Christmas

December 21 to 27, 2009

Christmas was greatly anticipated by the girls and they made certain that Santa had plenty of cookies and a glass of milk. Both of them kept on asking how Santa Claus fit through the chimney along with the toys and were happy that he finished the cookies and the milk. Santa brought a wooden cooking kitchen, Princess cashier box, books, Wii Guitar Hero 5 (not sure if it's more for the adult), globe, SpongeBob Squarepants legos, Ariel doll, DVD cartoons, etc.

Generous donors and volunteers from Miracles 4 Kids delivered a gift basket (more like boxes of food) filled with turkey, chicken, clam chowder, produce and a huge bag of toys. Alisha wanted to turn around and donate those toys to the less fortunate children since she claims that she already has plenty of toys.

Wish everyone had a wonderful Christmas!!!

Make-A-Wish Events

December 14 to 20, 2009

The highlight this week included various events hosted by Make-A-Wish ranging from a holiday harbor cruise, breakfast with Santa and a visit to Santa Ana Zoo, which are designed exclusively for children with terminal illnesses. Both of the girls enjoyed the cruise and seeing Santa arrive on a patrol boat was one of the highlights. Each of the Wish Children had a personalized Christmas gift and they were individually called up to take photos with Santa Claus. After Alisha received her present, we immediately went up another deck, but Ashley did not want to leave the 2nd deck in case they called her name to receive a present. Luckily, Make-a-Wish ensures that siblings of the Wish Child is also included, so the sibling received either a Barbie doll or Hot Wheels, which made Ashley's day. The warm chocolate drink with marshmallows on top and the carolers were a huge hit.

Santa's Village at South Coast Plaza was a fantastic event as well. The girls rode the reindeer carousel until they were content and Alisha kept on running back to take photos with Santa Claus. After breakfast, the girls were kept busy at the crafts table.

The Santa Ana Zoo was well decorated and the girls kept busy riding the fancy carousel, which had a seahorse, hummingbird, panda, various horses, etc. After a light dinner (hot cocoa with marshmallows were available again), photos w/ Santa Claus, they drew, walked the maze, met some strange animals, worked on crafts, rode on the train and picked out a toy. The girls didn't want to leave, so they lingered around the play structure until it was too cold outside.

Interim Maintenance

December 7 to 13, 2009

Alisha made count and started her Interim Maintenance phase on the 7th. Last Friday, she did not meet the required blood counts in order to move forward with the procedure this Monday. However, we pleaded to keep the appointment to see if she would actually meet the minimum blood count on Monday. The nurse last Friday was very hesitant and was certain that Alisha will not make count by Monday and urged us to take a Wednesday appointment instead.

On Monday, the nurse practitioner who performed the procedure said it's very unusual that patients recover so quickly in such short amount of time. Thank you all for your continued blessings and prayers to make the impossible a possibility. The importance of this phase is that it marks the first day of the rest of her two-year treatment as far as we understand it. Technically, December 6, 2011 should be the last day of her treatment, but we shall see if everything works out that way. We are hoping that there will not be further delays.

Whenever Alisha has a free moment, she enjoys taking pictures...look above for a picture she took of herself as well as drawing and painting.

Presents from Santa already?

November 30 to December 6, 2009

Alisha will be entering the next phase of treatment (Interim Maintenance), which will last 56 days. Interim Maintenance will begin on Monday, December 7th if she makes her platelet count as well as the Absolute Neutrophil Count (ANC). During this phase, she will be getting an increasing dose of IV Methotrexate every 10 days, which unfortunately causes mouth sores in a large percentage of patients along with various other chemo drugs.

Every morning, Alisha rushes downstairs and counts the number of presents under the tree and tries to sway her Mom in letting her open up presents. She also asked why Santa brought her and Ashley's presents early...Santa is busy and starts present deliveries early; however, presents will be taken away if they become naughty. Alisha proceeded to ask if Santa can "deliver a lot of food to the starving children in Africa" as presents for those unfortunate kids. She is quite compassionate and has regularly donated books and toys to non-profit organizations or the hospital.

Low Platelets

November 23 to 29, 2009

Vomiting issues have subsided greatly in the past few weeks with her maternal grandfather's advice of drinking a cup of hot water in the morning to keep the stomach warm while suppressing the nausea. However, her platelets and red blood cell counts tested extremely low. As a result, another blood transfusion was administered on Monday. Platelets were not transfused since the oncology pediatrician wanted to wait and see if it will recover on its own. So we have to be on the look out for petechiae and prevent her from engaging in activities that might cause her to bruise easily.

Alisha picked up cross-stitching and started on a challenging pattern involving desserts and played a little tennis during the week. When she has a quiet moment or while she listens to the Phantom of the Opera (did not know that she could reach high-pitched notes as she immulates Sarah Brightman singing as Christine Daae), she continues to read her Magic Tree House series, keeps up with school, Chinese and abacus homework and focuses on counting down to Thanksgiving and Christmas. The highlight this week other than celebrating Thanksgiving was setting up and decorating the Christmas tree. Alisha loves holidays and reading about how different cultures celebrate this time of the year.

Two-Long Weeks

November 9 - 22, 2009

Alisha began her second round of the 4-day a week chemotherapy for two weeks with an 8-hour treatment on the first day. Her appetite has dropped dramatically so as her weight. The first round of the 4-day a week for two weeks last month took a toll and was quite unpleasant, so we entered this second round with much trepidation. Luckily, Alisha vomited only twice and kept busy with her latest Lego creation, which included an ice cream/barbecue equipment next to the 3-level condo. As for food, there's no strong interest to eat and the motivation to feel better started to slip.

Coupled with her less than stellar desire to eat, her eyesight started to slip where she had to have glasses. The optometrist mentioned that her agressive decline in eyesight may be caused by the chemotherapy. Alisha wanted to stay fashion forward, so she picked a Disney princess frame with a cute glasses carrying case.

Toothless Again

November 2 to 8, 2009

Dressing up for Halloween and a few quick visits for candies exhausted her immensely, but the process was full of excitement nonetheless. She had another lumbar puncture on Monday and will not need another one until a month later - yeah! Alisha lost another tooth on the top and couldn't wait for the tooth fairy to visit. We've often tried to tease her by asking her to pronounce words with "th" in it; however, the gaping space isn't hindering her speech. On the days that she feels upbeat, she doesn't hesitate about diving for the Wii remote to start her bowling and boxing matches. Lately, her Wii collection was added with the Disney Princess, Build-a-Bear and Beach Resort sports games, including frisbee, rowing, archery, etc.

Food Choices

October 26 to November 1, 2009

Hello to all. Sorry it has taken so long to up date Alisha's blog. The past few weeks have been hectic to say the least.

The weekly procedures (stabs on the spine) were getting on Alisha's nerves (pardon the pun). She has grown very aware of her condition, the drugs used and procedures conducted. Needless to say, she vehemently hates "procedures" and having to be put to sleep, squeezed during the process and poked on the spine (more if the doctor is having a hard time).
The only time she vomited this week was the mornings after eating certain types of food. We're starting to see the correlation between diet and vomiting. This will make her a lot more comfortable for the future. Alisha decided to revert back to her old custom of a butterfly she wore 2 years ago for Halloween. She looked forward to this event so much that she even made a diorama with pumpkins, ghosts, goblins, etc.

Not So Lucky

October 19 to 25, 2009

Alisha experienced nausea and vomiting several times a day along w/ massive headaches for the first time since the beginning of chemotherapy. She lost her appetite, laid down or slept for most of the day. The CT scan on Thursday did not help; however, she didn't need to drink the awful white contrast liquid for 1 hour prior to the CT scan since she couldn't hold anything down. The doctors thought she might have contracted meningitis, but quickly ruled that out b/c she had no fevers. After various prodding and poking from the doctors and nurses, nobody could explain her intermittent painful headaches and episodes of vomiting. Luckily, she was back to her old self by Friday and we didn't have to guess the cause! Alisha is not too keen on her new wig that arrived this week. She reluctantly tried it on while telling us that she will not ever need it - we're all hopeful of a miracle.

Wii

October 6 to 18, 2009

Alisha went in for lab work on 10/8 to determine whether she made count to start her next phase of chemotherapy for 56 days (consolidation) on 10/9. Unfortunately, her platelets and Absolute Neutrophil Count (ANC) were too low. ANC is a way for doctors to scientifically determine the stage that the immune system is in after response to chemotherapy. ANC is the real or actual number of white blood cells that a patient has to fight an infection. The nurse delivering the blood results was skeptical about her making count on Monday, 10/12; however, Alisha made count w/ flying colors. The first, second, five and sixth weeks of consolidation consisted of four days of chemotherapy followed by three days of rest. Alisha went through the week of 10/12, unscathed. Alisha was also in great spirits taking time to play a little Wii. As a little incentive, we took some pictures at the gazebo at St. Regis, Dana Point.