History

Monday, July 10, 2006 11:11 PM CDT

Hello Everyone,

Today is July 10th and we are scheduled to have our C-Section next Wednesday, July 19th. I can't believe that this little boy is almost here. My body is ready for him to arrive =) I can't sleep comfortably anymore.

I apologize for not updating this site as much as I should. Isabella is doing really good. All of her scans have come back clear. Her blood and urine tests come back at normal levels as well. Her hair is getting even longer by the day and it's still as curly as ever. Now that it's summertime here in AZ, she really enjoys the pool. She has gotten very comfortable with her floates on her arms and she will go around the pool by herself. She says... "Look, I'm swimming!". I laugh and say she's "floating" not swimming". =)

I'm very happy to say that I think we have accomplished the potty training task! Now that I've been home with her every day since the lay off on May 30th, we've been working on it. What really pushed me to potty train her was when I went into a restroom to change her diaper and another mother was using the diaper changing station so I laid her down on a little bench and changed her diaper. Mind you, the other mother was changing her 6 month old, while I am changing the diaper of a 3 foot tall girl. I felt really embarrassed and I decided that she needed to start working on going potty like a big girl. =)

I don't know if I had mentioned before that I was getting laid off. Well, I found out on March 30th that my job at PacifiCare was getting eliminated. That was a tough day considering I wasn't expecting that news and being pregnant on top of it made it an emotional day. Luckily we were able to switch our health insurance through David's job so I wasn't worried about that. I just always worry about keeping the bills current with only one paycheck for a while. I will be going back to work after the baby gets here. As long as the doctor lets me. =)

Well, I hope everything is going okay for everyone and don't forget to sign the guest book.

Michelle

Monday, April 10, 2006 4:50 PM CDT

Happy Monday to everyone. =)

I hope everyone is having a good year so far. I can't believe it's already April. It's been almost a year since Isabella's tumor was removed. She had the surgery on May 2nd of last year. We have been living a normal life for almost a year now. Thank you to everyone who still comes to her site to read on how she is doing. Please don't forget to sign the guestbook, it's a nice way of seeing who stops by.

Well, unfortunately, we never made it to Disneyland in February. Something came up, like it always seems to, and we didn't get a chance to go. I don't know if we'll ever make it this year because now I am 6 months pregnant and the upcoming weeks are pretty busy for us. I would like to go before we have the baby even though I wouldn't be able to get on any of the rides, but that's not the reason I want to go. =)

Isabella is doing great. Her hair is very curly and sometimes it's hard to manage, but everyone loves the Shirley Temple look she's got going on. She had an appointment this morning with the oncology office and everything looks great with her. She will be scheduled for a MRI later on this month.

Friday, January 6, 2006 12:40 AM CST

Hello everyone.... I am soooo sorry that it has taken me months to put any word out on how Isabella is doing.

Let me say this.... Isabella is doing AWESOME! She is a normal 2 (almost 3) year old. Running and jumping and playing with her toys and watching movies (her most favorite thing to do). I have added a few new pictures to the photos page. Sorry that they are so large because that makes it easier for you guys to see that she had a runny nose that day. =) Sorry about that.

Isabella will be having a couple of tests done this month. I don't know the dates yet but I'll put an update once I know. She is having her regular MRI (every 3 months) but she is also having a bone scan (this is normal, so don't think anything is wrong) and a MIBG scan. The MIBG scan is a nuclear scan where they add a tiny about a radioactive material in her and it goes and searching for any live tumors and sticks to the tumors. They can see with the pictures where it goes because it glows green or something like that. Don't worry, the amount they use is not enough to do anything to her, they just use it to see if there are any tumors. She had this test done earlier when she was diagnosed to see if her cancer had spread. We all know that it didn't so that was great news. These test might not be done until towards the end of the month, but I PROMISE to keep you all up to date.

Oh yeah, for those of you who don't know..... We are pregnant! =) I'm almost 3 months along and we are due on July 25th. The doctors have planned to do another C-Section since that's how I had Isabella. Breech baby! =) So I guess they schedule the C-Section about 10 days prior to your due date. They don't want you to go into labor! hehehe Well, so far this pregnancy has been a lot like the one with Isabella. I have been dealing with Morning Sickness since the last part of Thanksgiving weekend. My morning sickness lasts all day and the smells are THE WORST! I smell anything and I gag and then I get sick. It hasn't been fun. So far I've lost 15 pounds since my last appointment on December 15th. So I've probably lost most since then. My next appointment is on January 12th, next Thursday. I'll keep you posted with what the doctor tells me. I have a list of things to go over with the doctor so I hope she has given my appointment some time! hehehe

Well, with all that we are trying to plan a trip to Disneyland. I would like to go when I know for sure I'll be feeling better but then I don't want to go too late because I don't want to be too big. I was thinking about going next month because I have President's day off and I would only need to ask for one or two more days if needed. And God knows I never have time off between me being sick all the time and Isabella's doctor appointments. =) Isabella would LOVE Disneyland because she loves all the Disney movies and she loves Cinderella and Toy Story is her thing right now so I know she would loose it if she saw a real live Buzz! hehehe

I will try to keep this site more up to date for those who still stop by every now and then. =)

Thank you for your continued support and pray that Isabella will be cancer free for the rest of her life. =)

Have a great weekend!

Wednesday, September 14, 2005 12:12 AM CDT

Hello Everyone! I know it's been a very very long since I have written on this site. So that must be a good sign! =) No news is good news, right?

Well, Isabella is doing great. She had a doctor's appointment last week and this was just a check up with the oncologist. They drew blood to test her "tumor" markers, white blood cell counts and many other tests. Everything was at a normal level. The doctor said that Isabella looks great. We will be scheduled for a MRI within the next couple of weeks. We have a MRI and a doctor appointment every 3 months for the next 2 to 3 years. I pray every day that she will be cancer free for the rest of her life.

Everything is going good on the home front. We are enjoying our home now that we can finally spend more time at home than at the hospital.

I think everyone who ordered a shirt has now received their shirts. 3 YEARS LATER!! =) I'm only kidding, it didn't take that long. I hope everyone likes their shirts. Thank you for purchasing them.

Thank you everyone for your support during all the hardship we went through. Please continue to pray for our little Isabella that she stays healthy for the rest of her life.

Have a great day! =)

Friday, July 8, 2005 11:40 AM CDT

нн
н нHAPPY FRIDAY EVERYONE!

First of all I would like to apologize for something other than taking so long to update Isabella's site. =) I would like to apologize to my mom, my aunt Deba and my cousin Sandy for taking so long to get your T-Shirts out to you. I have the box of shirts in my car and I PROMISE that they will go out this weekend. I have no excuses! =) I hope everyone else has been enjoying their T-Shirts and I wanted to say a big THANK YOU for ordering them from me and wearing them proudly. My co-workers at Kaiser Permanente in San Diego all wore their shirts on the same day for casual Friday. It was sooooo sweet to have their support. THANK YOU GIRLS! =) I LOVE YOU ALL.

Well, enough of that. Isabella had a MRI on Wednesday and we received the results yesterday afternoon. I am happy to report that her scan was all clear. THIS WAS SUCH GREAT NEWS TO HEAR! Now we will continue to have scans every 3 months for a couple of years. So please continue to pray that we have good results for years to come. =)

I hope everyone had a wonderful 4th of July. We spent the day at home trying to relax since it was our last day off for the long weekend. We had already barbequed the two days prior, so we didn't feel like firing up the barbie for a third day in a row. That night we went out to our balcony outside of our bedroom and watched the fireworks from there. We had a great view of the fireworks that were being shot off at Schnepf Farms, the same place we went to the Peach festival in May. Isabella loved to see the fireworks go off and was constantly saying "wow", it was really cute. It was her first year that she could really enjoy the fireworks so it was nice to be able to share that with her.

Yesterday I was a little bummed out because I had to say no to a GREAT opportunity. There is a Neuroblastoma Conference taking place in Chicago on July 14th, 15th and 16th. The foundation that is holding the event had a few grants that were donated to them to help families with travel arrangements if they couldn't afford to go as well as pay for the Hotel room. The web site for the foundation that is holding the event is : http://www.cncf-childcancer.org/index.aspx
Pat Tallungan is the President of the foundation. She runs the foundation along with having a full time job. She lost a child to Neuroblastoma in April of 1999. With the help of the grants, she was going to be able to pay for our airfare to Chicago as well as our hotel stay for two out of the three nights at the Hyatt Regency. The most the trip would have cost us was $200. That is why I was so bummed out yesterday, I had to pass up an opportunity to go to Chicago for $200. The reason you ask why we can't go? Well, since David and I have both taken a lot of time off to care for Isabella during her treatment, we have no time to cover the two days we would be missing from work. I had to inform Pat of our decision yesterday morning so she would know about helping other families with travel arrangements. I guess there is always next year. Please check out her web site to learn more about what the foundation does to support the fight against Neuroblastoma.

Also to let you all know, I am planning on doing a lemonade stand to raise money for pediatric cancer. It's called "Alex's Lemonade Stand, Fighting Childhood Cancer one cup at a Time". The web site for this is : http://www.alexslemonade.com/
I haven't chosen a date yet or a location, but I am going to try to get as many people involved as I can. I will keep you all posted on this as time goes on. If you feel ambitious, you can also hold a lemonade stand in your own town. Just go on the web site and register for a stand. They will send you a packet of information on how to get started.

Well, I hope everyone has a great weekend and thank you for your continuous support!

WE LOVE YOU ALL!

Michelle, David and Isabella

FRIDAY, JUNE 17TH 2005 - 1:00 PM PDT

Hello everyone, I wanted to share this poem that was on Jacob's site. Jacob is the little boy I wrote about on Wednesday who is having surgery today for the 5th time. Please continue to pray for him. Thank you.

"Just For Today "

Just for this morning, I am going to smile when I see your face and laugh when I feel like crying.
Just for this morning, I will let you choose what you want to wear, and smile and say how perfect it is.
Just for this morning, I am going to step over the laundry, and pick you up and take you to the park to play.
Just for this morning, I will leave the dishes in the sink, and let you teach me how to put that puzzle of yours together.
Just for this afternoon, I will unplug the telephone and keep the computer off, and sit with you in the backyard and blow bubbles.
Just for this afternoon, I will not yell once, not even a tiny grumble when you scream and whine for the ice cream truck, and I will buy you one if he comes by.
Just for this afternoon, I won't worry about what you are going to be when you grow up, or second guess every decision I have made where you are concerned.
Just for this afternoon, I will let you help me bake cookies, and I won't stand over you trying to fix them.
Just for this afternoon, I will take us to McDonald's and buy us both a Happy Meal so you can have both toys.
Just for this evening, I will hold you in my arms and tell you a story about how you were born and how much I love you.
Just for this evening, I will let you splash in the tub and not get angry.
Just for this evening, I will let you stay up late while we sit on the porch and count all the stars.
Just for this evening, I will snuggle beside you for hours, and miss my favorite TV shows.
Just for this evening, when I run my finger through your hair as you pray, I will simply be grateful that God has given me the greatest gift ever given.

I will think about the mothers and fathers who are searching for their missing children, the mothers and fathers who are visiting their children's graves instead of their bedrooms, and mothers and fathers who are in hospital rooms watching their children suffer senselessly, and screaming inside that they can't handle it anymore.
And when I kiss you good night, I will hold you a little tighter, a little longer.
It is then that I will thank God for you, and ask him for nothing, except one more day..."

~author unknown~

WEDNESDAY, JUNE 15TH 2005 - 10:00 PM

I wanted to write today to ask you everyone to pray for this little boy who is having surgery on Friday. He does not have Neuroblastoma, but another form of cancer called adrenocortical carcinoma ( here is a web site with information regarding this cancer : http://www.stjude.org/disease-summaries/0,2557,449_2167_2954,00.html)

Also, here is a link to his web site. He is one of four boys who, to me, all look almost exactly the same. They are soooo cute and his web site brought me to tears. Please add him and his family to your prayer list....

http://www2.caringbridge.org/fl/jacob/index.htm

Thank you everyone and have a wonderful day.

MONDAY, JUNE 6TH 2005 10:08 PM CDT

Hi everyone, I apologize again for such a long delay in updating Isabella's site.

Where did I leave off last time... lets see.... we had some friends over for dinner and Isabella was to go to day care for a couple days before her grandmother arrived for 3 weeks....

My mother-in-law, Ana came to stay with us for a while to help us take care of Isabella. We truly appreciated every thing she did for us while she was here. Her and Isabella would go to the park, play in the pool, go shopping and just spend the days indoors when it got too hot. Ana even tried to take her to Target to get her pictures taken, but for some reason when the associate was pulling down the background I guess it made a funny noise that scared her and she started to cry. Ana still tried to get some pictures taken, but they didn't come out too well with Isabella's face red from crying.

My step-mother and step-sister came into town for Memorial Day weekend. The first night they were here, we had an early "monsoon" storm in our neck of the woods. Well, we were all sitting at the table enjoying a nice beef fondue with an electric fondue and my sister noticed that it was quite windy outside. It was around 8pm so it was already pretty dark outside, but when I took a peak I noticed that it was a dust storm. A Dust Storm is like trying to look through fog, brown fog that hurts when it gets in your eyes. Now for those of you who haven't experienced this, from the air, it looks like a wall of dust and dirt is moving over the area. The dust storm usually comes before the lightning and thunder, so I knew there was more on the way. About 5 minutes after we noticed the dust storm, the power went out. Lucky for us we just moved in, so we had no clue where any of our candles were and if we even had any. We had two flash lights that Isabella liked to play with, so the batteries were drained from those. With our food from dinner still sitting on the table we proceeded to try to find some sort of light. Luckily we finally found some candles and we had light again. The whole street seemed to be outside in front of their houses enjoying the company and conversation of neighbors since the whole neighborhood was dark. It was a perfect night to enjoy the lighting show since their was no rain from this storm or even thunder. The power came back on eventually about 2 hours later and we finished cleaning up the kitchen and went to bed. The next day believe it or not, it happened again, another storm and the power went out AGAIN! And you are probably thinking we learned our lesson from the first night and stocked up on working batteries for our flashlights, maybe even bought a few new ones and stocked up on candles. Well, if that's what you are thinking then you are way wrong! hehehe One stroke of luck was my step-mom left about 10 minutes before the lights went out to the grocery store for a few items, so I called her up and asked her to pick up some candles. So next time the storm comes, we are ready!! =)

That was the extent of the excitement for our Memorial Day weekend. The rest of the weekend we relaxed by the pool and went to the mall for some shopping.

Isabella continues to do great. She has a check-up with the doctors on Thursday, nothing serious, just to see how she is doing. She is suppose to have a scan with-in the next couple of weeks. I will let you all know the exact date as soon as I know and we will continue to pray for a clean scan. =)

Isabella started back at daycare today, and she was very excited to be back. She ran up to the door and started knocking and as soon as the door was opened, she walked right in like it was her own home. I couldn't help but laugh. I will take more pictures and up date the site with them as well as send them out to everyone. She is growing very fast and so is her hair. It won't look like much in the pictures, but it's there, trust me. =)

Thank you to everyone for their continued support and please continue to sign the guestbook.

Tuesday, May 17, 2005 9:51 PM CDT

Hey everyone,
I apologize for not updating this site sooner. I've been buried at work since I missed so much time and then when I'm at home I have so much to catch up on as well that I don't even have to time to sit down.

Isabella is doing really well. We were released from the hospital that Friday and Isabella did fine. I know that I was really worried about her progress, but she did a lot better at home than in the hospital. I had to continue with her antibiotics for 5 days after we were released. So that meant that the port that was in her neck had to stay until the antibiotics were finished. The tape that covered her line really bothered her because it wouldn't let her move her head without the tape pulling on her little hairs. I was counting down the days until she could have it removed. Having it removed meant that we could live a normal life again. Take baths, go to the store without people staring at her wondering what was wrong with her. Little thinks in life. Well, we made it to Thursday and she had it removed. That night I think she spent about 30 minutes in the bathtub until she was shriveled up like a prune. She had a lot of fun splashing around with her toys and getting me all wet.

On Saturday we went to a Peach Festival right down the street from our house at a place called Schnepf Farms.
Check out their web site : www.schnepffarms.com
We took some pictures at the farm, I'll post them on the web site when I'm done with this post. We picked our own peaches, rode on a hay barrel out to the Peach trees, had peach pancakes and did lots and lots of walking in the hot Arizona sun. Afterwards we came home and Daddy and Isabella got in the pool to cool down. We don't have any landscaping around the pool yet, so you have to stand there and dry off really quick so that you don't get your feet all muddy. She had fun in the pool with Daddy for about 20 minutes and then she was tired of it and wanted to take a nap.

Sunday we had our daycare provider, her husband and their kids over for dinner. They are our dear friends who probably saved Isabella's life. If it wasn't for them we probably wouldn't even know about the cancer yet. We have a lot to be thankful to them for. A big thank you to the Keyes family, Miss Genae, Mr Patrick, Alexis, Jayla and I can't forget Genae's sister Taneesha and her daughter Aalia. I don't know what I would have done without you all!

Isabella went back to daycare on Monday and Tuesday. She was really happy to be able to play with the other kids again. I think it is really important for her to be with other kids her age, so she can start learning from them again. Now... I don't want her to pick up the bad things of course, but that's what her parents are here for. To let her know when something isn't appropriate. For the rest of the week and next week, my mother-in-law has come to help us out. So she won't be going back to daycare until June 1st.

Isabella is doing really well, and I wanted to thank you all for your prayers and your support. I don't want you all to ever think that we don't appreciate everything you all have done for us. Isabella is a truly blessed child and I hope and pray that she gets to be a healthy and happy adult cancer free for the rest of her life.

Honestly, we really can't thank you all enough!

THANK YOU! THANK YOU! THANK YOU!

Friday, May 6, 2005 12:14 AM CDT

Well, it's been 3 almost 4 full days since Isabella's 6 hour surgery. She still seems like she is in a lot of pain and can barely walk around the bed. She was put on a clear liquid diet Wednesday evening and then she is slowly progressing to solid foods again. She hasn't eaten since Sunday afternoon, but they like to take it slow. This is mostly because of when you have any type of surgery on your abdomen (stomach) and move around your intestines, they (the intestines) don't like to be moved around like they were so they stop working all together. Your body needs time to recover from all the stress it went through during surgery so they look for signs that it is starting to function again. When they get those signs (usually it's the ability to pass gas) it's kind of like the okay to start eating again. Isabella has eating a little bit of fruit and ice cream and last night I gave her some fruit loops. =) We were also moved from ICU to the oncology room yesterday. It's much nicer in the new oncology wing because they actually have a place for us to sleep and a shower in the bathroom. The rooms are bigger and much brighter as well. I'm hoping that will cheer Isabella up a little bit because she seems kind of out of it. But I'm hoping that is just all the medication that they were giving her while she was on the breathing machine.

They told us yesterday that we might get to go home today. But I honestly don't think Isabella is ready to go home. She can still barely walk around the bed without crying from being in pain and she has barely started eating. I feel so horrible sometimes that she had to go through this. Now that she is back in the regular room she is on a normal bed again that we can lay next to her on. But every time one of us gets up to go do something she starts to cry. I know it will take time for the pain to start going down more and for the fear factor to go away. But it still sucks to see your daughter in so much pain and so scared every time you leave her side. Hopefully she will get over this pretty fast now that she won't have to keep coming back to the hospital. =) I couldn't have asked for a better birthday present for her or a mother's day gift. I only hope that she stays free from cancer for the next two critical years.

Here is a little thank you to everyone out there................

No words can describe how grateful my husband and I are for everything you all have done for us. I want to thank everyone who prayed for her, to everyone who lit a candle, to everyone who just thought about her. She is a very lucky girl to have sooooo many people thinking and praying good thoughts.

Thank you again!

Wednesday, May 4, 2005 12:45 AM CDT

Hello everyone....

Well, we just got the results from the pathology report.................
The tumor was......... DEAD!!!!!!!!!!

To sum it up.... that means, NO MORE CHEMO!!! Now Isabella just gets to go back every 3 months for scans. Thank you to everyone for your thoughts and prayers. Isabella is still in ICU and will be until tomorrow when they transfer her back to the oncology unit. From there we will probably be there until Saturday or Sunday. No words can discribe how grateful we are to everyone for their wonderful thoughts and prayers. It's because of all of you!!! I will try to call you all very soon! =)

Love to all of you!

Tuesday, May 3, 2005 0:48 AM CDT

Hello everyone,
I wanted to let everyone know how Isabella's surgery went.....

Here it is... She was brought into OR around 9 AM, and we were originally told 3 hours. 3 turned into 4 and then 4 turned into 5. We knew that the surgery didn't go as planned if it was taking this long. Come to find out, when she was finally out of surgery @ 3:30 that her tumor was 97emoved. The tumor went from around her bladder area all the way up towards the bottom of her chest. The surgeon had a hard time removing that part of the tumor that attached itself to the two main arteries that go down Isabella's left leg. One of the main arteries started to spasm, and in doing so, restricted blood flow to her left leg. They are keeping a close eye on her leg and foot over the next few days. The leg seems to have a strong pulse, but her foot has a weaker pulse. She is on a breathing machine to help her maintain her breathing pattern since she is on so many drugs that can make her stop breathing and to prevent fluid build up in the lungs. For now we have to wait on the pathology report to find out if the tumor was still alive or if the chemo killed it. I just want my little girl back in my arms. It is soooooooooo hard to see your child with 5 or more tubes coming out of her body with a life support system next to her. I hate what this disease has done to her and all of the other kids who have Neuroblastoma and cancer in general. I wish there was a way to kill cancer.

Right now Isabella is in Pediatric ICU and she will be there for a couple of days. They do not allow cell phones in there, so when I'm in her room, I have my phone turned off. Please, if you call, don't think we don't want to talk to you. I just want to make sure I don't mess with any of the equipment that is helping Isabella recover.

I will give you all more information as soon as I know more.

Thank you for your support.

Friday, April 29, 2005 9:02 AM

HAPPY BIRTHDAY MY BEAUTIFUL LITTLE ANGEL!!! I HOPE YOU HAVE A WONDERFUL BIRTHDAY!

We just got the news from the surgeon about 10 minutes ago.......
Isabella has been scheduled for surgery on Monday morning @ 8:45 AM to have the tumor removed.

Thank you to everyone who has been praying for our little Isabella. Please continue to keep her in your prayers and hope for a safe surgery on Monday.

THANK YOU! THANK YOU! THANK YOU!

NEW INFO AS OF THRUSDAY - APRIL 28TH - 12:30 PM -

I called over to the hospital to verify if Isabella was able to be scheduled for the MRI today. I found out that she should be starting the MRI right now. The MRI takes about an hour to do. I'm not sure when the surgeon will look at the results, but I will let everyone know, once I have more information.

MORE INFORMATION AS OF WEDNESDAY, APRIL 27TH - 6:30 PM

I'm writing tonight to ask a favor from all of you....... The doctor has decided to plan an MRI to see if her tumor has shrunk enough to remove it without doing the last round of chemo as scheduled. The reason being is because they would like to get her immune system built up more to fight off this infection. With another round of chemo looming, that can bring her counts down and make her body weak and not able to fight off this infection. The MRI will hopefully be scheduled for tomorrow, maybe Friday. The surgeon is ready to look at the images to see if he is willing to remove it safely. My request to all of you...... is to pray that her tumor is small enough to be removed so that we don't need to do this last round of chemo. Please pray for our little Isabella and hope that we can become cancer free by this weekend or next week. Thank you, Thank you, Thank you, Thank you!!!

NEW UPDATE AS OF WEDNESDAY, APRIL 27TH - 8:30 AM..........

I JUST FOUND OUT FROM DAVID THAT ISABELLA'S BLOOD RESULTS CAME BACK POSITIVE AGAIN. SHE IS BEING ADMITTED BACK INTO THE HOSPITAL. I DON'T KNOW MUCH MORE THAN THAT, SO I WILL KEEP YOU ALL POSTED ONCE I KNOW MORE.........

Monday, April 25, 2005 2:02 PM CDT

Happy Monday to everyone....

Isabella had an appointment with the doctor today. They tested her blood counts and they drew some blood for her blood cultures to see how this infection was going. They said her blood counts were fine and they have scheduled her for chemo on Thursday. We won't hear anything about the blood cultures until Wednesday. I guess their plan is to continue with chemo even with the infection still going on. We are really anxious to get this last scheduled chemo treatment over with so we can have the MRI done to see if they can remove it. We hope that we can start the remission process with in the next couple of months. Sure we can hopefully start living a partial normal life again, but that doesn't mean that we won't freak out at every little thing that goes on with her for the rest of her life. As parents you naturally worry about your kids, but with this happening, it increases your worry a million times over.

This Friday is Isabella's 2nd birthday. We really don't have much planned, just some cake on the day of her birthday and we'll get her a little something. On that Saturday is when we plan on going to the Relay for Life walk to show our support for other cancer patients. We will be wearing our Isabella T-Shirts proudly. The T-Shirts shipped out today and I should have them by Thursday. Juli (the wonderful person who helped me out with this project of mine) said they look great. Juli is the wife of Troy, David's boss. He has been very supportive during this process and very understanding. Especially right now when one of us has to be there to administer her antibiotics every 6 hours.

Isabella had a great weekend. She got in this little play pool with the little boy across the street who is about 15 months old. I wrapped her arm with a plastic bag and then wrapped that with a wash cloth to keep her line from getting wet. I had to keep her arm out of the water by keeping it rested on the side of the pool. But she had fun besides all the restrictions.

Have a wonderful week everyone and I will continue to keep you posted on this infection issue.

Monday, April 18, 2005 8:36 PM CDT

NEW UPDATE - THURSDAY, APRIL 21ST 2005 - 11 AM

Well, I've got good news and I've got bad news. I'll start with the bad news first..... We found out yesterday that Isabella's blood cultures came back positive again when we had blood drawn at the doctor's office on Monday. This really upset me because this infection is really starting to make me worry. I'm beginning to wonder if she will ever get rid of it completely. My fear is that her body will become resistant to antibiotics since she is having so much of them pumped into her little body and they won't be able to do anything for her. The good news is.... we don't have to go back to the hospital. They just changed out the medication that we are giving to her at home. Now I give her the antibiotics every 6 hours instead of every 8 and now the dose runs over an hour instead of 15 minutes. Her chemo treatment was also moved to next Thursday as long as her blood cultures come back negative when we go to the doctor's office again next Monday. I can't help but worry all the time about her. It makes both David and I wonder if they can't get rid of a simple infection, who says they can get rid of the cancer?

Hello everyone.
I meant to update this page on Saturday, but we were having internet issues here at our house. Sunday was kind of a rough day for me. Sunday would have been my father's 61st birthday. Unfortunately he passed away on July 22nd of last year. So this was a pretty big step for me because I have kind of blocked his death out of my mind in a way of dealing with it. I have his urn here in my house and can barely look at him without starting to cry. Some day I will come to grips with the fact that he his gone. But for right now, it's just one step at a time. I hope he had a wonderful birthday up there in heaven with his mother.

Isabella is doing great. We have been home for more than a day! That in it's self is a breakthrough. hehehe We saw the doctor today and he told us that her blood counts are doing just fine and that we will go ahead and continue with chemo. Our appointment is for next Monday and then we wait about 3 weeks until the MRI will be done. We will find out then if the tumor can be removed. I am hoping and praying that they will be able to take it out. I want her to be able to live a normal life again. I would love to be able to take her to Disneyland later on this year in the fall.

Thank you for your support everyone. It is greatly appreciated.

Friday, April 15, 2005 4:44 PM CDT

Hello everyone,
Well.... we are finally out of the hospital. The doctors let us go because her blood cultures were finally coming back negative. She was sent home on antibiotics that we have to administer to her through her IV line in her arm. They are using that in place of the broviac she had in her chest. I think this one is for short term use only, around a 6 month time frame. She is going to be on these antibiotics for at least 3 weeks. That is what the doctor told me. Hopefully it won't be longer, but we'll wait and see. Since we administer her antibiotics through her IV, it has be sterile and so I don't trust anyone but David or I to administer it. The last thing I want is to end up back in the hospital for another infection. David has decided to take a leave from work to take care of Isabella. His work has been really supportive and we really appreciate it. The doctor has pushed back Isabella's next chemo treatment until she is done with the antibiotics. We were suppose to have chemo next week but the doctors don't want to rise bringing down her counts while she is going through this infection.

Isabella is doing great besides all of this going on. She is pretty up beat and runs around the house. She just doesn't like when I come at her with the IV pump and medication. I'll try to take some pictures to post on the web site for everyone.

Have a wonderful weekend!

Sunday, April 10, 2005 10:57 PM CDT

UPDATE - MONDAY, APRIL 11TH 2005 - 7:30 PM
FIRST OFF I WOULD LIKE TO SAY....... HAPPY BIRTHDAY TO A GREAT COUSIN WHO IS PROBABLY BEING A LOT STRONGER THAN I COULD EVER BE! HER NAME IS SANDY AND I HOPE YOU HAD A WONDERFUL DAY!

Isabella is sleeping as I type this. I learned the other day that I have a computer that I can use right outside of Isabella's room. =) I get to have some normalcy for a minute or two! Isabella had her PICC line placed in her arm today as well as having the ECHO gram done on her heart to see if the infection was stuck somewhere in the valves or the chambers of the heart. We will know more tomorrow. I signed a consent today for Isabella to have her picture taken with a couple of the Arizona Diamondback players who will be stopping by tomorrow to visit the oncology kids. That should be fun for Dad and Isabella to share. I will be going to work tomorrow. David and I are trading days for right now until she gets out of the hospital. Even if we get out of the hospital early, we might be going home with an IV pump so Isabella can have her antibiotics 3 times a day through her new PICC line. That will not be fun because she associates the IV pump with the hospital and I think she might be a little confused as to why it is going home with her. Another obstacle we are going to have to deal with is if she does go home with the IV pump, what are we going to do about care for her. I haven't been at my job long enough to take any disability leave and I don't have enough sick time to cover even one whole day off. David is the only one who can take FMLA so we might be doing that until she is off the IV pump and can go back to day care. It's going to be rough for a while and I hope we can make it through. Thank you for your support everyone, we truly appreciate it.

Hello Everyone,
I wanted to let you know that we are back in the hospital. They let us go but now we are back. I don't think they will be letting us go until the end of the week. Isabella's blood keeps coming back positive for bacteria growth meaning she had to be here on antibiotics. Tomorrow they are doing an ECO scan on her heart to see if the bacteria is stuck in her heart. I'm not sure how they fix it yet if it is. I'm still in the learning process. But since they took out her broviac, they now have to keep poking her with a needle. That really sucks, because the day we were told to come back it took them several attempts to get the IV line placed in her arm. That was not a fun night. I will try to keep you all posted on her progress but I will have limited access to a computer over the next week. Please pray that we can get rid of this infection and go home for good.

Monday, April 4, 2005 12:58 AM CDT

NEW NEW UPDATE AS OF THURSDAY, APRIL 7TH 2005 - 10:30 AM
Isabella had the procedure today to have her broviac removed at 9 AM. I just spoke with David a few minutes ago who told me that all is good. The procedure only took about 10 minutes and the rest of the time was recovery from the anesthesia. When I was on the phone with David I could hear Isabella in the background sounding very happy because she was finally able to eat. The doctors say that she will be able to go home tomorrow. THAT IS GREAT NEWS! She will have the broviac put back in right before her next chemo treatment around April 18th or 19th. This will hopefully be her last treatment. We will have an MRI done around May 10th. That is when we will find out if the tumor has shrunk enough to be surgically removed. I will be off from work tomorrow so I will not be able to update this site until next week. Thank you for your continued support! Please pray that everything goes smoothly today and she can go home tomorrow.

NEW UPDATE AS OF WEDNESDAY, APRIL 6TH 2005 - 10:15 AM

I just received a call from the nurse at the hospital who states that the doctor has decided to take Isabella's broviac out. At the current time, they are NOT going to replace it with a new one since she only has one round of chemo left. They will be taking the line out sometime this afternoon but before they do it, they are needing to give her blood, because her blood count is kind of low. Once they take her line out she will still be on antibiotics for another 24 hours. That is all I know for now and I will continue to keep you all posted on her progress.

UPDATE - TUESDAY, APRIL 5TH 2005 - 1:32PM

Well, I am sorry to report that Isabella will not be getting out of the hospital today or tomorrow. There is still bacteria in her broviac line and they will not let it go until it is all cleared up. The other part of that news is, if it doesn't clear up, they might replace her broviac with a new one. That would mean surgery. =( I am praying to God every day that this bacteria clears up and she can go home. Please say a prayer for her, I would love to take our little girl home where she needs to be.

THANK YOU!

Happy Monday to everyone!

Thank you for such wonderful support on the T-Shirts. I've gotten a very good response.

I'm writing today to let you know that Isabella was admitted to the hospital Saturday night. We had flushed her broviac lines and put on her numbing cream to give her the shot we give her every day after a round of chemo. She was tired so we laid her down in her crib while the numbing cream did it's job. Then about an hour later we had to wake her up and give her the shot. She was a little cranky and that was to be expected because she was just falling asleep. After the we gave her the shot I decided to lay down with her to help her fall back asleep again. But I noticed that something was wrong. She kept tightening up her muscles and shaking like she was cold. I made sure to cover her up with her blanket thinking it would help, but it didn't. She would just keep shaking and I noticed that she wasn't too responsive to me and her eyes even rolled back into her head. I ran down stairs to get David and we took her temp and it as at 100.4. We called the doctors office to have them page one of the oncologist's. When he called us back, I gave him the details of her condition and he told us to head on over to the Emergency Room. Now that we just moved, we are about an hour away. I advised him of that and we would be there as soon as possible. I think I was going around 85 on the freeway since it was around 11:30 at night when we were headed to the Emergency Room. We get there and Isabella seemed to be doing better, but we didn't want to risk anything. We checked in and David advised the nurse at the station that she is on chemo so she needs to be isolated right away. They bring us in the back after a couple of minutes and in the room is where we waited about 30 minutes. Then a nurse came in and said they wanted us in the oncology wing and we were being admitted. I definitely liked the idea of going to the oncology wing because you have attention when you need it, unlike the Emergency Room. As soon as we got there the nurse was in our room going over what was wrong as well as the doctor. Which surprised me that the doctor was there on a Saturday night at midnight. He went over the possibilities that could be going on with Isabella. They said that it was a strong possibility that she had some sort of infection in her broviac line and when I went to flush it it got pushed into her bloodstream and then started to grow bacteria. Which is what happened. She has to be in the hospital for at least 3 days and they have both of her broviac lines hooked up to an IV that has antibiotics running through it. They are keeping an eye on her to make sure not fever returns. My mother-in-law just happen to come this weekend to stay for the whole week and she is at the hospital right now with Isabella. Thank goodness she is here to help. =) I will keep everyone posted in Isabella's progress while she is in the hospital. Hopefully she can come home tomorrow.

Thank you for your support.

Tuesday, March 15, 2005 2:46 PM CST

Hey everyone.....
Isabella is continuing to do great. The night after chemo she is usually a little grumpy and I think her stomach doesn't feel so good, so I give her some nausea medication and she usually sleeps with us. =)

There is this "Relay for Life" walk that takes place in each city that is put on by the American Cancer society and I wanted to share an e-mail that I received from a co-worker of mine who has gone through breast cancer herself. Her name is Barbara Haas and she is a wonderful person who has given me wonderful support here at work throughout this whole thing. Here is what she wrote......

"Hi everyone,
Do you know someone who has cancer, has survived cancer or has passed away from cancer? Do you want to do something that will honor the victims of this disease, and at the same time help raise money to find a cure or help current and future victims to have better treatment?

If you have a loved one with cancer or know someone else who might like to buy one, I am selling Luminarios for the Relay for Life, which is an American Cancer Society event http://www.cancer.org/docroot/GI/gi_1.asp. What you can do is buy a luminario in honor of your loved one, write their name on it and decorate it if you like, and it will be displayed at the relay which is on April 30th and May 1st. The Relay is held at the Peoria Sports Complex (home of the Seattle Mariner's spring training games). When evening rolls around on April 30th the luminarios will be lit and will stay lit all night long. Also, if you purchase one, the names that are on the luminarios will be displayed on the Jumbo Tron, and will scroll through all day and all night long.

The neat thing about this fundraiser is that it supports ALL types of cancer. So, if you are interested, you can come by my desk and look at the two luminarios that I bought that are on display. They are both family members of PacifiCare employees; Deztiny Shea, who is the grand-daughter and great-grand daughter of Terri Conner and Sue Conner; and Isabella Ugarte, who is the daughter of Michelle Ugarte.

By the way, the luminarios are $10.00 per bag (one person per bag). I will be selling them until April 15th.

Thanks a million!!!"

For the participants of this walk who know Isabella, I am looking into the possibility of making T-shirts with her picture on them. There are walks all over the place, and Barbara provided a link to the American Cancer Society's web site where you can put in your zip code to find a location near you. If you would like a t-shirt, please let me know. I need to know ahead of time how many to order. I think I might end up selling them for $10 a piece to help pay for the cost of buying them and shipping them to friends and family who do not live here in Phoenix and if there is any extra money, it will go to help paying for Isabella's hospital bills. I will keep you guys posted on this.

Also, I don't know if any of you watch the show "Extreme makeover Home edition on ABC. Well, this past Sunday the episode was about a family who's daughter has Neuroblastoma and they live in Gilbert, AZ. Not to far from me actually. Check out this web site......

http://www.lovecomesfirst.com/

I hope all is going well with everyone and THANK YOU THANK YOU for your support! =)

Friday, March 4, 2005 5:12 PM CST

Hi everyone! I can't believe it's already March!

Isabella is doing great. She eats well most of the time. Sometimes she likes to be a chipmunk and store her food for winter. It's hard to find things she likes. One day she likes a certain thing, but then the next, she won't have anything to do with it. I just resort to the mac and cheese, chocolate milk, chocolate milkshakes, fruit, taco bell soft taco and applesauce. We took some pictures of her in a really cute dress her grandmother bought for her. I'll have to upload those pictures to the web site for you all too see. She is scheduled for her 6th round of chemo on March 7th. I can't believe that this is already the 6th round. I hope it works!

Thank you for your continued prayers, e-mails and phone calls. We truly are lucky to have such wonderful people surrounding us. Isabella is a very lucky little girl.

P.S. - Remember to keep signing the guest book. =)

I wanted to share a couple of other kids web sites :

Dylan is from Australia, but is currently in New York and just went through surgery.
http://www2.caringbridge.org/me/dylanhartung/

Here is a web site with kids currently fighting Neuroblastoma :
http://www.warriors.beebo.info/nbwarriors.html

Here is a web site of survivors of Neuroblastoma :
http://www.warriors.beebo.info/nedwarriors.html

Check these sites out! =)

Thursday, February 17, 2005 8:56 AM CST

Hi everyone,

Well, we had the MRI last Friday. David and I spoke with one of Isabella's oncologist's on Tuesday about the results. These results were definitely not as good as we had hoped. Well, originally Isabella's tumor was about the size of a large grapefruit. It measured 11cm long (up and down) and 6cm wide from the front to back. I forgot what the measurements were from side to side. Well, after 4 rounds of chemo, her tumor measures 11cm long, and 5.6cm wide. So her tumor has only shrunk .4cm. David and I were really sad to hear that news. We expected more results since we are half way through treatment. We ask ourselves... how much more will it shrink if we only have 4 more rounds to go and the first 4 barely put a dent in the tumor. The doctor said that we will continue 4 more rounds, which she is already going through one round this week. It started on Tuesday and her last dose is today. The doctor also mentioned to us that the tumor could possibly mature into normal cells, meaning that it wouldn't be cancerous anymore. But their main concern right now is to try to get it small enough so the surgeon can safely remove it without too much risk to Isabella. At the end of these next 4 treatments, they may do the nuclear scan again to see if it has spread and how much of the tumor is actually still active and alive.

We are really hoping that the chemo starts to make more progress on her tumor. It's really frustrating to hear news like that after having a couple months of good news. I think the fact that made it harder to hear is because we were expecting to hear that it had shrunk a lot more because we constantly feel where the tumor is and we noticed a difference. But the reason why we noticed a difference is because that's the only direction it actually got a little smaller.

Thank you for your support.

Monday, February 7, 2005 9:35 AM CST

Good Monday morning to you all,
I hope everyone had a good weekend. We had kind of an eventful Friday. It was around 9 PM when we were about to give Isabella her daily shot and then put her to bed, when she started having a bloody nose. After about a couple of minutes we noticed that this one wasn't planning on stopping any time soon and we had already gone through 6 paper towels. I called her oncologist and he advised us to go to the emergency room so they could test her blood levels. We arrived at the ER around 9:30 and by that time her nose had slowed down a bit. As we sat there and waited for them to call our name, I noticed that Isabella wasn't spelling to spring fresh and I asked if there was a place that we could change her diaper. But as we were changing her diaper she started to cry which made her nose start bleeding again. By this time her shirt and pants were looking like something out of a horror movie. I hear them call our name and we sit down to answer a few questions while the nurse hands us more and more Kleenex's to try to keep her nose under control. Then they rush us into a private room in the pediatric ward of the ER. They didn't want Isabella to be around any sick kids since she was on chemo. The thing that made me upset was the fact that there is my daughter, bleeding all over the place and I have two nursing assistants staring at each other dumbfounded on what to do. They were more worried about getting a mask for themselves then actually stopping the bleeding. Well, finally the bleeding stopped on it's own, no thanks to the ER nurses. It was now around 10:30 PM and Isabella fell asleep there on the hospital bed with both David & I sitting in a chair next to the bed. I started to get very tired and made a make shift pillow out of blankets I found in the cabinets and fell asleep myself while we waited for the blood results to come back. Finally around 2 AM the doctor came in and told us that her blood counts were fine and we were okay to go home. When we got home we went straight to bed and had Isabella sleep between us since we were afraid that her nose would start bleeding again in the middle of the night.
So Saturday night comes around and she gets another bloody nose. This time it wasn't as bad and we just applied pressure to her nose and tried to get her to stop crying which makes it worse sometimes. This one stopped in about 15 minutes and we took her to our bed again that night. I don't think she really likes to sleep with us, because when she is in her crib she can go all over the place without bothering us. In the middle of the night I look over and find David with is head half way down in the middle of the bed and Isabella laying above him, across the bed with her feet over my belly. She is a crazy little girl. =)
I was really worried Sunday night about her getting a bloody nose again, but all went well and she didn't. But she still slept with me since David had left for San Diego that morning. I'm thinking if she doesn't get a bloody nose today, she's sleeping in her own bed tonight, because she kept me up all night =)

Well, I think that is it for now. I will keep you guys posted if anything else happens. =)

Have a great day!

Friday, February 4, 2005 8:46 AM CST

Happy Friday to you all.

I apologize for not updating this for so long, I've just been extremely busy at work.

Well, Isabella is doing great. She had her 4th round of chemo last week. It was another chemo session where she had to go for three days. She still has her hair even though it is thinning out a little more and more each time we go. She is scheduled for a MRI next Friday. The doctors will be looking at it to see how much it shrunk. She will probably be scheduled for surgery the week after that.

David will be in San Diego next week for a work training class. So it will be just me and Isabella, oh and the cat of course. =) We will miss him a lot and we can't wait for him to come back already.

I hope everyone is doing okay and I would like to hear from you all a little bit more on the guestbook. =)

As always, thank you for your support. We truly appreciate it.

Thursday, January 20, 2005 8:27 AM CST

Hi everyone,
I just wanted to let you know that Isabella is doing great. She had another blood count test yesterday and her counts are good. They just want me to start feeding her a high calorie diet because she has been slowly loosing weight. She gets to eat all the good stuff. =) Lots of butter and cook with oil they said. Add shredded cheese to the already cheesy macaroni and cheese. Give her milk shakes right before she goes to bed, so that her stomach is full when she goes to bed. I wish the doctors would give me the okay to eat like that!
Isabella also had an appointment for an evaluation for physical therapy. They tested her on her motor skills, that is... using her hands to do things like.... stack blocks, put the shapes in the right place, put the blocks in the cup, scribble on a piece of paper and try to put on her socks and shoes. She did great on that test, so they aren't going to recommend any therapy for that part. After that she had an evaluation for her speech. I know she understands what we tell her to do, but she still can't tell us things very well. So during the evaluation she asked me lots of questions, and she is going to recommend an hour of therapy a week for her speech. Any extra help she gets now, will benefit her in the long run. She goes again today to get tested on her walking. I think she's doing MUCH better since they started treating the tumor. The doctor had told us that the kind of tumor she has releases some sort of hormones or chemical in the body that effects their balance. He said in some cases where a kid has Neuroblastoma that has progressed a lot can barely sit up on their own. So since the chemo has started, she is walking sooo much better and so I don't think she will need therapy for that. Just the speech part.

Isabella is scheduled for her 4th round of chemo next Tuesday. We will be doing it outpatient this time. We'll probably just be there for 6 hours. At least we won't have to stay over night. =)

Thanks for checking in on our little Isabella. Please sign the guestbook, I love to read what everyone has to say. I read it to Isabella as well.

Have a great day everyone.

Friday, January 7, 2005 8:36 AM CST

HAPPY FRIDAY!

Sorry it has taken me so long to update this page...

Well, this has been a pretty long week. Tuesday was the first day of Isabella's chemo. We were suppose to be admitted into the hospital that morning but as you all probably know, nothing ever goes as planned.... I called first thing in the morning to see if a bed was available and the nurse on the phone said probably around noon a bed would become available because the Pediatric ward was full. At this time they hadn't opened the new oncology wing yet. So Isabella and I waited.... we went back to our apartment that we had most of the furniture moved out of the living room because I asked the apartment complex to have our carpets cleaned. I told them to come on Tuesday since we were suppose to be gone all day. We both waited there until about 11 AM when the carpet cleaners showed up, then Isabella and I had to leave. I put her in the stroller and we walked around the apartment complex to a little man made lake they have on the other side. We sat there for a few minutes and checked out the ducks. It was a little cold that day because that was the day it rained cats and dogs here. Luckily while we were walking it wasn't raining. =) After our walk I decided to just drive around the neighborhood for a little while since now we couldn't go back inside the apartment with the carpets wet. I drove around for about 30 minutes and then a little after noon I called the hospital again to see if they had a bed ready. After a while of waiting on hold she came back on the line and told me that they did have a room for her and it was in the new Pediatric oncology wing. Oh yeah, the whole morning I wasn't giving any food to Isabella since she was suppose to have the MRI done and she can't eat after midnight (Gremlins anyone???) because of the anesthesia. So I headed on over to the hospital and we finally got in the room only to find out that we were not scheduled for the MRI today but tomorrow morning. So my poor Isabella had to starve for no reason. The new rooms were really nice. The room was huge, it had a little couch in the back of the room where it folds out into a bed for the parents, a flat screen TV with a VCR and DVD player and a playstation for the kids (which ended up being for David instead) =). So instead of just spending one day in the hospital it turned into two days. We had her two days worth of chemo in the hospital and they finally let us go around midnight on Wednesday. Now you are probably thinking, why didn't we just stay if it was already midnight???.... well, I'm sure all of you know that a hospital is no fun place to be. The first night we were there Isabella barely slept a wink and so in turn, I think I got maybe 1 hour of sleep that night as well. So I really didn't care that it was so late, I just wanted to get Isabella in her own bed so she could sleep (and David and I too). I brought Isabella into the doctors office for her last dose of chemo for this round, we got to do it outpatient this time and we were only there for a couple of hours. It went pretty fast. We were home by 1:30pm and it felt great to have this round done. While we were at the doctors office the nurse told me that we probably won't have to be admitted for any more of her treatments unless of course she gets sick. So that's good news. They also told me that when they do the scans sometime next month, they will have the surgeons look at the results and they will decide then if they can take it out. That is if it has shrunk enough to where it would be a safe surgery.

So all in all, it looks like things are going pretty good. Thank you everyone for your support and your prayers. We are truly lucky to have so many wonderful people who care. We love you all very much.

I wanted to share with you all a bracelet that you can buy that is from the Lance Armstrong "LIVE STRONG" cancer foundations. It's a very cheap yellow plastic bracelet that you can wear to show your support for cancer patients.
Here is the link to his site, where they are $1 a piece, but you can only buy a box of 10 (that is the smallest amt) but it takes 3-4 weeks to ship because of the demand.

http://www.laf-store.org/lf-wb-1002-10.html

But you can also find them on EBAY, where sometimes you can find pretty good deals. Just search for Lance Armstrong Live Strong and you'll find them.

Here is some information about his foundation....

The Lance Armstrong Foundation (LAF) believes that in your battle with cancer, knowledge is power and attitude is everything. Founded in 1997 by cancer survivor and cycling champion Lance Armstrong, the LAF provides the practical information and tools people living with cancer need to live strong. We serve our mission through four core program areas:

Education - The LAF informs cancer patients, health care professionals and the public about the physical, emotional and practical issues that people face in their battle with cancer. We provide the information and resources people need to live strong.

Advocacy - The LAF represents people living with cancer on Capitol Hill. We are increasing awareness, encouraging the government to take action, and addressing the health policy concerns of people and their families battling cancer.

Public Health - The LAF plans, develops and funds programs that provide after-treatment support and services for people living with cancer and their families.

Research - The LAF supports scientific and clinical research that seeks to better understand cancer's physical, emotional and practical effects and the challenge of living with the disease.

Today there are nearly 10 million people living with cancer. Through these four program areas, LAF provides the practical information and tools that people need to battle cancer and live strong.

The Lance Armstrong Foundation is a registered 501(c)(3)
nonprofit organization located in Austin, Texas.

й Copyright Lance Armstrong Foundation | Privacy Policy
P O Box 161150 : Austin, TX 78716-1150
512.236.8820

This foundation is not specifically associated with Neuroblastoma or pediatric cancer. Just cancer in general.

Have a great weekend everyone....

Monday, January 3, 2005 9:43 AM CST

HAPPY NEW YEAR EVERYONE!!

I hope everyone had a safe and happy new year. We didn't do much. Just watched a couple of movies at home and then I fell asleep before midnight rolled around. I had a feeling I was going to fall asleep so I asked David to wake me up a couple minutes before midnight. =) We are party animals! hehehe

Isabella is doing great. She is going to get her blood counts tested today for she has chemo tomorrow and they need to make sure she's at the right level. We will be admitted to the new wing at the hospital tomorrow. They just opened up the new childrens cancer wing at the hospital. It's suppose to have bigger rooms with day beds for the parents. We probably won't be staying the night this time around. We are just being admitted for the chemo and the MRI they are going to do on Isabella's head.

Isabella is doing great so far though. We are working on naming our nose and ears. Her grandmother bought her a Mr. Potato head so we can learn with the different pieces. She has fun sticking the arm where the eyes are suppose to go and the nose where the ears are suppose to go. It's all good, maybe she's a budding Picasso. =)

Have a great week everyone and an awesome 2005!

Oh yeah, I found this website that lists the kids with Neuroblastoma. Here is the link, feel free to check it out......

http://warriors.beebo.info/page2.html

Wednesday, December 29, 2004 10:32 AM CST

Hi everyone, sorry for not posting much this week.

How is everyone doing? Good I hope. I hope everyone had a wonderful Christmas.

Isabella had a great Christmas, she opened presents and played with her new toys.

There is really nothing new to report, Isabella is doing great. We are still scheduled for her 3rd round of chemo on Tuesday. She will have an MRI done on her head while we are at the hospital that day. We are having the MRI done more for David and I, to make sure there is nothing going on in her head. Other than her crazy mind working like a mad woman in there. (hehehe) We will be inpatient that day and will probably get to go home the same day. But if they put us in the new Oncology area that's suppose to open up this week, I might not mind staying. =) They have bigger rooms with day beds for the parents and nice flat plasma TV's. Heck, I'll stay the whole week! hehehe

While we are gone that day I asked our apartment complex to clean our carpets since they are so matted down, my vacuum barely picks anything up and my vacuum is brand new. We had to sign a new 3 month lease since our house probably won't be ready until March. And if it keeps raining like it has been, we won't be moving in until the summer. Oh well, everything happens for a reason and while we are living in the apartment we are a lot closer to the hospital. =)

I'll be sending you guys some new pictures that David took of Isabella on Monday. They are really cute and she's wearing a hat that was given to us at the hospital last time we were there for her blood transfusion. The nurse told me that soooooo many gifts were donated, that they would have enough to give 10 gifts to each kid that was in the hospital on Christmas day. That's amazing! =)

I also wanted to share with you guys 2 web sites of these two amazing kids who passed away this month from Neurblastoma. Please say a prayer for them and their family.

http://www3.caringbridge.org/va/trey/

http://www2.caringbridge.org/ma/sophiamarie/

Have a wonderful day everyone and thank you for your support and as always, keep Isabella in your prayers. =)

p.s. - Remember to keep posting in the guestbook! =)

Thursday, December 23, 2004 9:37 PM CST

Hello everyone! Happy Holidays to you all!

I thought I had better update this web site for everyone before Christmas day.

On Wednesday Isabella had an appointment to check her blood counts. This tests her white blood cell count, red blood cell count, hemoglobin value, hematocrit value and her platelet count.
Well her hemoglobin value was low enough where they wanted to give her a blood transfusion. For those who don't know what hemoglobins are, here's a little explanation: Hemoglobin gives red blood cells their color. Hemoglobin carries oxygen from the lungs to the tissues and takes carbon dioxide (the waste products) from the tissues to the lungs. From the lungs, carbon dioxide is exhaled. That was the medical definition. =)

Isabella had her transfusion today. It took a total of about 4 hours. They used her "broviac" line to put the blood into her system. I guess I didn't notice it right away, but she was pale before the transfusion. But about an hour into it, she began to get a little pink back into her cheeks.

Since her blood counts were low, we decided it wouldn't be a good idea to go to New Mexico with my mother-in-law and her husband. I think we might try to go to Flagstaff tomorrow to see some snow and take some pictures of Isabella to put in our Christmas cards that we still need to send to you all. They will be there after Christmas, sorry everyone! =)

I have added some new pictures to the web site. Some are new and some are from a while ago before she was diagnosed.

I hope everyone has a very Merry Christmas. May it be filled with lots of love and family.

The Ugarte Family,
David, Michelle & Isabella

Friday, December 17, 2004 1:19 PM CST

Happy Friday to everyone!

Thank you for such wonderful posting in the guest book I really appreciate it. =)

Isabella is doing pretty good after her last round of treatment on Tuesday. She wasn't in the mood to eat yesterday, it worries me when she gets like that. Every time you tried to feed her something she would shake her head no, so then I tried to give her something to drink from her sippy cup and she didn't want that either. We gave her some of her nausea medicine and were hoping that it would help. Well it didn't. But the funny thing was, she wouldn't except food or drinks from us, but every time we walked into the kitchen she was right behind us looking like she wanted something to eat. I tried to give her a bite of some cookies that someone here at work made for us, but she would just shake her head no, so I decided to take a bite and then she if she wanted some and sure enough, she took a bite. =) I think she's eating better today than yesterday.

I can't believe next Saturday is already Christmas. Time has flown by. I hope I get some Christmas cards out to you all very soon. They might be there after Christmas. =)

I will try to post more this weekend, along with some new pictures since a really nice Santa and Mrs Claus sent an early Christmas present to us. =) I'm going to try to take our own Christmas picture of Isbella and make our own Christmas cards to send to you all. We'll see....... =)

Thank you everyone for everything you have done for us!

Michelle, David & Isabella

Tuesday, December 14, 2004 7:17 PM CST

Hello everyone,
We are at home now after being at the doctor's office for about 6 hours. All went well, her blood count was good and they went ahead with 3 doses of 3 different kinds of drugs. I wish I could remember the name of the drugs. Her next treatment is scheduled for January 4th. She will have 2 drugs on the 4th and then we will either have to be admitted to the hospital or come back the next day for the next dose of chemo. This particular drug is called "Etoposide" and can only be given at 24 hour intervals. She gets 3 doses of that drug the next two rounds.

She is pretty tired tonight after not taking a nap while we were at the office. She only had little bits to snack on while we were there too, so I know she's hungry, tired and maybe feeling a little sick from the medication. Right now she is watching Shrek 2 for the 20th time in the last 3 days! =) She seems to be a little trooper in all of this, because you wouldn't even be able to tell that she is going through chemo.

Thank you every one for your support, we wouldn't be able to get through this without you all.

Remember to keep posting in the guest book. =)

Michelle, David & Isabella

Monday, December 13, 2004 10:02 AM CST

Happy Monday to you all!

Well tomorrow is the big day. Isabella and I will be at the doctor's office all day doing her second round of chemo. I'm hoping it goes well and she doesn't have any adverse reactions to the drugs. As it is right now, she's doing wonderful. She was active all weekend long, running around the house and giving the cat a heart attack! =)

It's getting closer to Christmas and I hope all of you have your Christmas shopping almost done. I'm not sure what our plans are for Christmas yet. We haven't gotten a tree and I wasn't able to hang up any lights on our patio at our apartment. I couldn't get any nails in the wall out there, it was too hard. So it doesn't really feel like Christmas at our house. I might get a small tree that we can put on our table or something to that affect.

I'll try to post more tomorrow after her treatment to let you all know how it went.

Have a great week everyone,
Michelle, David and Isabella

Thursday, December 9, 2004 6:30 AM Phoenix Time

Hi everyone, I hope you all are having a good week so far. It's Thursday, so only one more day until the weekend! =)

Isabella is doing good. I get to spend the day with her tomorrow. I asked my boss if I could work 4 days a week, working 10 hours a day. So I've been working from 6am to 4:30pm every day except for yesterday when I worked overtime and worked from 6am to 7pm. Yesterday was a very long day, but I got a lot of stuff done at work and now I'm looking forward to tomorrow. =)

I wanted to thank you all for your support and signing our guestbook. I love to read what you guys post. It makes me feel good that there are soooo many people praying for our little Isabella. She is very lucky to have so many people who care about her. So keep on signing the guest book, I usually try to read to her what people have to say. =)

Well, I wanted to share with you all the other kids that are fighting this disease along with Isabella. Some of the kids are in remission and unfortunately some of them have gained their angel wings. But I still wanted you guys to see how many other kids have to go through this horrible disease. I pray for these kids every night and I hope you will add them to your prayer list as well.

If you can't click on the link, then copy and paste in your browser....

http://www2.caringbridge.org/ks/joshuamichael/

http://www3.caringbridge.org/wa/natemckean/

http://www2.caringbridge.org/ma/seanhanson/

http://www3.caringbridge.org/ne/kaitlyn/

http://www2.caringbridge.org/il/annabanana/

http://www2.caringbridge.org/co/nathanmichael/

http://www2.caringbridge.org/mi/onikachamberlain/

http://www3.caringbridge.org/page/toireasa/

http://www.christithomas.com/

http://www2.caringbridge.org/ma/ericsonsini/

http://www2.caringbridge.org/canada/jonathanspage/

http://www.caringbridge.com/mn/danielhammer/

http://www3.caringbridge.org/va/carolyncoveney/

http://www.prayingforvinny.org/

http://www2.caringbridge.org/ca/nicksnow/

http://www2.caringbridge.org/me/dylanhartung/

http://www2.caringbridge.org/mi/ashleigh/

***These are by no means in any particular order**** =)

The web sites listed above are the wonderful people from my support group. They are a great group of mothers and fathers who are going through the same things, feeling the same emotions and worried desperately for their own child as well as the many others on our list. There are soooo many more kids that this list could go on forever, but this is all I could find last night while going through my e-mails. Thanks for taking the time to visit Isabella's page, and I hope you find the time to visit the sites listed above. Every single one of them are so very precious and don't deserve to be going through this. They are tough kids who need the support and prayers of many many people. =)

Thank you again for your support!!

Michelle, David & Isabella

Tuesday, December 7, 2004 1:26 PM Phoenix Time

Hello everyone,
Well, I finally did get a hold of someone in the doctor's office who could get me some answers.

I know this stuff may be confusing, but I'll try to make it as understandable as possible.

They received some more test results yesterday morning of the bone aspiration they did the day of Isabella's surgery. The bone aspiration is testing the bone marrow for any signs of disease. The nurse said the results were good from that test and there is nothing in her bone marrow. She has been given a favorable prognosis with the tumor having favorable biology. The "N-myc" was not amplified, which is a good thing. Her "Shimada" rating is in the favorable group, I can't really explain the "Shimada" thing because I haven't fully grasped it. =) I asked the nurse if they knew if the tumor had spread anywhere else in her body, and she said that there is only one tumor and that's her tumor in her abdomen/pelvis. I still want to make sure about this one because the nuclear scan they did to see if the tumor has spread was done incorrectly. The orders were to scan her entire body and instead they only scanned her lower abdomen. I want to make sure that the doctors are 100% sure that there is no tumors anywhere else in her body. So things are looking good with the prognosis. I hope that the tumor responds to the chemo and it shrinks down in size and hopefully she will eventually be free of this terrible disease.

They will wait until after her 4th round of chemo to do scans again. That's when we will find out if it's working or not. She has been scheduled for her next round of chemo on Tuesday, December 14th. They told me that it can be done outpatient. Meaning she won't have to be put in the hospital!! =) YEAH! We will spend all day at the doctor's office, but at least we will get to take her home. Of course if everything goes okay. We have our appointment scheduled for 8 AM, they attach an IV to her "broviac" and give her fluids for an hour and then the first dose goes for an hour and then the second dose goes for an hour again. Then at the end of the second hour she will be put back on IV fluids for 3 hours and then as long as she does okay, we get to go home. =) The nurse told me to bring toys, and I'm sitting here thinking, toys aren't going to be enough for this little girl. She gets bored in 2 minutes with a toy and wants to be on to the next thing. We are going to be there for like 6 hours, so I hope they have Nemo! hehehe =)

I also wanted to give you guys a web site that just has pictures of another little girl who was diagnosed with Neuroblastoma @ 13 months old in 1993. I like looking at this web site, because it gives me a lot of hope. =)

http://www.maryhollway.com/PageManager/Default.aspx/PageID=705754&NF=1

Enjoy! =)

Talk to you soon,
Michelle, David and Isabella

Monday, December 6, 2004 7:10 AM PHOENIX TIME

Happy Monday Morning to you all. =)

I hope everyone had a great weekend. Isabella had a great weekend. We were pretty much stuck inside all weekend because of the rain. It started raining around noon on Saturday and hasn't stopped yet. It's suppose to clear up someone today. Isabella is still feeling pretty good, it doesn't look like I've gotten her sick yet. This darn cold is still holding on for dear life and I can't seem to shake it. I still have a sore throat during the night and a runny nose during the day. I started coughing a little bit yesterday. I just want this darn thing to be gone already.

Well, I'm still waiting for some information from our doctor. A nurse did call me and leave me a message, but she didn't say anything helpful. I still don't know the date of our next round of chemo. I need to know this information, because the shots we give her for 14 days after each chemo treatment are almost done, Isabella has four left. If she gets treated for chemo every 20 days or so, then it's almost time and this information on a date would be good to know. =)

I really do hope that this treatment works and that Isabella doesn't get too sick with each round of chemo. I know that each child is different, but I can't help but be scared or concerned when I hear about other kids who are going through the same thing as Isabella and they end up in the hospital for weeks. She hates the hospital now and I would hate for her to spend a lot of time there.

I hope you guys like the new picture I uploaded today. I took that over the weekend. She was watching Jimmy Neutron on Nick. She seems to like that show. =)

Well, I think that's it for now. I will post more later. I hope you all have a good week.

Love,
Michelle, David and Isabella

p.s. - remember to check out Spencer's site. His father writes some very interesting material and is a lot of fun to read....
http://www2.caringbridge.org/canada/spencer/

Friday, December 3, 2004 9:55 AM CST

Happy Friday to everyone! This week seemed to drag, probably because we had such a short week last week. =)

Well, I am feeling much better today than on Wednesday. I still have a stuffy head, but at least my body doesn't ache anymore. =) Isabella is doing fine, she still has an appetite and so far she still has a head of hair. It's only been a week since her first round of chemo. David and I must check her temp a million times a day, just to be sure. =) Since she's been home this week, I think she's watched Finding Nemo about 10 times. =) I need to get more educational things for her to do while she's at home so she doesn't fall behind.

I called the doctors office today to see if we can get some of our questions answered. David and I want to get a few things straightened out. David originally called on Tuesday, but we never heard back from them, so when I called today I was quite agitated. I mean we are talking about the health of my daughter here, you don't take this stuff lightly. You are her doctor and you need to be there when you are needed and if you are not able to call us right away, then at least make an effort to get a hold of us the same day we called. You guys know what I mean? =)

You guys do know that you can post more than once in the guestbook?? =) (some of you do) Just like you guys like to read my journals, I like to read what you guys have to say. =) Did you guys get the link I sent you where you can purchase the "Conquer Kids Cancer" ribbons? I bought 2 of them for my car and I'm probably going to buy the pink ribbon for breast cancer as well to show my support.

Well, I wanted to post this message that was sent out to the members of the support group. It is a very powerful message and I hope you all enjoy it :

-----Original Message-----
From: The Neuroblastoma (Cancer) Online Support Group
On Behalf Of Tracey & Steve Dolling
Sent: Wednesday, December 01, 2004 11:23 PM
To: N-BLASTOMA@LISTS
Subject: [N-BLAST] COPE: How to Make A Room Full of Oncology Professional Cry

Well what you don't do is shout across the room, "Watch out Sponge Bob, they're going to take your temperature rectally!" I found out that just makes them laugh. But one of the gifted and dedicated childlife specialists at the hospital figured out how to make them cry. I'm not sure if that was her intent, but I think it might have been.

Kristina, not her real name, put together a video for an oncology conference. She wanted to bring across what it was like to go through this hell from a parent's perspective. She handed me a video camera and a list
of questions and areas to talk about and asked me to see what I could do. I took the camera and threw out the list and spent a couple of hours one night reading all the old funny stories, giving a video tour of the freezer showing the now famous "nabilone" cookies etc. I had good fun and even put "Nagging Question" on video. At the end of it all I felt a little guilty and wasn't sure if I had really answered Kristina's questions so I decided to tell the truth unscripted with some of the longest sentences ever uttered from my lips:

"The truth is that we wear this incredibly thick armour that's pretty hard to puncture and we don't share with Spencer or with our friends or with the doctors what are real fears are and what we're living with and most of the time, we don't even admit it to ourselves. You know you can be driving down the road and hear a song on the radio, and you mentally do the planning for your kid's funeral and think that might be a good one, and then you feel guilty for even having those thoughts, and you put back on your steely armour, and you march forward every day and you do what you need to do to keep things going, and the funny thing is there aren't really a lot of
options. It would be really nice to just check out for two months and have
a nervous breakdown and spend the day screaming and ranting and doing whatnot, but one way or another, there has to be something on the other side and we need to keep ourselves and our kids together and engaged and having fun and that's what we really work on every day."

Well Kristina did an amazing job editing all of this together. She used the entire "Informed Consent" story and unique interview clips with a nurse who was an oncology parent and tons of images of the kids closed it all out with the tag end of the "Life and Death and Warts" as voiceover which went like this:

"It's bizarre. It's surreal. Our lives are full of high drama. A life and death turning point could come at any time. But then there are warts. It's a long string of events that are punctuated by moments of high expectation and terrifying fear. But there is no life and death turning point. Life and death are the same thing. They are served up together every day in small slices to chew on and savor or spit out in bitter rejection. One moment looks a lot like the moment before and there's no
telling exactly what the next moment will look like. We progress from one to the next with varying acceleration. It's pointless to look back. It's pointless to look too far ahead. It's pointless to sit in fear waiting
for someone else to tell us how far we are from the destination.

So what's the point?

Enjoy the moment. They're all beautiful."

And that's how to make oncology professionals cry. And I know it must have worked. For I heard rumours that nurse Heather, not her real name, whom I great each day with the phrase "Good morning, Dear Battleaxe" even shed a tear.

Cheers,

Steve

http://www.caringbridge.org/canada/spencer/

---- This message was not written by Michelle Ugarte, this is from the website above. I just wanted to share it with you all. Check out the website above to see another kids struggle with this disease.

Have a wonderful weekend everyone. We love you all.

David, Michelle and our beautiful Isabella

Wednesday, December 1, 2004 12:28 AM CST

Hi guys, I know you all like to read updated Journal entries, so here goes.

Nothing new to report on Isabella, she is still as crazy as ever! =) I think her white blood cell count should drop this week, and of course I get sick!! It started with a sore throat yesterday during the day and then last night when I went to bed I had the chills. I turned on the heater, because believe it or not, it's gotten to like 30 degrees here in Arizona the past couple of nights. Which is very cold to us!! =) So I had the heater on while David is sweating, and I'm still freezing. I didn't get much sleep last night, up every hour with a sinus headache and trying to get warm under 3 blankets. I look over at David and he's not covered with any blankets at all! =) At that point I realized, damn....this sucks, I'm getting sick. I got up this morning and felt like crap, but I can't stay home, because Isabella is there all day. Unless I locked myself up in my bedroom, which that won't happen, because I need to get food and then Isabella would see me and try to sneak into my bedroom with me. So I'm at work trying not to get everyone else sick around me. I took some DayQuil and I think that's helping a little bit, even though I can't hear anything. =) Maybe I should just stay at a hotel! hehehe
Well, I think that's it for right now. I am still trying to get my butt to the store to get my pictures put on a CD so I can upload them to this web site, but something always happens and I never make it. I promise I will do it very soon. I also wanted to get Isabella's pictures taken for Christmas, but now I think it's too late. I can't take her to Wal-Mart or Sears with a ton of other kids who might be sick. Even though she's at home with me and I'm sick! =)

Thank you everyone for your support, we truly appreciate it. We love you all!

Michelle, David & Isabella

Monday, November 29, 2004 9:08 AM CST

I hope everyone had a wonderful Thanksgiving with family and friends.
Well, like I said, Isabella got to go home on Wednesday night. They didn't let us out until 9:30 PM, but at least we got to spend the night at home. Isabella was really cranky in the hospital, but as soon as we got into the house, she ran around the house screaming and laughing. It was great to finally be home, I hadn't seen home for 3 days. David and I decided to sleep in her room that night on the floor. It helps when we are close to her so we know everything is okay. =) I bet Isabella was happy to be able to sleep throughout the night without interruptions from a nurse trying to get to her IV.
We had a great weekend. We had a house full of people on Saturday. David's mother stayed with us last week to help out, and then on Thursday, David's sister Carla, and brother Edgar came over for the holiday weekend. It's always nice to see them. We had a wonderful Thanksgiving dinner with family. Isabella wasn't to hungry when we ate so most of her food ended up on her face or in her lap. But she was hungry later on when her Dad was snaking on the goldfish. =) Then on Friday we had more family come over, David's cousin, his wife and their 2 year old son spent the rest of the weekend with us. It was really nice to see everyone. By Saturday we had about 17 people in our 2 bedroom apartment! =) It was a great Thanksgiving weekend. Isabella did great and I hope she continues to do so.
Well since she has to stay home now and can't go to daycare, I decided last night it was time to finally put the child safety things on our cabinets. =) She would always go into the kitchen and grab the cereal box, sit down right on the floor, open up the box and start munching away. So last night when I was finished, she followed me into the kitchen and I just waited for her first attempt and couldn't help but laugh and she was shocked to find out she couldn't get them open anymore. =)
Oh yeah, I wanted to thank Frosty and Cindy for their gift. I just picked up the package form our apartment office yesterday. The monkey couldn't be cuter, I love how soft he is and now he's sleeping with her in her crib. I'm going to give you guys a call tonight to thank you properly. I just wanted you to know that I got it just in case you read the web page today.
Well, I think that is it for right now. Isabella seems to be doing good so far. I know as we get more and more into the chemo we will have our good days and our bad. I just hope that the chemo works and it shrinks the tumor. We had a lot to be thankful for this year and thank you everyone for your continued support. I know it has helped Isabella in so many ways. She is very lucky to have so many people who care about her.

THANK YOU! THANK YOU! THANK YOU!

The Ugarte family

Wednesday, November 24, 2004 12:29 AM CST

Hello everyone,
Well today is a lot better than yesterday.
Isabella had another dose of chemo last night and she's doing pretty good today. No throwing up so far, and see seems to be in pretty good spirits. She slept through the night pretty good, only when the nurse came in to change her IV to the chemo bag. And I forget that since she has the IV in her, it makes her go pee more often and they need to keep track of her urine output. So the nurse comes in like a million times a night to change her diaper. But she doesn't like the nurse too much since they always do something that hurts, so she asks me to change her diaper and wake her up in the middle of the night. Poor thing, I bet she can't wait to go home and sleep in her own crib straight through the night without interruptions.
This morning a clown came by to see her and made balloon animals for her, my mother in law took pictures. =) She went to the play room to play for a while, which she just likes to go and hide under the play cabinets. Her appetite is really good, she still eats like a horse, I think I should get her tested for a tape worm. (hehehe)
The doctor came and told us that her bone scan came back negative and confirmed that we are at stage 3. We are still waiting on the results of some other tests. But it seems like we are finally getting some good news. AND she gets to go home tonight!!! YEAH! We weren't planning on going home until tomorrow sometime, but it looks like we get to go home a day early. We have a lot to be thankful for this year. Thank you everyone for all of your prayers, I'm sure it has helped her out tremendously. We are eternally thankful to each and everyone of you who come to look at this web site. We are very lucky to have such great friends and family. Please continue to pray for her, for we still have a long way to go to get out of these woods. I will keep you all posted on how the chemo goes.

Have a wonderful Thanksgiving everyone!

Michelle, David & Isabella

Tuesday, November 23, 2004 8:58 AM CST

Good Morning everyone,
Well, yesterday was a very long day. We had our appointment with the doctor @ 2:30 PM. I don't think we got in with the doctor until like 3:30 or so. He told us that the scan Isabella had done last week was done incorrectly and he didn't have all of the answers. What he did say though, is that the tumor is favorable (meaning it should respond to chemo), and as it is right now we are at Stage 3. He didn't have the results of one test yet, and if that test came back a certain way, then we might be elevated to a Stage 4. Isabella was admitted to the hospital last night and received a round of chemo. They gave her the chemo around 11pm and she seemed to be fine with it. They had given her some medication to help with any nausea she might get from the chemo. She pretty much slept throughout the night, unless the nurse came in and bugged her. As it is right now, Isabella will be in the hospital until Thursday. They will probably let us go some time during the day on Turkey day. =) She is in room 107A at Banner Desert. I will keep everyone posted on her progress with chemo. She is having a bone scan done today and hopefully we will have all the answers. I seem to say that a lot don't I and then for some reason I don't get ALL the answers. =) Thank you for your support everyone, we are truly grateful!

Michelle, David & Isabella

NEW ADDITION - TUESDAY, NOVEMBER 23RD @ 10:42AM (ARIZONA TIME)
Well, Isabella is now starting to feel the side effects of the chemo. She started throwing up earlier this morning and is feeling pretty crappy. It sucks that this normal healthy 18 month old who you wouldn't even be able to tell that there was a tumor the size of a grapefruit in her belly, has to feel worse to get better. As a mother I feel horrible that she has to go through this, you don't know how many times I wish it was me instead. Or I feel guilty about what's going on with her. I ask myself, did I do something wrong? Before the chemo she was running around and jumping and playing, to see her like this kills me. I only pray that this chemo works and the side effects don't last too long. I don't want my little girl to feel horrible the whole time. =(

Monday, November 22, 2004 8:42 AM CST

Well, today is the day we find a lot of information out. We have a meeting with the doctor @ 2:30 (Arizona time). We are suppose to find out if the tumor has spread to any other parts of her body. Get a stage of the disease so they can plan the treatment options. I'm really hoping that we don't have to spend Thanksgiving in the hospital. I still have to create my list of questions, so if any of you have any that you want me to ask, feel free to e-mail me at work before 1pm. michelle.ugarte@phs.com

Thank you everyone for your support! Have a wonderful Thanksgiving!

Michelle, David and Isabella

Saturday, November 20, 2004 1:01 PM CST

Hello everyone, some people have made request to make donations in Isabella's name. So I have set up a savings account with Wells Fargo. I chose Wells Fargo since they seem to have the most banking centers around and it would be the most convient place for people to go if they choose to.
The savings account number is : 6783272849
The account is under Isabella's name : Isabella R. Ugarte

I wanted to thank you all in advance for your support. It is greatly appreciated.

Michelle, David & Isabella Ugarte

Friday, November 19, 2004 10:32 AM CST

Hello everyone, I said I would keep you all up to date and I guess I had better update this journal already! =)

Well, yesterday was the day of the nuclear scan. The scan took about an hour and Isabella had to be put under anesthesia. She gets upset now when she sees people wearing scrubs. Unfortunately we won't know any information until Monday when we have an appointment with the doctor at 9AM. So instead of moping around the house this weekend we decided to take Isabella out all over the place this weekend. Since it might be her last weekend that she can go outside, because once she starts chemo she can't go anywhere. I'm thinking of taking her to the Phoenix Zoo. =) I also need to get some Holiday pictures taken of her to share with you all. I will update everyone on Monday afternoon after we meet with the doctor.

Thank you all for your wonderful support. We truly appreciate it and we can't thank you enough.

THANK YOU! THANK YOU! THANK YOU!

Have a great weekend everyone!
Michelle, David & Isabella

p.s. - If you want to read a previous entry, I think you can click on the link that says "read journal history".

Monday, November 15, 2004 9:55 AM CST

I wanted to take this opportunity to tell you all how we got to this point....

It all started on a sunny spring day..... opps, wrong story. =) hehehe

Well, this all started about a month ago when our Day Care provider pointed out a lump in Isabella's abdomen. I called her doctor's office to make an appointment. This was on a Friday, they said they could get me in the next Thursday. But my husband and I both thought about it and we wanted to see if we could get her in sooner. I called the doctor's office back and they could get me in on Wednesday. The date of her first doctor's appointment was on October 27th. The doctor couldn't tell what was going on so she had us scheduled for an ultrasound. Isabella's ultrasound was on Friday, October 29th. The doctor looked at the pictures in front of us and she said that she couldn't tell for sure what it was and that she would need a CAT scan. Her CAT scan was on Friday, November 5th, and she was put under a mild anesthesia for the scan since she would have to lay completely still. Well, since her scan was on a Friday afternoon, we had to wait all weekend to hear back from our doctor. On Monday the 8th, I called her doctor's office to see if they had received the results but at that time they hadn't had them yet. So I waited a couple of hours and then around 11AM I received a phone call from the doctor telling me that it was in fact a tumor and that the doctors at the hospital wanted her there right away and she was scheduled for surgery on Tuesday around noon. When I got off the phone with her doctor, all I could do was cry. I finished what I needed to do at work and left to go home.
We brought Isabella to the hospital on Monday afternoon. She was scheduled for surgery on Tuesday around 2PM. They ended up taking a chunk of the tumor out to perform a biopsy. The surgeon said that her tumor is the size of a grapefruit. Which really made me sad to hear. How can something that big be inside someone soooo small? They put a broviac catheter in her chest so when she goes through chemo, they don't have to keep pricking her with a needle and so the medicine gets distributed quicker through out her body. They did the MRI on Wednesday and she stayed in the hospital until Friday evening. She definitely doesn't act like she has a huge tumor growing in her body. She is a normal 18 month old child her loves to run around and scream and play with her toys. Oh and we can't forget her favorite movie Finding Nemo! =) Well, that is where we are at now. She is scheduled for another test this week to see if it has spread to any other parts of her body. And we'll find out what they plan on doing with treatment. Her stage hasn't been determined yet either so hopefully we'll be figuring all that out this week.

I will keep everyone posted.
Love,
Michelle, David and Isabella

Sunday, November 14, 2004 2:54 PM CST

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