Serry Lee

Hello, everyone... greetings from snowy Washington! (OK, so it was snowy last night... close enough!)

I'll be you're wondering how Serry's treatment has been going this week! Well... she started chemo on Monday night after getting all tucked in up at the hospital. They did chemo (I think I have my days right) through Wednesday. She's had days full of walks up and down the hospital hall, reading magazines, checking Facebook, chatting with family and nurses, watching Animal Planet (at least, that's what I heard was happening today!), and I'm sure more. Today was a rest day--no treatment or anything. Tomorrow she'll get some of her stem cells back and then be released to go home. About 24 hours later, she has to head back up to the hospital for a special shot... I'm not exactly sure what it does, but I think it's to motivate those little guys to do their special magic.

Monday she'll go up again for a check up, then Thursday she'll head up for a little more chemo. I'm not sure what happens after that... each "round" will take approximately a month to complete. I'm pretty excited, though, that the big guns have already fired for round one!! I am just imagining the chemo from this week running through her body screaming, "COME ON, CANCER CELLS! I DARE YOU TO SHOW YOUR PUNY LITTLE FACES!!!" I don't know what you all imagine when you think of chemo, but MY chemo drugs sure are fierce. :)

In continuing news... I want to thank everyone who's made a donation on our behalf for The Brainiacs--our Relay for Life team. You make ME stronger just knowing that you care. As a reminder, the link is always on the right of these posts, but here it is again for convenience: http://main.acsevents.org/goto/brainiacs When you go to that link, feel free to click around and see who all is on our team (we're always growing!). You can also do two special things... if you want to donate, just click the Donate button on any of our pages. If you want to join our team and have FUN walking at the Relay on June 26-27 (don't worry - it's not all about running a marathon!!), click Join Our Team at the top. The more the merrier. And if you're a survivor - make sure to include that!!

Thanks you all... you're such a blessing!!

Serry's had a great week of healing and tomorrow starts the journey into the land of chemo!

Everyone post some extra encouragement, smiles, jokes, loves--whatever you can think of to brighten her day tomorrow!

...and chemo isn't happening this week. :) Serry's faced some snafu's this week that have caused everyone to delay chemo until next Monday. Let's pray for her that she heals from everything and actually has a RELAXING week. Much love to you, Serry!

So... good evening! Serry had a doctor's appointment today with her neurologist. She also went in for an MRI. The doctor was very pleased with how Serry's progressing--especially in light of her MRI results. Want to know what the results were??? NO VISIBLE TUMORS. I'm going to say it again because I just can't believe it and I LOVE to hear it. No. Visible. Tumors.

The battle is by no means over. Serry starts chemo on Monday and will be fighting on that front for awhile. HOWEVER... The results from this MRI are so stinking fantastic. I thought you'd all want to know... I know it keeps making me cry. This is the best news I've gotten in a long time.

Serr - you just keep on being strong and getting healthy. We love you bunches and bunches and bunches.

Hello everyone, here's your long-awaited update as to what's happening in Serry-Land. :)

First of all, Serry's been FABULOUS the past few days. She's gaining strength by the day, very cheerful, and has even been in a few stores finding some excellent deals! :) I'll admit it... yesterday, despite her doctor's appointment, she had WAY more fun than I did during my day.

What's next, though? Well, next Monday she'll scoot on up to the hospital for a five night stay. She will be doing chemo and stem cell transplants during that time. This dose will be a cocktail of three drugs--two of which she's already taken separately. I'm not exactly sure what the process will be, and I think the doctor's will be watching her to see how she responds to figure out just how to give her the medication. I'll keep you updated as we progress.

ALSO... we have started a Relay for Life team. :) We're The Brainiacs!! :) Here's our website: http://main.acsevents.org/goto/brainiacs We'll all be updating the team page AND our personal pages, but at least we've got a start. Relay for Life raises money for cancer research, advocacy, services, and more... it's put on by the American Cancer Society--and their goal is to eradicate cancer... can you imagine? Life without cancer... it's an amazing thought. You can help support the fight by donating today... If you'd like to be on our team, let me know. The event is June 26th through 27th... 24 hours of walking to end cancer. I'll post more about it later and add a link.

I hope you're all having a blessed week...
Emily

No time to post, but...
She's done! They've harvested all that they need. They're taking out her Meherker (sp?) catheter (what they run the blood through) today and doing other stuff.

In a later post:
* Next steps
* Chemo
* The Brainiacs? Team Serry? Let's keep everyone guessing for now. :)

Just FYI - She doubled her stem cell counts today - she got 3.15! Yeah, buddy!

WHO Started Stem Cell Harvesting Today??

A. Barbara Walters
B. Serry
C. Kirk Cameron


To all of you who guessed B - you're right!!!! :) Serry is RIGHT NOW getting her stem cells harvested... she's snug as a bug in a rug in the hospital. Basically, her blood is passed through a machine that is able to separate the cells that are needed and store those, then deposit the rest of the blood back into her body. I believe that all of her blood will be passed through the machine five times for each harvest session. They're also trying to collect more at a time for this go-round... because she wasn't able to give as much as they wanted last time. One of the coolest (or should I say warmest?) things, in my opinion, is that they're able to keep the blood warm while it's out of the body! Serry's staying toasty!

Here's a quick view of her CD34 numbers (The ones they needed to start the harvest)...
Thursday - 2
Friday - 5
Saturday - 7
Sunday - 20!
WOOT! Remember that she had to get to TEN for them to start.

Now they're trying to harvest 10 more of the stem cells (I know, we're counting so many things!). She had 3.13 from the previous harvest. I'll keep you updated as I learn where her next counts are going. For now... keep thinking HIGH and FAST. :)

Thanks!