We now have a cool little thing on the right at the top where you can add yourself as a follower of our blog. Not sure how it works, because it is a new feature, but we'll give it a go and it would be cool if you could add yourself.
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Bianca was diagnosed with cancer in 2007
No matter how hard the journey, Bianca always finds time to have fun and time to laugh
Every single bead represents a procedure, treatment or admission that Bianca underwent
Our new blog:
Funrazor 2009
Bianca was diagnosed with cancer in 2007
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At the beginning of June 2007, Bianca was diagnosed with Acute Lymphoblastic Leukemia or ALL for short. This was approximately 2 weeks before she turned 4. The diagnosis turned our world upside down and we were completely devastated. Not only did we have to make a lot of adjustments and changes, but we did not have the luxury of time to make those decisions, it was simply a matter of jump in and do what we needed to do.
This blog is about Bianca and her treatment as well as some of the things the family gets up to.
We are constantly amazed at the courage Bianca shows throughout the process and how she just does what she needs to without complaining. She is just a typical four year old who loves being a big sister to Caitlyn (born February 2007).
It is a bit of a bitter-sweet experience: Every day that we get through is a day that we won, it is a day closer to the final day of treatment, but it was also a day that we lost, a day where Bianca couldn’t do what she used to do or perhaps couldn’t see a friend because of her low levels.
But we made the decision that we would remain positive and that we would run this race one step at a time.
No matter how hard the journey, Bianca always finds time to have fun and time to laugh
Summary of our journey - 2 Jun 07 to 11 Sep 09
- 1,322 Beads collected during this time
- 652 days of chemo (IV, sub-cut, injections into the muscle, tablets, spine)
- 142 Finger pricks, port accesses and injections
- 47 Blood Product transfusions (Red Blood, Platelets, IVIG)
- 43 Clinic Visits
- 4 NG Tube insertions
- 4 Times where Bianca lost her hair or it thinned significantly
- 20 Lumbar Punctures
- 73 Different tests such as x-rays, CT Scan, Ultrasound, Echo, nose swabs, etc
- 117 Days spent in hospital. All of these were for various infections
- 112 days where Bianca was isolated, had a fever or was neutropenic
- 1 Surgery to insert a port
- 1 Port insertion
- 16 Dressing changes
- 45 Days of IV Antibiotics (I probably missed some days)
- 4 Bone Marrow aspirates
- 41 Unusual things happened during treatment such as being on oxygen
- Bianca developed a severe allergic reaction to one of her chemo injections
- Bianca had a severe bronchospasm requiring immediate assistance
- Bianca had kidney stones
- Bianca had shingles 3 times
- Bianca was diagnosed with panhypogammaglobulinaemia
Every single bead represents a procedure, treatment or admission that Bianca underwent
Specific Links
Bianca's YouTube videos (you will need sound)
Sites we like to read
- All about Mollie
- Always Ours
- Amalah
- Annie Fox
- Baldy's Blog
- Beginning our Journey
- Ben Fights Leukaemia
- Brave Fighters
- Building Heavenly Bridges
- Chatabox
- Chloe Downey
- Claudia's website
- Confessions of a not so desperate housewife
- Counting my Abundant Blessings
- Doctor David's Blog
- Happy to be called Mommy
- Helene (who has two sets of twins!!!)
- Home Girl
- Jaylon Fong
- Johan de Beer in Oz
- Jonash
- Joy's Autism Blog
- Kyah's Journey
- Laura Blow
- Liam's Journey
- Life with Leukaemia
- Life with my Special K's
- Living the Good Life
- Living with CML
- Making Babies
- Meandsis' Weblog
- Met 'n knippie sout
- Mia's Diary of Leukemia
- Mindful Meandering
- Miss Zoot
- Mission: Smaller Me, Bigger Bank Balance in 11 months
- Mother of Shrek
- Mrs Priss
- My Year of Wonder
- Nanna Days
- Natalie and Jake
- Not Quite What I had planned
- Passion for Purple
- Peter Pirie
- Ray Hintz
- Relish
- Sarcastic Mom
- Simple Inspirations by Sandy
- So not to forget
- Stop the train, I want to get off
- Super Relish
- Sweety and Binky's big adventure
- Taylor Warren
- The Eilertsen Family
- The Smith Family Scoop
- Wouter's Journey
General Links
- Born to Bead
- Serviced Residences
- LIGHTER QUAY NORTH VIADUCT HARBOUR 3RD FLOOR (Serviced Apartment)
- We like to visit MOTAT
- We like to visit Auckland Zoo
- Child Cancer Foundation New Zealand
- New Zealand child cancer stories in the news
- Bone Marrow and Blood donation information
- Camp Quality
- Beads of Courage
- Cancer Kids
- Canteen New Zealand
- Quilts for Leukemia
- 140.6 Miles to fight blood cancers
- Dordogne Quilter
- Images of Hope
- The Littlest Heroes Project
Previous Posts
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2008
(279)
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September
(28)
- Starting round 4 and the next set of 84 days...
- Trip down memory lane
- A trip to Piha
- That little nagging voice...
- Too big for school
- A different day
- Bianca, the inventor...
- Fairy Tale Fashion Parade
- Girl Power and a pink Cadillac!!!
- My birthday party
- A week of thinking, what-ifs and tears
- A day of fashion and VIP treatment
- Beautiful art
- Devastating news
- Busy days
- 1 More year to go
- A sore tummy
- Celebrating Fathers' Day
- Remembering... 4 years ago
- Do you follow our blog?
- Steroids...
- And dex strikes again (but not too bad)
- Thinking of you tonight!
- When you're old enough, you decide...
- A freckle on the eye
- So there you have it...
- A very special wish
- Along came spring, and yet another month of treatm...
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September
(28)
5 comments:
How do I do that?
Hi Lea,
I'm so computer illiterate. It took me ages to get the google thing right. Does this mean we are informed when you update? That would be great.
I'm glad that steroids are finished for Bianca for a month. Wow, 5 pieces of toast for breakfast, that is really impressive.
I hope that you all have a wonderful week.
Take care,
Bridget and Peter
Hi Kristy,
You have managed to add yourself - thank you so much!
Hello Bridget,
I have no idea if it will actually notify you or not, I have also added a "subscribe to" button, but that will put notifications into a reader as far as I can see. Most people seem to use Google Reader, but I've never used it so am not sure how it works.
As good as Blogger is, it is not as great as Caringbridge with its notification via email and how easy that is to setup. I think I'll email them a suggestion!
Hi Lea,
I have been reading your blog for a few months now. I really feel like I know you and Bianca, this is one place I can go to where someone else understands our world. We are all certainly going through the same things, us parents of a child diagnosed with Cancer. My daughter Briar was diagnosed with ALL in October 2007. We live in Hamilton and I hope to some day see you at Starship Clinic. We are up here today as Briar had to have a bone marrow done as her counts haven't recovered since we have started maintenance 2 months ago. This is her 4th week off Methotrexate and Mercaptopurine, and neutrophils are still only 0.1. But we have had the good news late this afternoon that there is no Leukaemia present in Briar's bone marrow, phew what a relief. A very worrying week I can tell you. Just a matter of time I guess for them to recover. Anyway who knows maybe we will catch up one day.
Take care Bianca.
Rochelle & Briar
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