putting on the pajamas they make her wear, but other than that she was cooperative and brave.

Maybe she didn't want to wear the pj's because she looked so dang cute in her normal clothes ;) When Miss Sassy Pants comes out of sedation she is pretty mean. Today the nurse said she was trashing and pulled out her tube that went into her nose. Hence the reason why Dustin now sends me to get her from the recovery room. Her counts are very low so they were very careful to keep us in our own separate room while she recovered. We came home and she has been sort of out of it most of the day. We were all suppose to go to the Monster Jam with HopeKids, but because of her counts and everything she went through today Izzy and I stayed home and had a girls night in. We watched the Hanna Montana movie and had chocolate ice cream. The picture below is of the boys in their HopeKids t-shirts. They told me the seats were fantastic and it was really loud, but lots of fun.

Aren't they some handsome fellas? I think so!

Much Love,

Jennie

Skating for the first time with Relay for Life

2011-02-17T13:24:00.010-07:00

We had a great time last night at the kick off party last night for Relay for Life. Izzy had so much fun that we decided when she is done with her treatment we are going to have a huge party with all our friends and family to celebrate. We signed up a team in honor of Izzy and her fight against cancer. I am so excited to help raise funds for the American Cancer Society!! What a great way to celebrate, remember and fight back. The event for 2011 is being held August 12-13. It is an over night event where teams camp out and walk the track to celebrate those who have beat cancer, remember those we've lost and fight back with those battling now. We would love it if you wanted to become part of our team. You can email us at miss.sassypantsvscancer@gmail.com.

First time skating, it's harder than I remember.

Izzy and baby Elouise. She finally was able to meet my dear friend Kristen's baby girl.

Tommy had fun riding his scooter and learing how to skate for the first time.

Ally and Izzy. Ally is a sweet friend of mine who has kicked cancers butt more than once. She is an inspiration to us! Before we shaved Izzy's hair I showed her pictures of Ally on facebook and told her how beautiful Ally is and when Izzy saw her last night she pulled off her hat and showed her that she had no hair too. You can see in the pictures she was eventually skating without her hat on.

Tommy gave Izzy a rose. Too funny!

Miss Sassy Pants won one of the raffles. She was saying in this picture that it's too heavy.

Much Love,

Jennie

Gnomeo and Juliet with HopeKids

2011-02-15T13:01:00.003-07:00

Saturday morning Miss Sassy Pants and I were able to go to a private screening of Gnomeo and Juliet with Hopekids. Hopekids is an organization for children who are fighting life-threatening illnesses. They put together special events and activities so they can meet and get to know other kids who are facing similar illnesses. She was really excited about going to the movie. I told her she would see kids just like her that didn't have hair and probably had a PICC line in their arm. When we were walking out of the movie she said "I didn't see anyone just like me", I told her it was probably because they were wearing a hat like she was. She also wondered why her Uncle Bobby wasn't there because she said he is special and doesn't have hair either. She is right about that, he is pretty special and we think it was so neat of him to shave his hair. I will forever love this picture below!

Much Love,

Jennie

Valentine Day Chemo

2011-02-14T15:35:00.008-07:00

Today Izzy had chemo and was very cute about wanting to do valentines for the medical staff at PCMC. It made me a little sad that she wasn't able to go to her Valentine parties at pre school or dance, but then I remembered that she will have the rest of her life for Valentine parties and what's important right now is keeping her healthy while her immune system is compromised. She got 2 valentines from Primary yesterday and she was really excited about it. Thanks Freddy and Mason! She misses going to Primary and seeing her little friends at church.

Here is Miss Sassy Pants getting an arm squeeze. She really dislikes this part of the appointment. And I know this isn't the best picture, but I hope you can see why I call her Miss Sassy Pants. She was so upset she had to get her blood pressure taken and I told her to smile so I could take a picture of her in the cute new skirt she got, but she was not having it.

No more than 5 minutes later she was happily passing out her valentines to the nurses at clinic. She gave one to each of her doctors too. Her counts were good and they just keep telling us that they are impressed at how well she is handling the chemo. She won't have to go back for chemo for another 2 weeks. Unfortunately, we will be up there on Friday for some dental work and we are hoping everything goes smooth.

After she got her chemo it was off to ICS. We were so glad to run into one of our favorite nurses Caitlyn. She helped Izzy through some tough times. You can see her in one of the pictures on this post, she is walking with Izzy after her surgery. It's kind of weird how you become attached to these nurses and staff. She had a tech that's name was Tommy and we'd call him Tommy the Tech, he was really cute. She was looking for one nurse in particular when we got there and he wasn't on ICS, and luckily Caitlyn knew where he was. If you've been to PCMC you might know him, his name is Irish. Izzy took a liking to him because he liked to tease her and she liked to play with his fart machine. He was on the 3rd floor and when Izzy saw him she got all shy. I had to laugh because he looked like cupid. He had a Valentine tutu on. I don't know how some of these nurses do it sometimes. When I see them I get a little emotional because I think of all that they helped Izzy get through. I will forever be thankful for all the members of the staff at Primary Children's Medical Center who took care of Miss Sassy Pants!!

Happy Valentine's Day and Much Love,

Jennie

What round are we on?? I'm not keeping track or anything

2011-02-09T14:41:00.003-07:00

Monday Izzy had another round of chemo this one was a double dose. They also did a ultra sound and a chest x ray to make sure the chemo is doing what it is suppose to do. I don't know why, but I was a little nervous about the whole thing. As it turned out there was not reason to be nervous because the tests all came back great, except for the fact that she's missing her right kidney. LOL! We will continue with the test about every 3 months.

Miss Sassy Pants doctor saw Izzy's head she told her she looked cute and told her Dad it was nice of him to be supportive and shave his hair too. Ha! We all laughed. I know if he didn't already have the same hair 'do as Izzy he would have shaved it all off in a second though. My little brother Bobby wanted to be show his love for Izzy so he actually did shave all his hair off, even his moustache is gone, which is a relief. I was at work when he sent me the picture message and it brought me to tears, he responded with the text that read "You don't have to cry Jen, I'm the one who has to go to church on Sunday".

I have a friend at eBay who is putting together a benefit show for Izzy on February 24th. He is looking for anyone who is interested in helping out with the show by donating items for the silent auction/raffle. Victor is a great person and the first day I got back from work after Izzy's diagnosis he told me how much he wanted to do this for our family. If you have anything or know of any local businesses who would be interested in donating anything from gift certificates to crafts please contact him at victor.fitch@gmail.com. He would like to get an idea of what they will be featuring in the raffle/silent auction to include it in promotions leading up to the show, so please contact him asap.

Much Love,

Jennie

Dentist appt and Chinese New Year

2011-02-08T14:05:00.006-07:00

This is Izzy after her dentist appt. We found out that she has a mouth full of cavities, well not really, but she does have some work that needs to be done. We recently had her 6 month check up so I was surprised that she had any cavities. Her oncologist tells us they don't see it happen too often with chemo, but it is known to be a side affect. They tell us it more typical in kids that are also doing radiation. Her dentist wants to remove the broken tooth and put in a space maintainer and take care of some cavities in her molars. We are lucky that her dentist does treatment once a month at PCMC, so he would be able to take care of her there. Miss Sassy Pant's oncologist and dentist will need to consult with one another and decide if it's work that needs to be taken care of immediately or if it can wait 2.5 more months when she should be done with chemo.

Kathleen Owens in our ward brought our family some fun decorations, hats, and a gift card to a local Chinese restaurant to celebrate Chinese New Year. It was so thoughtful of her and it was fun for our family to have a new little tradition to look forward to. Thanks Kathleen!! Dustin's little brother Kevin went on his mission to Taiwan. So this picture is for the Abernethy's in Louisiana. We love and miss you guys! Happy Chinese New Year Hunter, Noah, Kevin, and Katie!

I'll be back soon with some updates on Izzy's chemo appointment yesterday.

Much Love,

Jennie

I'm pretty sure I'm biased,

2011-01-31T16:05:00.013-07:00

But I still think I have the most beautiful bald headed little girl ever! Today we took the big step after her chemo treatment and shaved her hair. It was bald is so many different spots and falling out so much that it just made sense. We let her use to scissors to cut her hair and then Dustin buzzed the rest of it off. I don't think Dustin ever thought he'd be shaving his daughters hair, but honestly who ever thinks their child is going to get cancer anyways, right?

Today at her clinic appointment everything went well. She only had to get one of the chemotherapy's today and it's administered through a syringe and only take a minute compared to when she does the double dose and she actually has to be hooked up to the machine. The doctors said she is doing pretty good. Her red blood count is low and they want us to watch out and see if she gets any headaches or is really tired. Her ANC is back up, which is great. It's crazy to me how much that number fluctuates. Next week we have the double dose count dependent chemo and then will also do some x-rays and scans to make sure the treatment is doing what it is suppose to do.

One of my best friends Danielle, who lives in Texas has created a button on her blog that says "Praying for Izzy". She is a brillant blogger and has given me the HTML because I had a couple people ask if they could put the button on their blog. Anyhow, if you're interested you'll need to email me and then I can pass along the code, for some reason when I put in the post it just comes up with the button. You can check it out below, when you click on it, it goes to the blog. Love you Dan!

Lastly, I've had some really touching experiences this past week where 2 people have told me that Izzy's blog inspires them. It means so much to me that people actually take the time to comment, stop me at church, or send me a message. My little girl is definitely inspiring, in fact there are days when I look back at the pictures from the hospital and I can hardly believe that we've come this far. Don't get me wrong I know we're not done fighting, but she's a strong girl and it amazes me how much she has already been through. I swear when she gets to be a teenager and is struggling with the typical teenage things, I'm going to bring all these pictures out and tell her if you got through cancer, you can get through ANYTHING! So thank you to all of you who have shown your love and support, on my low days it helps to have these words of encouragement from everyone to look at to help me feel better. Because to be completely honest with everyone...sometimes I pretend.

Much Love,

Jennie

Fever schmever

2011-01-30T11:01:00.002-07:00

On Wednesday Miss Sassy Pants got a fever, so I stayed home with Tommy and Dustin took her up to the clinic. Monday I took Izzy to chemo by myself and Dustin stayed home so I didn't put up much of a fight, but I was anxiously waiting by the phone to hear what the doctors said. It's so much better if she gets a fever during the day because we can just take her to the clinic. Otherwise we have to go to the ER and pay a $100 co-pay and we have to explain everything to the ER docs, which are great, but then they have to consult with her oncologist to make sure they're doing what they would want them to do. It's just easier to deal directly with the docs who are treating her. Does that make sense? Unfortunately, with my kids it seems like they get fevers at night and I don't know why.

The doctors said Izzy's counts have dropped dramatically, so we've got to keep her away from people so she doesn't get sick. They were talking about admitting her because of her counts and so they could keep an eye on her, but she was doing good besides that so they let her go home. They told Dustin if she got another fever we'd have to bring her back and get admitted. Luckily she's been doing pretty good and hasn't got a fever since they left. *Fingers Crossed*

Much Love as always,

Jennie

Chemo Round 8

2011-01-27T23:47:00.003-07:00

I'm again attempting to blog from my phone so be patient with me, I'm still learning. I have these great pics from my phone, but it makes it difficult to put them on the blog without them being super small. She looks like a total bug eye with my sunglasses on, but the sun was driving her nuts so I hooked her up.

Round 8 went well. Izzy had fun playing with the polly pockets and play dough at clinic on Monday. I'd say we are almost half way through with treatment, which is pretty exciting! Her counts were a little low, but her red blood count is up. It was nice to have her counts up so well last week, we took advantage of it and went to the Living Plant Aquarium and Tracy Aviary, it was super fun! More pics to come.

Much Love,

Jennie

Last weeks chemo visit round 7

2011-01-26T13:45:00.006-07:00

These two crack me up sometimes. Mr. T is off track, but because of RSV season he isn't allowed to come with us to clinic, so he went and hung out with Shyanne and her kids. Thanks Shy! But before we left I wanted to get a couple pictures of these goofballs together. Silly kids. That last one if of Izzy trying to give him a kiss.

This picture below is of Izzy getting measured. She has to have her weight, height, temp, and blood pressure done at each visit. She obviously isn't standing straight, but she is a tall little girl. In her preschool class she was on of the tallest kids. She sure misses her preschool class. The doctors tell us it's best to keep her home from preschool and dance until her treatment is complete.

This visit was a long one. She got her double dose of chemo. It was also a busy day at clinic because is was closed the day before for Martin Luther King Jr. day.

Thanks for all the comments on the last post. We love to read what comments people are leaving it really helps us to feel the love and support.

*If you love her outfit like we do, you should check out http://simplysewsassy.blogspot.com/. My friend Becky, who is also my little sister Jessi's sister-in-law makes the cutest stuff from her signature skirts, to her darling aprons.

Much Love,

Jennie

It's only hair, right?!

2011-01-24T15:15:00.005-07:00

Miss Sassy Pants hair has been falling out over the last couple weeks. It hasn't all come out yet, but I know it's only a matter of time. In fact she has had to wear hats the last little bit because there are so many bald spots. It's weird how it affects everyone differently. I had a lot of people tell me that their hair fell out all in one day, but hers hair has been more gradual. It seems to happen the night after chemo, she wakes up and her bed is literally covered in hair. She really didn't have a lot in the first place so I'm surprised so much of it is still there. We've talked about it a lot with Izzy, and she seems okay with it. She understands it will come back and today was talking about getting a wig like Taylor Swift. LOL! I don't think we will go the wig route though, I can't really imagine her wearing it all that much and I've heard they're itchy.

I had a visit from a friend that use to be in my ward and it was perfect timing with what was going on with Izzy starting to loose her hair. She brought us a book that is called "Introducing Hairetta Hairison The One, The Only Me", it is seriously the perfect book. It's about a girl who looses her hair, but she is much to busy to care. Please check it out, it's for anyone young or old who is going or has gone through hair lose. It is truly inspirational and I have to give Carly a huge shout out for thinking of us. Carly has a fabulous blog you should all check out it's called http://livingthescream.com/. You can purchase "Introducint Hairetta Hairison The One, The Only Me" by going to http://www.jozybooks.com/. It means so much to have such incredible people write books like these that help children and families who are going through stuff like we are.

Do you have a book you know of that we might like? Let me know! I have started a little sidebar that has some fun books we've enjoyed and have helped us and we would love to know of more. Sometimes there is nothing better than a great book to help you understand things a little more and at least make you feel like you aren't the only one going through the hard spots in life.

Hey and please don't feel shy leaving comments, I've made it so anyone can comment and Izzy loves to have me read what people are saying and thinks it fun when I tell her who they are and if they have kids she might know. It means a lot to know that family, friends, and anyone else out there are reading the blog and keeping up on how she's doing on her fight against cancer.

I will do an update on her chemo appointment she had today soon. I've had major computer problems, but thanks to my Uncle Randy and cousin Matt we are up and running again.

Much Love,

Jennie

Miss Sassy Pants vs the broken tooth....

2011-01-15T13:19:00.007-07:00

The other night we found out that Izzy broke one of her back molars. We first thought it was decaying and because I'd worked in dental for 8 years I started to feel responsible. I had brushed her teeth that morning and hadn't noticed anything, she does have more sensitive gums and when she was diagnose her Oncologist told us to get a soft bristle tooth brush so it wouldn't bother her gums so much. Once I was able to get a good look at her tooth it turned out it was a popcorn kernel and when we finally got all the pieces out 1/4 of her tooth is gone. I was worried about infection, but her doctors told us she on enough antibiotics that she should be good. They want us to get into a dentist and have them check it out and see if it is necessary to do now or if it can wait until she finished with chemo. Apparently when you are going through chemo a side effect can be weakening of the tooth enamel, but they don't see it very often. I think it was probably a combination of weak enamel and biting down on a popcorn kernel. If Miss Sassy Pants has to get the tooth taken care of she will need to have an antibiotic through her IV before and after the dental treatment. Here's hoping the tooth will be okay and can wait until she finished with treatment and that is won't cause her any pain.

This picture is the day after Izzy got home from the hospital after the diagnosis and surgery. Even though it was December she was dying to wear a sun dress and wanted a picture with her dog Rogue.

BTW- I put some links on the side bar of some great resources. I love SuperSibs,it was started by someone that had a sibling going through cancer they have fun stuff that they do for the siblings because we all know they're going through a lot too. Please share any links you think would be beneficial for a family going through cancer.

Much Love,

Jennie

Round 6 of chemo

2011-01-10T15:28:00.005-07:00

(Miss Sassy Pants and Trooper Tom. This picture was taken a few weeks ago, but I thought it was cute and had to post it)

Today Izzy had her 6Th round of chemo. Things went pretty well apart from when the nurse had to change the dressing on her PICC line. Normally the home health nurse has done it and Izzy really dislikes it, that area is sensitive and sore because of the location and the surgery. Most kids don't like having band aids removed and she especially disliked it before all of this. When they remove the dressing it pulls on her skin and hurts her she also has to stay still and let the nurse scrub it with alcohol really well. The line goes directly to her heart so everything has to be sterile and I have to wear a mask. The Life Specialist came in and was trying to keep her mind off of it by blowing bubbles, it seemed to help.

Her counts are pretty good still and we are very pleased with that. Next week Izzy will have her double dose of chemo and it is also count dependent so we hope that they stay up. We found out that she quite possibly will need to also have a blood transfusion next week because she is anemic. They doctor assured us that it is typical for patients going through chemotherapy to need blood transfusions from time to time. It may explain why she was having a headache last week. Fortunately they should be able to do the blood transfusion at her next week appointment along with her double chemo unless between then and now she gets worse. It will make for a long day at the clinic, but probably better than having to make a whole other trip to the hospital.

Oh and in case anyone was wondering, she did get the Dora swimsuit for Christmas and was very excited about it. Although I still can't figure out why she wanted a Dora swimsuit she's much more into iCarley and Big Time Rush.

Thanks as always for the love and support. I can't tell you how much it means to us to have our family, friends, and even people we don't even know who have sent messages or words of encouragement.

Much Love,

Jennie

Funny story...

2011-01-08T17:01:00.002-07:00

Izzy says some funny stuff like when Tommy asked in a very concerned voice at dinner one night "How long is Izzy going to be sick" and Izzy hits Tommy in the chest and says "Tommy I'm NOT sick!"

Then the other night when we had to go to the ER for her fever Tommy said something to be about going to the hospital and she said "Tommy you don't know this hospital you've only been to the one that puts staples in your head".

And yesterday while I was sitting at the kitchen table eating cereal with Izzy she said "I gotta go to the bathroom" and only seconds later she says "Oh man Mom! I'm squirting poop again!" I don't know if it's the chemo or the antibiotics and actually it's probably both, but she does tend to have squirting poop on occasion.

Stay tuned for some pictures and a post about the Zumba fundraiser I went to this morning put on by my SIL Vanessa.

Much Love!

Jennie

ER visit

2011-01-06T23:59:00.000-07:00

So apparently I spoke too soon. Last night we had to take Izzy into the ER because her temperature was too high. I'm so blessed to have parents who are there for me in a moments notice. I called my Mom and she was there to pick up Tommy within 20 minutes. He loves going to Grandma and Grandpa's house. We were at the hospital for a few hours, basically long enough for the ER docs to take her labs, give her some Tylenol and antibiotics through her PICC line and make sure her temperature has gone down. They don't want us giving her Tylenol when she gets a fever because it masks the temperature and they want to see what is causing the fever. The only thing we worry is that now that they've taken her off her antibiotics we've been giving to her through her PICC line and perhaps the antibiotics we are giving her orally aren't as effective. We left the ER at about 10:30 and I went into work. Today she's has been warm, but hasn't thankfully got a temperature high enough that we would need to take her in yet.

Round 5 of chemo

2011-01-05T14:22:00.000-07:00

Yesterday we had Izzy's 5th round of chemo. When we left the clinic her counts were great, higher than I've seen them since we started treatment. With that being said visitors are welcome as long as they aren't sick of course.

So a little bit about ANC (Absolute neutrophil count), the normal range for the ANC = 1,500 to 8,000/mm3. Neutrophils are key components in the system of defense against infection, so if her ANC is below 700 we need to be cautious and keep her out of crowds and obviously sick people, now if her counts are 500 or lower they won't even give her chemo and she shouldn't be around anyone especially little kids because when children are most contagious they usually don't have any symptoms.

Her wound where they removed her PORT has be healing up really well. We still have to change the dressing daily and add some medicine to it 2 times a day. She is now on 2 different oral antibiotics that she takes twice a day. Since we left the hospital on Christmas Eve we have been doing very strong antibiotics 4 times a day that run through her PICC line for 30-40 minutes. She is relieved to be done with those because she was not happy when she would have to get hooked up and couldn't move around liked she would like.

My best friend Heather passed along this blog she came about because she thought I might be able to relate just a little. Our family has been so blessed with the support and love and I am asking that everyone keep the Schmitt family in your prayers. They are going through so much right now. If you'd like to check out their blog click on the link here. They even have some great ways to send a donation on the side bar.

If you are free on Saturday and looking for a great work out my SIL Vanessa is putting on a fundraiser for Miss Sassy Pants at 10:30. Vanessa is an incredible Zumba instructor and has been so sweet to put this together. Below is the information and you can also click on the facebook link here.

Time: Saturday, January 8 · 10:30am - 12:00pm
Location: Cottonwood Sports Center
4888 S Highland Dr (2000 E) across the street from Macy's
Salt Lake City, UT
The MC will be 1 Hr 1/2 long. Tickets: $10 (CASH ONLY) and all the proceeds will go to Izzy and her family.

This comment Vanessa made brought tears to my eyes "We love you Izzy... there are a lot of people working on this and supporting you and your family with this event! All of our love, prayers and energy will be with you this saturday under one roof!:)"

Much Love,

Jennie

She might be a little sick of going to the hospital

2010-12-28T23:47:00.001-07:00

Or maybe she's sick of me taking her pictures?? Today Izzy had round 4 of her chemo. She doesn't look too happy in this picture, but about 10 minutes later she was sitting on her Dad's lap laughing her head off, so don't let her fool you. She gets really mad when the nurse or tech take her blood pressure, which is surprising considering that it is easy compared to the other things she has gone through. Plus, she starts getting mad and then her blood pressure goes up.

Today's visit she got 2 different chemotherapy medications because of that the home health nurse came yesterday to draw her blood and get her counts. We left the hospital on Christmas Eve and her ANC (Absolute neutrophil count) was 400 so she couldn't be around her cousins during Christmas, but her ANC has now gone up to 800. If it hadn't have gone up they wouldn't have done chemo today because this round is count dependent.

Izzy was pretty funny in clinic today. There were two other little girls around her age getting their chemo and at first Izzy didn't want one of them watching her T.V., but they I talked her into asking them to color with her. It was amazing watching her with these two little girls who have lost their hair. I keep wondering if/when it will happen. We've talked to her about it a lot lately. In fact she's said she doesn't want to loose her hair because her friends won't know who she is, she even went as far as saying that she thinks her friends will say "Is that Izzy or Dustin, Izzy or Dustin?". For some reason she thinks if/when she looses her hair she will look more like her Dad. She also told my sister Kim today that when she looses her hair she will just have a different style. If you know Miss Sassy Pants you will know she's definitely got a style of her own.

Much Love,

Jennie

Antibiotics

2010-12-26T16:10:00.000-07:00

Izzy has to get her antibiotic through her PICC 4 times a day. She has one that she does 3 times a day and runs for 30 minutes and then another one she gets once a day and runs for 36 minutes. Dustin has been incredible about making sure we stay on schedule and keeping everything very sterile and clean. Izzy gets a little bored when we do the antibiotics, but it is much better than having to be at the hospital.

Her home health nurse came today to change the dressing around the PICC and also check her wound from the removal of her PORT. She was pretty sore because once they place the PICC it can be very tender around that area.

This week we go in for chemo on Tuesday since the clinic is closed for the holiday tomorrow. We will have the home health nurse come draw her labs tomorrow to check her counts because this week her chemo is count dependent. When we left the hospital her ANC was low so she isn't able to be around kids, sick people, and crowds, so it was the pits that she wasn't able to go to Christmas Eve with my all my cousins at Grandma Burnside's house and she also missed out on Christmas day for brunch at my Moms. However, we are still happy she is home and we are focusing on the positive side of everything!

You can't see her PICC and the antibiotics that are sitting on the side of her in the picture, but I am amazed that we are able to do so much of this at home. It makes a huge difference for Izzy to be with her brother and her dog so I'm so glad to be home.

Much Love,

Jennie

Best Christmas EVER!!

2010-12-24T11:24:00.000-07:00

We are getting the best Christmas present ever....Miss Sassy Pants is getting to leave the hospital sometime this afternoon. She is waiting to get her PICC placed in her arm and then they will do x-rays, antibiotics, and observe her for a couple hours then we are OUTTA HERE!! I know Primary's would make Izzy's Christmas great, but being home with our family will be the very BEST!!

Here's wishing you all the very best Christmas ever!!

Full body CT/Surgery

2010-12-22T08:47:00.000-07:00

Here is Miss Sassy Pants on the wagon ride down to get her CT scan.

This is her buddy she got from my good friend Kristen. She named him Socko. It seems pretty fitting.

She held really really still while she went through the CT scan. We liked to call it a rocket ship. It kind of makes noises like a rocket ship.

Here she is holding tight to Socko while they wheeled her down to surgery. She also had to make sure she had her pillow pet. Thanks black Jessi :)

She had a furry visitor come see her yesterday. She couldn't believe how furry this doggie was. I was a little nervous about the dog being on her bed, but whatever makes her smile.

I'm headed back up to the hospital and hoping Izzy is doing well. Dustin said she hasn't had a temperature again since 4:30 yesterday when it got up to 103 degrees and they've been very diligent with the Tylenol. Here's hoping the fever stays down.

Much Love,

Jennie

Best Big Brother EVER!

2010-12-22T08:32:00.000-07:00

This guy has been such a great sport through all this. I came home last night to stay with Tommy. We snuggled in bed and watched Polar Express.

He came up on Monday to hang out in the waiting room while Izzy was in surgery to get her port removed. He saw her come out of surgery and he was really sweet. Izzy was pretty upset because of the surgery and I'm sure the medicine as well.

Here they are reunited for the brief time that they got to see each other. It's been a juggling act to try and be there for both Tommy and Izzy. They are both going through this major crisis and need support in different ways. It's not that we haven't had family and friends tell us that Tommy can come to their place to hang out because we certainly have, it's that he needs his parents just like any other 7 year old kid does. We will get through this though and our family will be stronger than ever.

Much Love,

Jennie

Back in the hospital

2010-12-21T12:18:00.000-07:00

This past week has been full of visits to Primary Children's hospital. We were here on Monday in clinic for chemo and a flu shot, Tuesday she has a fever and so we were back to clinic for antibiotics, Friday she had a follow up with her surgeon and he noticed her port looked red and possibly infected, Saturday the Dr called and wanted us to come into the ER for labs and antibiotics because of a positive culture from her Tuesday visit, then Sunday her Dr said we needed to come in and get admitted because the antibiotics we received the night before weren't going to be effective against the type of bug that is showing up on her cultures. Before we came up to the hospital we went to our annual Larsen Family Christmas party. Izzy had a great time and it was so great to see her having fun with all her cousins.

We are glad to be close enough to Primary's so these frequent visits aren't so difficult to get to. Yesterday, she got a full body CT scan to check to see if this bug is anywhere else in her body. She held still enough during the scan that she didn't have to be sedated. Her Dad and I were very proud. Then she went into surgery to get the port removed. She was in surgery for about an hour and the surgeon said the port had a bid puss pocket underneath it and was definitely infected. Tommy was able to come up and sit in the waiting room for Izzy and talk to her when she came out of recovery. He rode the elevator up to the 4th floor and then had to say "Goodbye" because at this point no one under the age of 14 can visit the hospital. The CT scan has come back good and they haven't found that the bug in her her lungs or any other concerning places in her body.

We are waiting on the results for exactly what type of bug it is that we are dealing with. She is on some strong antibiotics that go through her IV. The Oncologist has told us that she won't be able to leave the hospital until she has another central line, which most likely will be a PICC and that they are able to find out more about this bug. We obviously would really love to be home for Christmas and Dustin said he may have to break her out if they won't let us, but truly we understand and want Izzy as healthy as possible so we can enjoy Christmas with our family.

I still have some pictures and posts I wanted to do from the last time we were in the hospital, but at this point I will try to keep everyone up-to-date with the the here and now.

Much Love,

Jennie

Blowing bubbles and eating popsicles

2010-12-15T16:32:00.000-07:00

Because of Izzy's surgery it was important that she clear her lungs so that she didn't get any infection in them, so the nurses brought her bubbles and some pin wheels. Of course she wouldn't do it when we asked her to, but as soon as she wanted to she went to town on blowing bubbles....

She finally got to have a Popsicle on Wednesday, what surprised me is that she only ate half of the half of a twin pop. She chose a red Popsicle.

The next morning she wanted a purple Popsicle.

This trip she walked all the way down to the room where they keep all the treats for the patients and all the way back. I tell ya friends, she is tough!!

She looks so tiny with all the stuff she had to drag around. It was like a parade when she would go down the hall.

Here she is walking back to her room. She insisted on holding the Popsicle and the drink.

Back in her room. Don't you love how the nurse put the Popsicle through the lid to help with holding it and having it drip too much. Those nurses are SO smart!!

*Sorry about the size of the pictures. They are small because I took them with my phone. I don't know how to get to any bigger, but if anyone out there does let me know.

Visits from some furry friends

2010-12-12T23:19:00.000-07:00

While Miss Izzy was doing her make up (compliments of Destiny, Ella, and Kobee) she got a visit from a furry friend. I don't know if I mentioned this before, but the morning of Izzy's surgery Dustin asked her if she wanted anything at all from home. Her response was "Just Rogue, Dad". Rogue is our chocolate lab who Izzy just adores. Thanks Pat and Sarah for taking care of her while we were in the hospital. I know she enjoyed hanging out with her cousin Rocket.

This is Elliot the Australian Labradoodle. He is part of the ITA-Intermountain Therapy Animals it is a nonprofit organization. He was so sweet.

Here he is praying for Izzy. Izzy noticed his cute Silver nail polish and his trainer was quick to tell us it's actually Chrome considering that Elliot is a male. LOL! Izzy thought that Elliot was alright, but she still missed her dog at home.

The next day she has a visit from this beautiful chocolate colored cat.

Unfortunately, I don't recall the name of the cat. However, I do remember the trainer saying how rare it was that a cat was able to pass the certifications to become a therapy animal.

I swear I'm going to get this blog up-to-date with all the pictures and details from the hospital, so don't give up on me.

Izzy has been doing considerably well with the chemo this past week. My only concern is that she has no appetite and she is already so skinkin' skinny. She doesn't act lethargic or anything so I'm sure she isn't dehydrated, but we will talk to her dietitian and doctor to see if they recommend anything.

Tomorrow we go in for round 2.

Much Love,

Jennie

Things that passed the time and her cute robe

2010-12-09T15:19:00.000-07:00

Izzy wanted her Barbie's from home so her Daddy-O went to get them in the morning and when he brought them back to her she asked "Where is Jake, Dad?" both of us looked at each other confused and she said "The boy barbie doll!" Duh! She played with her Barbie dolls and loved the new Bell from Beauty and the Beast that Grandma Shanna got for her. She has always likes to change the clothes on her dolls so sorry about the naked Barbies.

She loved playing with play doh and showed Uncle Ron and Brooke how fun it was by making a mess of it in her hospital bed.

At this point she still wasn't able to eat or drink, which was pure torture for both her and us. She kept asking to eat and we had to tell her not yet. I swear this was one of the reasons she was ornery. She hadn't eaten since Sunday at dinner and we had soup. All I know is that when I miss a meal I'm in a bad mood.

She got this warm and cozy bath robe that she wore when we would go on our walks. The first walk she had to go on her nurse bribed her and told her she just had to walk down the hall and we could find a wagon and she could go for a ride in it. She was so cute she actually told me that she would go on a walk if I went home and got her a stroller. Smart kid, right!

Much Love,

Jennie

Post Surgery

2010-12-08T12:37:00.001-07:00

After the surgery Izzy had to get out of bed and move to the chair 2 times before she went to sleep. She would cry and say she didn't want to do it and wanted me to move her, but it was important for her to get that movement in so she would get better. It wasn't easy with all the tubes and wires attached to her. It was honestly quite a process. We would have to move the tower around so that everything would stretch and make sure her catheter wasn't in the way either. The picture above is of the first time she moved. She had to sit there for about 15 minutes and then get back into the bed. She didn't want me taking pictures of her, but she and everyone else knows me better than that.

Once she had moved from her bed to the chair and back she was exhausted. She fell asleep and even missed her cute little cousins coming to visit. I showed her pictures of Rayanne, Ellie, and Rhett coming to see her, but she was all confused and sad she didn't get to see them.

By the second time she was all about doing it by herself and didn't want any help. That's my Izzy, Miss Independent. This is her playing on Grandpa Kevin's iPad and telling me to stop taking pictures.

It meant a lot to her to have Aunt Kimmie come and spend time with her. She combed her hair and made it look pretty.

Izzy loves to color and do any type of art, so we were blessed to get lots of coloring books and crayons so she could keep her mind off what was going on. We saw this side of Izzy a lot.

She could get pretty mean and upset. I really think it was her way of controlling the situation. She had been poked and prodded so much and wanted to have a little bit of say in things. And we hadn't even been in the hospital for 24 hours yet.

And then with all that energy she spent getting mad she would fall asleep again. I think that it was so too much for her to understand why this was all happening. We went to the hospital and she was feeling fine. Now she had an incision clear across her belly from taking out her kidney and the tumor and was no longer feeling good.

I want to give a big shout out to my friend Danielle who has helped me to get this blog going and put a layout and music to it. Izzy LOVES Taylor Swift and would spend hours watching youtube videos of all her music videos.

**Other updates** I went back to work last night. It was extremely difficult because I wanted to be home with Izzy, but my PTO had run out and the company Dustin was working for let him go for violating his 90 day probationary period. It's okay though, he was miserable there and now he can spend some time finding a job with a company who really cares about their employees. I know that this is just a blessing in disguise and we will get through it!

Much Love,

Jennie

A week ago today

2010-12-06T19:33:00.000-07:00

It's crazy how much Izzy has healed since her surgery. It breaks my heart to see this picture of her, it was so hard to see her like this, but if you could see her now you wouldn't believe how great she is looking.

The day of her surgery was very nerve racking. They prepare you pretty well, but I didn't want to let her go into the surgery without me. However, no parents were allowed so I settled for sitting in the surgery waiting room while we received updates via phone from the surgeons nurse every 1.5 hours. Here she is with a barbie while they explained what will happen in to her in surgery. I could tell she was more excited to be playing with the barbie than anything else. Grandma Shanna had done her hair to keep it out of her face and Izzy was not happen to be wearing the clothes they gave her.

Then here she is getting rolled down the hall on her hospital. She was looking up at the ceiling because they have butterflies painted on them.

We were going on little to no sleep so she got a little tired. Big Yawn!

Here she is in a daze while her parents and grandparents were talking to the surgeon and asking every imaginable question.

And then I look over and she is out like a light. She was so tired she fell asleep.

I don't know if it was better that she went into surgery asleep or not. It may have been worse on her and us if she was awake when we gave her a kiss and hug. I just remember walking down the hall to the waiting room bawling and Dustin holding me.

Much Love,

Jennie

Lots of visitors

2010-12-05T09:47:00.000-07:00

Izzy loved to have her friends and family come visit her. She especially loved to have her little friends come. Once they told us she could no longer have visitors under 14 she was a little bummed. Here are a few pictures of her visitors...

Presli and Easton

Aunt Sarah and Ellie

Rhett

Rayanne

Uncle Pat and Aunt Kim

Uncle Bobby and Aunt Dani

Alyssa

Kalli (Izzy and Kalli were born only a few days apart)

Baby Taylee

Kobee, Ella, and Destiny

Ryder
And this was only part of who came to visit. I didn't get pictures of all the family and friends who came just to show their support and love for Izzy and those friends of mine who were there for some emotional support for me.

Thanks everyone! I have lots of pictures to put up. I think Izzy got sick of me taking pictures, but I want her to be able to look back and see all that she went through. Check back soon!

Much Love,

Jennie

Lucky Charms, YUM!

2010-12-05T09:35:00.000-07:00

Through this whole ordeal all Izzy wanted was some Lucky Charms. She was so cute about it she was finally able to eat some yesterday. She only had a few bites, but we will take anything we can get right now. It was so hard to hear her ask to eat or drink and we had to tell her no. If you came to visit I'm sure you heard her ask it over and over. Then when they finally gave her the go ahead to eat she didn't eat very much. Her first order from room service was a chocolate donut, chocolate ice cream, and come oatmeal. She had one bite of the chocolate ice cream and didn't touch anything else.

She did have some fishy crackers, and mini oreos, and a starburst that her cousin Brooke brought. Thanks for bringing them Brookie, it was great to have some of her favorite snacks.

And we're out!

2010-12-04T17:50:00.000-07:00

Wahoo, we are getting our stuff together and will get to leave the hospital tonight. We are so very excited, but will miss the staff at Primary Children's. They have taken such great care of Izzy.

We will start chemo most likely on Monday, which is good because Tommy hasn't been feeling very well and hasn't had a chance to see his little sister. He came to visit her on Wednesday on and when he walked in Izzy said "look at all the stuff I got and you didn't". You gotta love siblings. In fact he was more interested in playing her Xbox 360.

We want to thank every one that has come to visit us in the hospital and given Izzy great gifts. We can't say enough about how thankful we are for our family and friends and all the support we've received.

If anyone would like to participate we are having a fast tomorrow for Izzy and to show our gratitude for all the support we have. Our Heavenly Father loves Miss Izzy so much and has helped us coupe with these major changes in life.

Much Love,

Jennie

2010-12-04T07:02:00.001-07:00

Test

PORT/No more tubes

2010-12-04T05:28:00.000-07:00

Yesterday the nursed accessed Izzy's port. I don't know if everyone knows what a port is because before all this I had no idea. Port: An implanted central venous access device, or "port" is a tube placed in a vein in the upper chest or arm. The tube called a catheter, is several inches long and made of flexible plastic. When the port is in place, one end of the catheter lies underneath the skin, just below the collarbone or in the upper arm. The other end is in the large vein that enter the heart. I got that info straight from one of the educational packets, heaven knows we have a LOT of stuff to learn and understand. Anyhow, they place the port so they can give her the anti bio tics, and her chemo. That way they aren't having to do so many pokes. In fact the night after her surgery she told the nurse that she wanted to go to a hospital where they don't get poked. It was so cute. I guess i need to explain to her that such a place does not exist. When they accessed the port yesterday it was a little traumatic for her and her mom and dad. With the port they can also draw labs from it. As they were taking some blood she was looking at it and asked if it was blood coming out. She is so stinkin' tough, I had to remind her that her dad can't see blood like that or he passes out and she was looking straight at it.

Izzy officially has all her tubes removed at this point. We were very excited about that, especially because the drive Izzy crazy. The surgery nurse told me she pulled the tube out that went into her nose done into her belly as soon as she came out of surgery. Then she did it 1 more time that night. It killed me to have to help the nurses by holding her down while they put the tube back in. Even more so because she was telling me to "get my hand off her" and "stop touching her". I know all those lines or tubes are necessary to help give her nutrients and in the case of the one that went down her nose to pull the bile from her little tummy. It sure makes it easier to go for walks without all those tubes.

I know I don't have the best grammar and hopefully spell check catches most of my spelling errors, really this blog is to keep track of what we went through so when the cancer is gone we will look back and see all she has accomplished. Oh and of course to keep out family and friends who are out of state in the "know". This is what Izzy wanted to add....yyyymlkngv2oqsze346ypo0rdcvbnmku7o

Much Love,

Jennie and Izzy

The results are...

2010-12-03T19:20:00.000-07:00

We found out today more about Izzy's cancer, she is at stage 2 and she will need around 4 1/2 months of chemo. It will be out patient chemo done on a weekly basis for the first 10 weeks. At this point we are waiting for the clearance from her surgeon before we can get released from the hospital, but before we leave we will begin one round of chemo. We are thinking it will be Saturday or Sunday when they start her chemo.

Today has been pretty rough because they took out her epidural and they have started to give her oral medication for the pain. She has been hurting more than I've seen since we've been here, which is very hard. She is Miss independent and won't let me help her much when she gets out of bed or goes for her walks. I think it has a lot to do with her being able to brace herself more than when I pick her up and help.

Last night I went home and hung out with Tommy and put him to bed. It's amazing how much this is all affecting each one of us. He's handling it pretty well, it's so important to for us to give him the attention and time he needs during this tough time.

I wanted to share a cute little story about something that happened a few days ago. Our nurse said she was in another patients room and the child saw Izzy going on her walk. They told her "look at that cute little girl" and nurse asked if the little girl was another patient or just a visitor and they replied "she must be a visitor because she still has all her hair". Hearing that brought me to tears. I wonder how our little Izzy will be once her hair falls out. Don't get me wrong I know that there are worse things that can happen, it just hit home and brought into perspective how real this is.

I wish I had a picture to share, but I've been struggling with getting my USB cord to work on the lap top at the hospital so that I can upload pictures. That's just one more amazing thing about Primary Children's is that they are letting us borrow a laptop while we are here so I can keep you all in the "know".

Much Love,

Jennie

How it all started

2010-12-02T22:32:00.000-07:00

Wow, what a spin our life has taken. I still keep thinking we are going to wake up from this crazy nightmare. I wanted to start this blog so that friends and family could stay up to date with what is going on in little Izzy's adventures against cancer. I love the facebook page, but I also wanted a place where I could personalize things a little more. So keep checking back to see how Izzy and the rest of us are doing.

Here is how it all started....Sunday night Dustin, Tommy, Izzy, and I got in the hot tub. It is something we love to do as a family. We had some laughs and and as always some fights from splashing too much, but as usual we had a good time and enjoyed watching the snow come down. After we got out we all go into our comfy clothes or as some people call them "pj's" and were hanging out in the front room. Dustin was wrestling with Izzy and grabbed her around the waist. He felt something hard on her side and kind of freaked out. We laid her down and compared her tummy and felt around the whole area. Right away Dustin knew something wasn't right. We decided as soon as we woke in the morning we would call her pediatrician and have him take a look at it. Well we went to go watch a movie all together in mine and Dustin's bed and we couldn't sleep. Dustin was a lot more upset and worried than I was and I knew we weren't going to make it through the night. I told him we better just head up to Primary Children's hospital and get it looked at so we can feel more at ease. This was about 10:00pm, we all got dressed and took blankets for the kids and drove out to Primary Children's and aren't we glad we did.

This picture is of Izzy in the ER waiting to get some answers from the doctors. She is showing me she is playing Angry Birds on my phone. Does this child look like she has cancer?

Much Love,

Jennie