Maintenance

March 29 - April 4, 2010

Yeah! Alisha made count and started the Maintenance phase of her treatment on Tuesday. If all goes well, she has 18 more months before she's off chemotherapy. Although she made her count on Monday with awesome numbers as her nurse indicated, her procedure on Tuesday didn't fair so well. Alisha vomited violently shortly after her procedure. The doctor and nurses rushed to her room to ensure she doesn't end up asphyxiating herself since she was sedated and still recovering from the anesthesia. Luckily, she got the clear when she started breathing very smoothly and rested for the remainder of the day after a couple more bouts of vomiting.

One of our good friends, April gave Alisha an Emeril Lagasse cookbook for kids. Alisha is so elated that she convinced us to take her shopping in order to make mashed potatoes and "Holy Guacamole". Both dishes turned out to be a huge smash and were quickly devoured. The recipe to the guacamole dish was doubled and it was barely enough to satisfy our insatiable appetite. Alisha was in charge of the math by dividing the recipe for the mashed potatoes in half and doubling the amount for the guacamole. We will try to post photos the next time we cook.

Easter Sunday - Miracles for Kids is a great organization dedicated to helping families cope with children with life-threatening illnesses. Volunteers from the organization delivered Easter baskets to us this week and the girls were super excited to dig into their basket. The girls' Aunt, June was so sweet in making individualized Easter buckets filled with goodies and treats. Alisha's Chemo Angels also spoiled the girls with cards, stuffed toys, goodies, popcorn bucket, flowers, etc. As always, we are extremely grateful for all the kind gestures during this Easter holiday. Hope everyone had a good weekend!

Food Preparation

March 22 - 28, 2010

Alisha had a lighter chemo appointment on Tuesday; however, she still went for days with stomach aches. One of her many ways to divert her pain is through reading. She loves the Magic Treehouse Research Guides even more than the series itself. Her first Research Guide from Magic Treehouse was about Leonardo Da Vinci. She learned about his wild and crazy inventions, which has been proven to work. The giant crossbow, parachute, ornihopter flying machine, boat and automatic igniting device for firearm are some of his creative inventions. Alisha is in awe of Da Vinci's talent and constantly shares the details of his inventions with us.

Penguins, natural disasters such as tornado, earthquake, tsunami, hurricane, leprechauns, mummies, pyramids were other research topics she read about. Currently, she's learning about space and the rainforest. These research books are very well written and informative. Other than reading, the lego building (Green Grocer finished) and bike riding (good-old Barbie bike) continue when her energy level is high.

On Saturday while Ashley attended her friend's birthday party, Alisha's Uncle, Tony came by to watch after her. Tony brought his big salad mixing bowl and engaged Alisha in making a simple, but beautiful dish. She learned the rules of cutting, how to create color contrast, so the dish looks presentable and food texture to make it more palatable. They made a refreshing tomato salad with onions, cilantro, basil, red wine vinegar, etc. Unfortunately, there were no pictures to post, but we all hope Uncle Tony will swing by more often and show us how to make more delicious dishes. Alisha ended up eating a good portion despite her lack of appetite. Since she was involved in making the dish, we believe she felt it tasted better...great way to get her to eat!

Last PEG

March 15 - 21, 2010

Alisha received her last PEG-Asparaginase (intramuscular) shots this past Tuesday. The first thing she had asked me was, what about procedures? When is my last procedure (lumbar puncture under sedation with chemotherapy)? Unfortunately, she has a dozen more....

The bike-riding adventures continued. Although she was delayed in learning how to ride her bike due to the illness, she was determined to master bike riding without training wheels. Alisha was fearless and practices riding almost daily and is now riding independently around the courtyard. The next step is riding to/from the park.

Her oncologists are still amazed of her blood results despite the intensity of the chemotherapy that she has undergone. We could not be prouder of her resilience in fighting this disease! Alisha finished her first three-floor lego set from Make-A-Wish Foundation and could not wait to start the set, which connects the hotel to the green grocery store. She has her system of building legos and becomes quite upset if people tamper with the order of her legos.

One More Week of Daily Chemo

March 8 - 14, 2010

Week Two of the daily chemotherapy. Alisha is very tired of going to the hospital. She did not fair as well in the recovery room after the lumbar puncture and chemotherapy under sedation. Alisha immediately complained of a headache, which persisted throughout the week. Sometimes, if too much sedative drugs is administered, it causes lingering headaches that last for days.

Alisha was extra tired from the accumulation of chemotherapy the week before. She constantly complained of a headache and had a few low-grade fevers. There were times where she would sleep on the couch from 5pm onto the next morning or whenever her hunger sets in. On Sunday, she rode her bicycle for an hour and got some sun, which is great for calcium and the absorption of other minerals. On a lighter note, Alisha finished the 2nd level of the Green Grocer Legos set and couldn't wait to finish the 3rd level along with the roof, so she can start on the hotel set and attach the two buildings. Other than building her legos, Alisha took an interest in perfecting her typing skills again and having a lot of laughs over the SpongeBob typing games.

The girls were pleasantly surprised on Saturday morning with a visit from their nanny, Annie. We had not seen Annie for about 6 months and both of the girls were so thrilled to see her. Annie has taken care of Alisha since she's two months old and Ashley when she was born. Annie is lively, energetic and generous when it comes to the girls, so we're always happy to see her!

Second Half - DI

March 1 - 7, 2010

This week marks the beginning of the second half of Alisha's Delayed Intensification phase, which will last 29 days. Although we wanted Alisha to delay getting her chemotherapy, so her body can recuperate, her blood results were outstanding. Thus, there was no reason for us to argue for a delay. Her session of Cytoxan, lumbar puncture and Cytarabin was about 8 hours long due to pre- and post-chemo hydration. Alisha vomited three times during class in the afternoon, but pushed forward to complete her schooling. Her Home & Hospital Teacher was quite impressed that Alisha was determined to continue learning despite her bouts of vomiting.

Since Alisha was receiving daily chemo, we tried to keep the day relatively light for her with a lot of TV watching (Food Network, esp. Emeril Lagasse), some homework and Lego building. To our amazement, she came home from the morning chemotherapy asking to ride her bike. She rode around the courtyard everyday after chemo, we all wonder if she really did get chemo. Luckily, we believe that the sessions with the acupunturist has worked, which soothed her stomach cramps and pain and nauseous sensation. Again, her oncologists were flabbergasted that she made count with flying colors and wondered what she was fed or what we did. Let them continue to be puzzled....

February 28 was the Chinese Lantern Festival, so the girls made a lantern in the year of the Tiger and we had the rice balls to celebrate the occasion.

Make-A-Wish

February 26, 2010

Alisha was so looking forward to her dedicated Hawaiian-themed party, which the Make-A-Wish Foundation had arranged to honor her Wish. We almost had called to cancel the party due to Alisha's sudden onset of slight fever. This past week has been a terrible week for her and she spent most of the day on the sofa trying to regain some strength while falling in and out of sleep.

Weeks ago, Alisha's Wish Coordinator, Rebecca and called to set up a dinner party at Tommy Bahama in Newport Beach. Originally, we thought the party would be at Downtown Disney due to Alisha alluding to Disneyland and Legos as some of her favorite things during the wish interview. We were all so pleasantly surprised as we arrived at Tommy Bahama where Rebecca and another volunteer greeted us with beautiful leis made out of fresh orchids. Alisha slowly dragged herself to the corner of the restaurant where the party was set up for her and she all of a sudden lit up when she saw a massive display of a SpongeBob Squarepants stuffed animal, balloons, Hawaiian decorations, paintings, lovely table setting and of course, a two-layer SpongeBob cake with edible cartoon characters and lego pieces. The girls oogled over the cake and Alisha could not resist in tasting an edible lego brick.

The fabulous dishes, which composed of crab cakes, flat bread with goat cheese, scallops & shrimp with coconut rice, halibut, gnocchi, ahi tuna, salmon, etc. were absolutely delicious! We were able to bag the leftovers and Alisha enjoyed every last bite of it and asked to return to the restaurant soon. We had no idea that dinner included an entertaining show put up by volunteers from Le Polynesia. These three hula girls were so quick with their movements. The girls were mesmerized by their fancy costumes and wondered how these girls could dance so well. After the dinner shows, Alisha was presented with her Wish.

Underneath the big display with the SpongeBob Squarepants stuffed animal were 14 sets of legos all wrapped with Spongebob wrapping papers. Our jaws just dropped when we starred at the number of boxes purchased for Alisha. Some of the legos included: Taj Mahal, Eiffel Tower, movable ferris wheel, hotel, houses, grocery stores, architectural buildings, SpongeBob, etc. Ashley was also given some presents, so she did not feel left out. Alisha had only opened three boxes of legos before she started complaining of her stomach pain. We had her lay down and the Manager at Tommy Bahama help cut and serve the cake.

After 15 minutes, Alisha propped herself up for a few remaining gifts. Make-A-Wish had commissioned a lego-design artist to build a gray dolphin exclusively for Alisha. The dolphin made out of legos stretched about four feet long and the work was so meticulous and perfect. Alisha love her own lego dolphin (it took the artist 3 weeks to complete) since part of her wish was to swim with the dolphins. Her other major gift was from Captain Dave in Dana Point. The gift was an excursion for her and the family to go on a whale / dolphin safari for 2-1/2 hours when Alisha gets better. The special high-tech catamaran is constructed, so we could better spot the whales and dolphins.

All in all, Alisha was very surprised and happy with her Wish despite feeling horrible. There are many generous people out there who we are very grateful to in order for Alisha's Wish to become possible. We are deeply touched and thankful for their philanthropic display of kindness. THANK YOU!

Rollercoaster

February 22 - 28, 2010

Alisha's demeanor this week was definitely a rollercoaster ride. On Monday, her blood counts were very low, which explained the constant lethargic disposition accompanied by the pale complexion. The discomfort in her stomach has grown from dull to endless sharp pains. On top of tummy ache, she experienced bouts of vomiting every time food or liquid was ingested. We were all very worried that she was withering away into nothing. Alisha spent most of the week either in bed, on the sofa or in the restroom. She glutched her tummy most of the time and her weight dropped dramatically from not being able to keep food down.

After visiting three medical professionals, we were given the grim news that she will probably not make it if treatment was continued as scheduled. Our hearts sank and hopelessness loomed over us. We tried everything possible. The steroids that were suppose to increase her appetite ten-fold as before did nothing! Her fever came and went for about a week and we feared the worst. Alisha fought hard and our prayers were answered on Saturday when we were introduced to this amazing acupuncturist. Within a matter of hours, she transformed from being almost lifeless to a normal, energetic six-year-old child.

She built Legos for hours and did not complain once of stomach pain. Her appetite quickly picked up and all of us couldn't be happier to see her eat and hold her food down.