It's only been the first day of steroids and the tears (or rather sobbing) have started, all because Terence took just a little too long with reading stories. That's steroids for you... Sigh!!!
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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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December
(27)
- Goodbye 2008, hello 2009
- Hospital update
- Girls' night in isolation
- A quick visit yesterday
- Still in hospital, but update on blood results
- Feedback from the hospital
- Admitted to hospital
- High temperature
- I don't really like being on maintenance.
- Those mad crowds looking for Boxing Day sales
- And so it begins...
- Unexpected blood results
- Early Christmas
- Mixed emotions
- "Fly! Fly!"
- Saying goodbye to Jody
- Tears...
- To be able to make a difference
- "Where are the bedrooms and all the nurses?"
- "Poo-boo" and "bye"
- A message to Santa!
- How would you see the stars?
- Bianca, the artist
- And it's that time of the year already
- The day started just like any other
- Busy times ahead
- So proud to be part of it!
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December
(27)
4 comments:
Thinking of you Lea, I can imagine this must be extremely trying and heart breaking!
(((Hugs)))
Hi Lea,
That was such a great newspaper article about Bianca. I really enjoyed it. And I'm so glad that your early Christmas was such a success. I must look ahead on next years diary to see if Pete is on steroids next Christmas (please no!)
Sorry to hear about Bianca's platelets, but I bet you will enjoy the chemo holiday. I always love them.
A big "good luck" on this steroid pulse. I hope that Bianca is not too bad on them. Pete starts his on monday and hopefully they will be out of his system by Camp Quality.
Take care,
Bridget
Hi Lea
Sending you a really big hug - one for each of you.
love and light
Annie
People are taking so long to tell me stories lately too - I must try the sobbing trick.
It's been great catching up with the White Family's adventures throughout the year - thanks for the blog.
Have a great Xmas and New Year.
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