BYE BYE CHEMO

Chelsea has hopefully seen her last dance with chemo for the rest of her life. This past Friday, Chelsea received her last dose and though it ended an hour and a half earlier than it was supposed to (long story but let's just say our girl is just a little too active right now to sit down with wires and an IV stand), it is over. An hour or two later, a wave of emotion came over me and the last six months of our life just came out. The thought that there will be no more potent, toxic, horrible, unnatural chemicals being pumped in to our little girl's 22 lb body overtook me. It was such a wave of relief and such a milestone. This whole time, as parents, we've just charged forward, sometimes in a mechanic way, to get done what needed to get done. Chelsea has endured so much that in a way you have to remove yourself, in order to be strong enough to help her get through it. Well friday, the mechanic part of me stopped, feeling set in and I was just overtaken. Our baby girl did it - she made it through the hardest part hopefully of this awful disease called leukemia.

She truly has been my inspiration. This second part of the fifth round - she came back on Wednesday, had her four doses of chemo over three days (the last one on Friday morning as I mentioned) and her final shot. She has not gotten a rash this time nor has she gotten fever yet (cross our fingers) which the doctor said is unusual and were pleasantly surprised to observe. Instead, she's running around, laughing, smiling, playing, and being a VERY mischievous two year old. Her hair is also beginning to grow - it sort of had buds and then in a week, just sprouted in to a fuzzy layer - it's very cute. It's been amazing and I'm just so so proud of our baby girl.

She is confined to her room this stay (no play room this stay) since I think her mommy gave her the Rhino Virus. And we'll be here for another three weeks or so as Chelsea's cells die down from the chemotherapy and then we wait for her bone marrow to recover and begin to generate new cells. She's also had IV issues but they're minor and not necessary to detail. Instead, this blog is just about Chelsea's farewell song to chemotherapy!

I personally am not one to pray but I do ask for those that do, to say a prayer for Chelsea occasionally that this awful disease has been eradicated from her little body. If just one leukemia cell dodged the chemotherapy, and found a hiding place in Chelsea's body, then the leukemia will resurface again as that one cell will have the power to take over again. We cannot feel secure that Chelsea truly beat the leukemia until she's in remission for five years. So though we will only believe that Chelsea's battle is over, a little extra prayers thrown her way couldn't hurt. :)

The next blog will probably be our last. It'll be about the day we take our daughter home for good and only have to go to clinic appointments. Yeah Yeah Yeah!!! :) Thank you all so much for caring