Yay!

Some more great news! We came in this morning to get Jillian's labs done and her ANC came back 7,500. It has never been that high before! Now it's only this high because she got a shot to boost her numbers but hey, it's high! So our oncologist is allowing us to go home today! Like home home. We don't have to be back to Stanford till Wednesday when we start our second week of chemo. Jillian is so excited to get to see her family! She's doing so great. Right now we are waiting to get some platelets before we leave because she was a bit low and they do not want to send her home with low platelets. So once we get done with this transfusion, we are out of here!

On another note, Jillian's hair has started falling out again! She finally has bald spots that are very visible. Her hair is falling out like crazy! We were ready for this. We were certain consolidation would take her hair so she is fine and happy. Soon we will have a beautiful bald little girl. Happy Easter everyone! So glad we will be able to spend it with our family!

Fantastic fantastic fantastic news today!!

Soooooo!!! Fantastic news today! Jillian and I had a doctors appointment and labs today. Her counts came back pretty normal other than her ANC of course. Her ANC came back 16 which is pretty normal for where she is at during treatment. But today her oncologist told us that Jillian's mrd results that we have been waiting for for quiet some time has finally come back! And they came back NEGATIVE! Which basically means that Jillian is in complete remission. It's a little hard to explain exactly what it means but since the MRD is negative we can now rest assure that we are going in the right direction. We do not need to start thinking about doing a bone marrow transplant now. If her MRD came back positive then we would have most likely changed her protocol and started the stem cell transplant protocol. So it's great news! We have been waiting on these results since we first heard Jillian had leukemia. It's such a relief and we are so happy to know that Jillian is responding exactly how all the doctors want her to respond to treatment. It makes all this even more worth it! So thank you all for all your prayers!

So we got discharged from the hospital yesterday. We actually got to visit with my sister, mom and brother law and jilly got to see her cousin this weekend. It was so great having some of my family here. Jill and I really needed to see familiar faces. It gets a bit lonely here just her and I. We had a lot fun seeing all of them and we can't wait for them to come back! Jillian is doing great since being in the hospital. They think she may have an infection that could be causing some of her symptoms so they are putting her on some antibiotics to help prevent anything serious. But as of right now she is great!

We had a fundraiser that happened this weekend that I wasn't able to promote as much as I should have. My husbands old work put on rummage sale back at the apartments that we used to live at in paso Robles. They did so well at the sale! Thank you to Deanna, Veronica , Theresa and Kim Gaspar. The whole community came together and showed up for Jillian! Can't believe how well you did and how much effort you put towards helping our family! We are so blessed to know you all!

Also my Moz side if the family are doing a fundraiser today for Jillian. They came together and made tons of tamales to sell for her. Even though it has been years and years since i have seen my family and most of them I have never met, they still came together to help. I hope one day when Jillian is cancer free and doing awesome we can bring her up to meet you all! Thank you to everyone!

She got a bunch of stuff this weekend from many people! The Camachos sent her tons of film for her camera and man have we used that up! Also her grandma sent her film, a video game and tons of stickers and supplies for the smash book. My sister and brother in law also brought her up a bunch supplies for the book. Thank so much! She received a box full of activities and supplies from my cousins Diana and Amanda. It will keep her occupied for sometime. It's so nice to have a bunch of stuff to do with her. And today she received a packaged from one of my old Senior Chiefs from when I was in the Navy. Tom Forehand sent her tons of stickers and color stuff. She had fun going through all her stuff and have already started using everything! I am so grateful that the short time I spent in the military has left my husband and I with life long friends. They are all amazing!

Thanks to everyone for everything. And to everyone who are still donating to jilly through pay pal. Every little bit helps! Please know that the pay pal account is still up and running and any donations can be made there! Hope everyone is well!

New address!

Here is Jillian's address at the Ronald McDonald house. We will be able to get anything there even if we are inpatient!

Jillian Garcia / G101
c/o Ronald McDonald House
520 San Hill Road
Palo Alto, CA 94304

Thanks to everyone who has sent is stuff already!! We appreciate everything.

Long long long night.

So we are back inpatient today. Jill had been feeling warm yesterday and her labs showed that she had a zero ANC still. I kept an eye on her yesterday and at about 730 she started to get chills. Now when they are teaching you about what to watch out for when you have a child with cancer, chills is high on the top of the list. So I called the pediatric oncologist on call at packard and the second I told her jilly was getting chills she told me to get her to the ER. So we headed to the ER and got her all checked in. They started her on antibiotics to help with any type of bacteria she may have gotten. They did labs and cultures so they can see what specifically she may have. We won't know for a few days so right now they are continuing her on broad antibiotics to fight off anything. She is still in so much pain from mouth sores and leg pain. They have her on some pain meds that are really helping her but its a fight to get her to take them! But ten minutes after she takes them she feels better and is able to be herself. Right now she is doing good. She hasn't gotten any more chills and her labs came back with low hemoglobin so she will be getting a transfusion today. Im hoping it will help with her energy because she is just super tired. As am I as well. They may not keep us too long this stay because she has not ran a fever and if her cultures come back good then they may let us go home. I am hoping she gets discharged because she is really excited that her cousin is coming up to visit this weekend and she needs a pick me up! So send all those prayers that she continues to look good and doesn't get a fever!!

Out of the hospital!

So today is the first full day that we are discharged. Unfortunately we are here back at the hospital getting labs done. She is not very excited to be back but this is the whole reason for staying local! She also has to get a shot today which I haven't explained to her because I know the anxiety she will get. So I am waiting till the very last minute to tell her! At least it is only one shot instead of being a daily thing.

She is doing great so far out of the hospital. We ended up getting a room at the Ronald McDonald house which turned out to be pretty cool. Jillian really likes it there and that's what matters. We Re currently in the stem cell part of the house which is a completely different building from the main house. Our room has a lot more amenities than most of the regular rooms because the children that normally stay in these rooms cannot leave very often. Their immune systems are very compromised so they make their rooms more comfortable. We have two beds a bathroom and a whole kitchen area. It's very convenient for us right how but they may move us if another family needs to be in that area of the house. This is because we are not stem cell patients but because the rest of the house was full and we are oncology they gave us this room as of now. So were happy! The house is really nice as well. There is so much for Jillian to do and kids to play with. We actually went to the play area yesterday and she made Easter eggs. I know she will have a lot of fun there but she is still pretty home sick. And to be honest so I am!! But we will get through this.

As far as chemo goes we are done for this month. She takes her regular experimental drug everyday still and her anti fungal medicine through her port but that is it. We are not scheduled for anymore inpatient stuff for a few weeks. So now it will just be Jill and I up here waiting for the next phase to start and trying to entertain ourselves!

We have a new address now for where we are so if anyone is planning on sending her anything just hold off for a bit and I will post her new address later today. I already told the people at the hospital that we are expecting some stuff so if you have already sent anything we will still get it! Thanks everyone. Jill's doing great. The people at Ronald McDonald yesterday didn't even believe she was the patient! That's how good she looks. :-)

Apple juice

Well I will never look at apple juice the same again. At the moment Jillian's potassium is very low from one of the chemos she has been taking. In order for us to get her potassium up they have prescribed her a supplement that can be mixed with apple juice. She does pretty well with the taste but the amount she has to drink is EXHAUSTING! It has to be diluted and mixed with at least 6 ounces of juice. Now this sounds like a simple task but when you are dealing with a child who is doped up with many different meds and chemo then you may understand the difficulty of getting her to drink an ounce of anything. Instead of sitting there and trying to make her drink the stuff from a straw I decided to just use a syringe and give her the apple juice like I would any other medication. Like I say she does well with the taste and keeps it down but having to fight with her every single time she has to take a dose is so mentally draining! We are hoping that her potassium level will go up by tonight so she does not have to take this again tomorrow. Other than this issue she is tolerating all her other meds great. Her CBC came back today and her numbers look amazing. He ANC jumped 1000 points and she is at about 1800. Her white blood count went up as well. If we were at home with these numbers we would be super stoked but being here and undergoing chemo I was a little discouraged. You always have that thought that if her numbers are good then the chemo must not be working. We discussed this concern with the oncologist and he said that was not the case. He was able to put my mind at ease for the moment but I am still secretly hoping to see some changes in her numbers. We will see.

Daniel and William got to come and hang out with us today. They were able to get their blood drawn for bone marrow testing. We should be getting the results back from that soon. Prayers prayers prayers! Daniel said William did HORRIBLE during the blood draw. I think they needed four people to hold him down! Wouldn't have guessed that when he came strutting back into Jill's room after he was done. All bandaged up and everything. He looked like he had accomplished something and was proud of himself. He was really funny. I'm glad he is Jillian's big brother. If jilly needs a transplant then he will be the one to be able to do that for her. What an amazing gift he can give her.

Jill was still not herself today. Even getting to see her dad didn't change much of her mood. She's sick and man is it showing this week. I keep telling myself its only a few more days and then she will be back to her normal self. Can't help but feel a bit selfish wanting her back. It hurts to see her the way she is when I know how amazing and full of life she normally is. Only a few more days of this!!

We have been working on her smash book a lot here. I love the fact that there's not rhyme or reason for this book. We can do what ever we want and make it as messy and tacky as we like and it still is super cool. I wanted to post some pictures of a few pages we have finished so everyone can get an idea of what we are making. She's having fun taking pictures of whatever she wants. We still have a lot more to do!!

Oh yea. Jillian wanted to send a big HI to JIMMY! She received his note today and his picture he drew her and will be responding to him very soon! Thanks so much. It really put a smile on her face!

Day 3 of 6

Hi all. So it's our third day here and my expectations of what these days were going to be like are not at all what they are turning out to be. Usually when we are inpatient we are just waiting for Jill's numbers to go up and for the most part she is still herself, happy and all. Well these last few days have not been that way. I feel so bad for her because you can tell that she doesn't feel right. She is not getting sick to the point of vomiting or anything but I can tell she is not feeling well. Can't blame her with all these meds she's getting. Once this week is over and we are done with this intense week the. I'm hoping her mood goes back to normal. I miss my jilly bean :-)

We haven't gotten the main results back from her procedures she has on Wednesday but they did tell us that everything looks great so far! From the naked eye that cannot see any leukemia cells in her blood which is AMAZING!! We won't know the results of the more intensive testing for a few more days. But great great news. All your prayers are working!!

Jillian's Address

Hey everyone. Here is Jill's address for the week here in Stanford. Since we will be here for a while even if it changes or we are not inpatient at the time they will still be able to get us what ever gets sent:

Jillian Garcia

725 Welch Road

1 north room 1452b

Palo Alto, CA 94304

We bought Jillian a new age polaroid camera so when she takes pictures they are instant and she can put them in her smash book. If any one wants to send her up some film for it that would be awesome! We got some film at toy r us but I'm not sure if it can be bought somewhere else too. They are ten bucks for ten pictures. It can get pricey for us! So here is the camera and the film just in case anyone wants to send her something! And also for any supplies for her smash book too. Anything can be sent to this address. Thanks everyone! First day here in Stanford is almost over and I'm exhausted!! Woke up way too early. I'm ready to go to sleep!

Too much fun!

I believe I may be making these hospital trips too much fun for Jillian. When we got to the hospital this morning Jillian tells me "mommy, I'm so excited!!!". It felt like we were going to Disneyland! Lol it's so nice to know that she is happy to be here even though she goes through so many procedures and chemo when she's here. I would rather her be happy than upset but I never would have guess she would be this happy!

We got here about 7:30 and checked in. She wet under about twenty minutes ago and I am sitting here in the waiting area waiting for her procedure to be done so I can head back to see her. She has always done so well so I'm sure this time will be the same. It's sweet to see her go under. For just a moment she's my little baby again instead of a big girl like she prefers to be called.

I will have more time to update the blog regularly now that we are here. This first week will be really intense for Jillian. Ill keep everyone posted on how she is doing! Keep those prayers coming!!

Here is Jill and her cousin. We all went to dinner last night so everyone could say bye to her.

A bitter sweet day

Jill's counts came back great yesterday. Her ANC jumped to 1500 which means tomorrow starts our three month journey in Stanford. She is scheduled for her bone marrow aspiration and lumbar puncture tomorrow. They will be giving her three different types of chemo in her spine during this procedure. This is just part of her ALL protocol and would have happened even if she was not high risk with the Philadelphia chromosome. As always jilly is super excited about heading up there. I think she may be having too much fun while we are there. Lol I may have to dial down the fun so she won't want to stay there forever!! :-) usually after a week or so she is ready to come home though.

I do find this day to be a bit bitter sweet. We are so happy that her body has FINALLY recovered from the last dose of chemo and that she is as healthy as we can hope for right now. But it is sad to know that we will be leaving our boys for a very long time. Although we are all prepared for this it will still be very hard being away for so long. I'm hoping that Daniel and William will have fun together here with it just being them two.

I bought Jillian a smash book yesterday. I was thinking it would be really cool to help her document her time in the hospital. I'm going to have her take all the pictures that she wants and decorate her smash book with them. She is constantly getting stickers whenever she goes to the doctor so this will be a great place to put all those stickers! So if anyone is interested in donating some cool supplies for Jill's smash book let me know and I can send you our address if you want to send some stuff up! The more stuff she has the more fun it will be. I'm excited to see how it turns out. We may have to get her a few books during this journey.

I'm pretty certain that I will bringing back a bald headed child when we get back. I have a feeling that consolidation is going to do in her hair. She is prepared to be bald and we are planning on taking some really cute pictures when she loses all her hair. It should be adorable.

Now is the time for me to brag about my amazing son. Yesterday we caught him spelling out words with his magnetic letters. It was so cool to see that he is able to do this. We are not sure why he spelled out what he did but hey, it was a whole word and that's amazing!! Ill post the picture of it!

Wish us luck this next three months and send all the prayers you can. She will do just great, we know it!!

Great weekend!

We had such an amazing weekend with our family. Will and Jill got to spend some time with their cousins and I was able to see my wonderful sisters, brother in laws, niece and nephews. It has been so long since we have seen them last so it was great just spending time with them. Jillian loves all her cousins and was super excited they were here. The first night we all got together Jillian ran around with the boys all crazy (she is the only little girl cousin, there are two girls but Sammy is 18 now!) so Jill ran around with the boys all night and seriously tired herself out. This was really the first time that she was able to see how being sick can really effect her. After about an hour or so she was ready to go to sleep and wanted to head home. She had me a bit concerned because she turned really pale and was just super fatigue. We watched over her and checked all the signs for low platelets or hemoglobin but her counts had been pretty good the last time we did labs so I decided to just take her home and see how she would be at home. When we got home she rested a little and her color started coming back. She ended just going to be and woke up fine in the morning. I had to explain to her that she wouldn't be able to keep up with the boys anymore for a while. She really understands that she is sick and so far has been pretty good about listening to how to take care of herself. The next day she took it easy with the boys and we had no issues.

Tomorrow we do labs again to see if we have gone up enough to be admitted on Wednesday. I am being optimistic that her counts will indeed be high so I spent most of the day doing laundry and slowing packing us. Also I cleaned most of the house in hopes that it will stay clean while I'm gone. But considering the fact that the boys will be the only ones home I may be a little too optimistic about that! I'm sure Daniel and William will doing well at home together though. It will be a tough three months but we have a strong family. We will be able to get through anything!

Palo Mesa Pizza in Arroyo Grande

My family and I want to say thank you to everyone who was able to eat at one of the amazing restaurants doing Jillian's fundraiser today. We were lucky enough to choose to eat at Palo Mesa Pizza in arroyo grande located on the Walmart shopping center. The food was amazing and best of all the atmosphere and workers were fantastic! It was so great to have dinner somewhere and know that they truly cared about helping out our family. I wish that someday soon we can meet Michael and Kelley Stephens who own all three restaurants. They heard about Jillian's diagnosis and wanted to do what they could to help. Sorry we were not able to see you tonight! But know we are so unbelievably grateful to know people such as yourself to help support our daughter. She had so much fun tonight and especially being able to hear jimmy sing and play his guitar. Thanks again so much!!

If anyone's looking for a great place to eat then go to Palo Mesa Pizza or Tanner Jacks! You won't be disappointed!!

Quick update!

We got Jillian's labs back today and her ANC actually went down a bit. She is at 182 and all her other counts look great. Her body is just taking its time recovering so we are pushed back once again. I have not spoke with Stanford yet but when I talked to Jill's oncologist this last time she said we would most likely wait to redo Jill's labs till Monday if she didn't make counts today. So looks like we will be here for the rest of the week and into the weekend. We may not be heading back up till next Wednesday, if that. Jill's still doing amazing!

Check out her fundraiser today if you have time!! If you are looking for a place to eat then try on of the three places on the flyer posted below! Hope everyone is well!!

Three months!

Hello everyone! So there has been a lot going on here at home. Jilly has been able to stay home for the last couple of weeks trying to count recover from her last intense dose of chemo. She has been staying at a low ANC for a while now. Today's labs had her at 206 ANC. All her other numbers look great but her body is taking a little longer to recover her ANC. It's all expected so we are not too concerned. She has not gotten sick or ran a fever since she's had low numbers so we have been able to stay home and ride it our here. Which has been nice considering we are coming up on three months away!! We knew that consolidation could possible hold a three month stay up in palo alto but we were hoping our wonderful oncologist would decide against it and let us go home. But nope! Right now we are just waiting for Jill's ANC to get up to at least five hundred and then we will head up to Stanford for a week of intense chemo and two-three weeks of staying locally just in case something was to happen to Jill and she would need to get to the hospital fast. Because this phase of chemo is so intense her Doctor wants her close so she can watch her carefully. This will be done for three months and then we will be able to come home. Even if Jill's numbers are high and everything looks great her oncologist still wants her to stay up near the hospital. It will be hard on all of us as a family being away from each other for so long but we know this is just what is necessary for Jillian to get better. And what's three months out of the years and years that Jillian has ahead of her!

As always she is still in high spirits. She doesn't understand the length of time that we will be away for but she is happy to be heading back to Stanford for a while. She loves all the nurses and Doctors there and I try to make it as fun as possible so she enjoys being there. As of right now we are looking to leave on Friday depending on Jill's counts. Hopefully while we are there I will be able to find more time to blog and let everyone know how she is doing!

She got to visit with all her friends today at her school. She was so happy to see everyone and to visit with miss Sheere. She misses school so much and it's sad to tell her she won't be able to go back. She learned so much there and we are so happy to be able to visit everyone when we can! We also have a fundraiser that is going to be going on this Wednesday at a few restaurants that a family owns from new life preschool. We haven't had the time to promote it as much as I wanted to but I will attach the flyer here and if you can make it please do so!! Thank you to everyone who is involved in this fundraiser!! We are so grateful!

Also I have manages to get out some thank yous to everyone who's address that was attached to their Paypal account. If you have not received a thank you from us and you have donated to jillian can you please send me your address to my personal email. I want to be able to thank everyone personally but getting everyone's address gets difficult! My email address is rosemary.garcia25@yahoo.com

Keep those prayers coming for Jillian! She's still doing AMAZING and get oncologist says that she is "overwhelmingly" happy with her progress :-) couldn't be any better than that!!