Houston Trip - First Round of Scans

Well, I finally am posting about our trip to Houston which was the end of July. I guess I'm not too terribly behind! We had to go to Houston for Emery's first round of scans since she finished chemo in March. We were excited to see Dr. Thompson again and a tiny bit nervous about her scans, not so much about the results but everything she has to go through when the scans take place. We took our time getting to Houston because we didn't want to put ourselves or Emery through the entire drive in one day. We stopped and stayed the night with Sarah and Miles in Dallas which is always fun. One night is never enough! We went on to Houston the next morning looking forward to seeing our Houston roomies, Dan and Lauren. They both turned 30 this summer so we had some wonderful birthday dinners with them! For some reason David cooks a lot more when we are in Houston...

We had to be at the hospital bright and early Wednesday morning for Emery's MRI. Thankfully, my child doesn't like to eat so she really didn't mind going all morning without eating. She was super busy as always so we had to find creative ways of keeping her entertained for a couple of hours while we waited. They have to sedate her for the MRI so it's always hard handing her off to the nurses and watching her fall to sleep on the table. They take good care of her and are always so sweet to her in the recovery room. Thankfully, the scan didn't take too long and we got to see her about two hours later. After her MRI, we had to go down to Nuclear Medicine where they injected her with a chemical that is absorbed by her type of cancer cells. After the injection we were done for the day and headed back to Dan and Lauren's. The next day, we didn't have to go to the hospital as early which was nice. We had to get Emery to drink some Pedilite with the contrast in it for her CT scan. She didn't want to drink it from a bottle so we had to drop it into her mouth with a straw. I'm sure the nurses were pretty amused with our 8 month old who wouldn't take a bottle. Once she had taken it all, we thought they were going to sedate her for the CT scan but they ended up not having to. Good thing we starved her all morning. However, she did have to be sedated a little bit later for her MIBG scan which is what she got the injection for the previous day. This was a much longer day for us and Emery. She was a trooper though and toughed it out! On our way home that day, Dr. Thompson called and insisted that we stop by Craig Waibel's (the soccer player) house. We felt really uncomfortable doing it but knew that Dr. Thompson would be upset with us if we didn't! He is so funny about David and Craig being friends! So, we complied and stopped by Craig's house. He and his wife were super nice and Jocelyn and Emery got to meet. They just stared and smiled at each other the whole time. We had a good visit and headed back to Katy.

We had to go back to the hospital AGAIN the next day to see Dr. Thompson at the clinic. It was strange being back but it was wonderful to know that we were just there for a check up and not treatment! We ran into Dr. Javi while we were there. He was the fellow who worked with Dr. Thompson when Emery was first admitted. He couldn't believe how big she has gotten and all of the hair she has now. It was great seeing him even if it was only for a few minutes. Dr. Thompson needed a urine sample so we had to get Emery started on that right away when we arrived. This might be too much info but it was pretty funny. We have had to do this in the past and have never been very successful. This time was no exception! They give you these little plastic bags with adhesive on them that you have to stick over the entire genitalia. Sorry, but that's the best I can figure out how to describe it! Anyway, Emery moves a lot these days and we were having a hard time getting a sample! So, we were changing the bag out in the little exam room we were in and she peed all over the exam table! We ended up having to wait almost another hour after we had met with Dr. Thompson before we were able to get her to use the rest room again. I finally took her diaper off and blew on her tummy a few times and she finally went! It was pretty funny! Back to Dr. Thompson, it was great seeing him as always. He was full of laughs and jokes for David. He was so impressed with Emery and gave her nothing but compliments. The scans were all clear! She still has a few spots in her liver but he is not worried about them at all. He said they would have never even treated her had she only had cancer in her liver. It will go away on its own because of the nature of Neuroblastoma. He also told us she has a less than 5% chance of the cancer coming back but he doesn't anticipate that happening at all. She is perfect in every way and he couldn't be happier. We just love him so much. God couldn't have given us a more perfect doctor for Emery. He knows just the right things to tell us and is always so encouraging.



Craig and his little girl, Jocelyn.


The daddies and their girls.

Emery and the scale having a hard time getting an accurate weight!

Having fun waiting for Dr. Thompson!

She's ready to see him!

Staying busy in the exam room.

Yay! It's Dr. Thompson!

This is why we love him!


Emery is obsessed with getting people's mouths...

I love this one. Dr. Thompson is definitely one of a kind. He treats every patient like they are his only patient. He will answer every single question we ask and spend as much time talking to us as we need. I don't know how he gets to all of his patients every day but I'm pretty sure none of them mind waiting for him.

So, we had a wonderful visit with Dan and Lauren (unfortunately we don't have any pictures of them...) as well as Dr. Thompson. Emery is technically in remission now and we will continue with scans every three months for the rest of this year and then just twice next year.

Thanks for all of the continued prayers for our baby girl. She is truly amazing. She blows me away every day with all of the new things she is doing. She is definitely a determined little stinker!

7 month Pictures - Better late than never, right?!

Here are Emery's 7 month pictures - a little late but oh well! She is so much fun these days and keeps me busy all day long. I love this special time that I have with her and know that I will miss it so much when school starts in August. It is so much fun watching her explore and learn new things every day. She is so interested in everything going on around her and just soaks it all in. She is a social butterfly like her daddy and loves being around lots of people. Here are some pictures of her playing in her room.







Here are some things that Emery is doing right now:

Sitting up by herself - been doing that since about 6 months
Army crawling - thank goodness she has not mastered crawling on her hands and knees yet!
Pulling up on everything - time to baby proof our house!
Eating lots of things now - most veggies and fruits, not a fan of chicken
Favorite foods - carrots, sweet potatoes, mangos
Loves going for rides in her stroller and to feed the ducks
Sleeping through the night - thank you Jesus!
Taking good naps during the day!

We love this feisty little girl with everything we have and are so thankful she's ours!

Best Friends

David took some pictures of Matt, Niki, and Madeline in May and we decided to take a few of the girls too. We happened to have matching dresses so it was fun getting some cute shots of them together. We know they are going to love growing up together and will be the best of friends!


Emery sitting up like a big girl. She was about 5 and a half months here.


Maddie and Emery - telling lots of secrets already!


My heart is overflowing with love for this little girl.

Catching up...

I am trying to get caught up on all of the posts I need to do. I tried to get a few done yesterday but something was up with the photo uploader. Hopefully I'll get some more done tomorrow or maybe tonight. Anyway, I realized it is a little confusing that my last post says "5 Months" when Emery is really almost 7 months old now! I am just going back and posting things that I have missed over the past couple of months! Hopefully, I'll have them all done here in a few days!

Bald is Beautiful II - Fundraiser in Houston

The end of May we took a trip to Houston with our best friends Matt and Niki and their little girl Madeline. We had an awesome time catching up with Dan and Lauren as well as Sarah and Miles, Susan, Dad and Marsha, and Doug and Cher. They call came to Houston for the Bald is Beautiful II fundraiser for the Children's Cancer Center. Craig Waibel with the Houston Dynamo started this fundraiser last year to raise awareness for children's cancer. We met Craig at the cancer clinic about a month after we arrived in Houston. He volunteers up at the hospital and is one of Dr. Thompson's good friends. He has such a great heart and does a lot to make the kids at the hospital feel special and loved. He keeps his head shaved and is often asked to talk to young cancer patients who are concerned about losing all of their hair. Craig and his wife have a little girl who is a couple months younger than Emery so he and David got to share lots of new dad stories with each other. They are pretty funny together. Craig and Dr. Thompson tried their hardest to convince David to shave his head in Emery's honor but David was determined to keep that full head of hair! Maybe next year...

Here are some pictures of our trip. I know this is old but I am trying to get caught up. Emery is 6 months old in these pictures and you can see she's got eye brows and eye lashes now and has the most adorable fuzz on her head!







Attacking Dan's nose! So funny!
Madeline hanging out in the swing - looks like she having a great time!

David and Dan taking a break from their washers game to pose for the camera.
Matt and Madeline at the Houston Dynamo game.

Dynamo game
Maddie was a sleepy girl!

Miles and Matt
Susan looking so pretty!

Marsha, Cher (who is now officially done with her cancer treatment!!), Dad and Emery

The whole gang before the game.

Dr. Thompson after he got his head shaved.

Niki, Matt, and Maddie
Lauren and Dan, the best hosts ever!

Matt and Maddie - if you've seen the Hangover, you'll think this is funny...

Doug and Cher who were in town for one of Cher's radiation treatments. Marsha and Dad made the drive and brought Susan with them. It was great to see all of them again.

Lauren and Emery playing at the house.

We had a wonderful weekend with our friends and family. It feels like Houston is our home away from home now and we look forward to going back the end of July!

5 months old and Cancer Free!

Emery got to spend her 5 months birthday in her own home! Besides the one week we had at home before going back to Houston for surgery, Emery and I had been gone for three months! It seems crazy to me now to think about being out of your own home for that long. David and I have loved being home together and enjoy the fun times we have with Emery. She keeps us busy but we're loving every minute of it!

Here are Emery's 5 month pictures!

Emery's Surgery - this is really late, I know.

So I am really behind on posting and can't ever seem to find the time to do it! Emery is super busy these days and I can only get so much done during her naps! Laundry and cleaning up the house tend to take up most of that time. Today I have been vegging out on the couch catching up on posting photos to Facebook and watching a little So You Think You Can Dance that I have recorded! This is so much better than working on the house!

Here are photos of Emery's surgery back in April. She had her tumor removed Monday, April 19th and everything went really well. Her surgeon was able to remove most of the tumor and he said what was left behind looked dead from the chemo treatments. Thankfully, with Neuroblastoma removing 95% of the tumor is as good as 100% because the remaining cancer cells will go away on their own. They can't survive without the rest of the mass. Emery had a chest tube in for a few days and was hooked up to all of the monitors during that time. She was pretty uncomfortable for the first 24 hours but seemed to feel much better after that. She is such a trooper and remained pretty pleasant throughout her recovery. We had to give her a little morphine the first night after surgery because she kept waking up and seemed like she was in quite a bit of pain. It was not fun. I had a hard time picking her up to feed her without aggravating her side where the chest tube was. I hated that. Thankfully, her chest tube came out Wednesday morning and she was moving around and playing soon after. They took off all the monitors at that time as well. It's so much easier to hold her and play with her without all of the wires! We were discharged the next afternoon and flew home the next day. We were so worried about surgery and how it was going to affect Emery, but once again she showed us how strong she is and she breezed through it like a little champ! We are so proud of our little girl and the strength she has.

Here we are waiting to meet with our surgeon and anesthesiologist.

Entertaining Emery to keep her mind off of the fact that she hadn't eaten in 6 hours!

Are you kidding me?! They want me to wear these things? How embarrassing! :)

Baby girl all ready for surgery!