1st update on us in 09 & the Start of Alex's Cancer fight

well its been awhile since I came in here but a lot has happened too

1st we moved from NSW Hunter Valley to Queensland Ipswich area we arrived in our new place in Jan and well yes I am late updating this news, still getting use to it all, came here due to Hubbies work. I joined the local gym and was going daily 6 days a week and Miss Alex was going to the Pre-school next to it :) she loved it too.

In March Miss Alex started getting tummy aches and then I noticed a small lump under her right side rib-cage so we got into a local Dr that weekend this was the 22nd March. he checked her out and booked us in for an ultrasound the next day (Monday 23rd march) he said it looked like a tumor (lump ) on her liver and not to worry to much that it should be all good so off to the Ultra sound Monday morning we go and well we had to go back later as Miss Alex had to Fast :( Hubby was home that morning as work had him on late's so I took Miss Alex and Miss Robyn with me. we finally go in and the person doing the scan goes out to talk to the Dr. then the Dr. came in and said they would like to do a CT so this got me worrying they said they would call my referring Dr. and see what he thinks? no CT was done but they did do an X Ray so off we went back to the Dr's Surgery to see the Dr. about the results ( with only the scans in hand???)

well he was worried to I was stressing and the answer I got was to head straight into the Mater Hospital in Brisbane ASAP we sat with me fighting tears he said she will be fine it will be a long road but kids are strong and she is healthy as he wrote out a referral to the hospital, I was also told she would get sick before she got better.

The scans are of the Liver I had none of her Right Kidney but the X-Ray shows the liver up under her Ribs on the Right side

this Photo was taken on the 22nd March

I walked out of the Dr's and started back to the car while doing this I called home to see if Hubby was still there ( must have just missed him) so I called him at work and told him what was going on that I was about to head into the Mater Hospital, Hubby said Go Home first and Ill meet you there and would come with us ( so glad he did)

So Off to the Mater we go this is around lunch time no one has eaten I am stressed and thinking the worst ( Cancer of the liver) this is what the Dr. had hinted at we wait in the hospital waiting room for 5 Hrs before we get seen then she is very nice tells us its not the liver but they think its her Kidney and that we now have to go to the Royal Children's Hospital in Brisbane, they also gave us some sandwiches to eat as we had nothing so far while we waited on another letter for the head of oncology Dr Hassall., We also needed directions as we didn't know how to get to the RCH and needed a servo on the way ASAP, the Dr drew up a rough map that was good, we got there in about 30min, walked into emergency and was put straight into a bed no waiting this time due to the new letter. The Dr's in Emergency looked after us too while we waited on the new Dr to come down as he was busy but when he did he said we could not go home and that he thought Miss Alex Had a "Wilms Tumor (Nephroblastoma)"so was now waiting on a bed and we would be moved up to the wards then, so with in 24 hrs we went from a lump to cancer and it was a shock and so scary to think what my Baby girl was going to have to go through.

She was diagnosed with Nephroblastoma (Wilms Tumor) Stage 3 High risk as the lymph nodes had attached to the Aorta, we did get put up to stage 4 at the start due to small spots on the lungs but they dropped it back after surgery and we stayed on the same protocol for stage 4 stage she will have 3 different chemo's " Dactinomycin (Actinomycin-D, Cosmegen), Vincristine Sulphate and Doxorubicin (Adriamycim)" the last one is the RED Devil this is not a nice one and goes over 4+ hours,  we have been told no radiation at the start but after they found that it had spread yes to Double doses, Alex also had a spot on her lung but they watched it go quickly so we hope this is nothing as that would mean further spread and due to biopsy results this protical could be up to 5 chemo's
6 weeks of chemo then surgery back to weekly chemo of vincristine every week and every second week one or 2 off the others added, radiation was added in late June and we only had Vincristine over this time due to the effects and reactions that  Radiation and Dactinomycin (Actinomycin-D, Cosmegen) and Doxorubicin (Adriamycim) when mixed together

we spent 9 days in Hospital at this time with Miss Alex Having surgery for the first Biopsy and a port inserted ( like a central line but under the skin), CT and Ultrasounds plus Xrays etc, we got the results on the 27th of March and they started Chemo got home on the 1st of April of all days with a weekly protocol of Chemo every Thursday (DD4A regimen well sort of as the red devil was done over 4 hours here in Australia)  and Surgery to remove the Tumor (Right Kidney) on week 7 around Hubby's Birthday of all days the 7th May. will do a new post of the next part of our journey soon

these are taken at the hospital just as we find out we can go home so was a good day for us all

this Photo was taken about 2-3 weeks after we got home Hubby shaved his head and I did a No. 4 we also cut Miss A's hair to shoulder length to help with the hair loss.

Just want to say thank you to all the friends and Groups that have been supportive its so nice to see this in a time of need ( EB, SRC, Padre from DH work ETC Sorry if I missed a group)