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November 18, 2008 Madelaine has finished her chemo!
May 19, 2006 Madelaine has relapsed into her Central Nervous System (CNS)
We began induction May 26, 2006
Madelaine achieved CNS remission on June 7, 2006 after only 2 triple cocktail intrathecal treatments.
We are following protocol AALL02P2. Madelaine is actually one of the first kids to follow this protocol in Winnipeg.
Madelaine was diagnosed with Acute Lymphoblastic Leukemia, (Early Pre-B) 10 days before her 2nd birthday, on January 9, 2004.
Firstly I must tell you that she was never sick a day in her life. So our diagnosis was a real whopper.
It all started on Sunday January 4, 2004 when we were getting ready to leave Nana and Gramps, Madelaine became very fussy and did not want to leave it was heart breaking. This is very out of the ordinary for this child friends and family fondly refer to as the happy baby. On Monday she started with a fever but acetaminophen controlled her temperature well. But by Tuesday we were giving her acetaminophen every 4 hours and ibuprofen every 8, just to keep it under control, and she was no longer eating. On Wednesday after I returned home from work I went to check on her and she was burning up and this was only 1 hour after her last does of ibuprofen so I called her doctor who believes very strongly in mommy radar. I explained the circumstances, and he simply asked if I was worried and I was. He arranged to see her that same day at 12:45 pm. While waiting to see the doctor Madelaine did not want to walk anymore (that was the last time she walked or stood for 5 months). After examining Madelaine and finding no reason for her fever, he sent us for blood work, just as a formality to appease her very worried mommy. After leaving the doctors office things got progressively worse very quickly, Madelaine was no longer drinking. By 9:00 pm Madelaine could not even sit upright and we decided to take her to the Children’s Hospital emergency by the time we got there she was feeling better but still had a fever. Upon examining Madelaine the doctor decided that she had a bladder infection and insisted the she have a catheter inserted for a urine sample (of course they should never have been done, we found out later as her counts were too low). And we were sent home, to be called with the results. Thursday morning our doctor called, he started talking about blood levels and that the hematologist who looked at her blood was not familiar with children, I told him to stop and tell me what he meant, he then stated to go immediately to the Children’s Hospital, to CK5 and that we needed to rule out Leukemia. I called Nana and she could hardly understand me I was crying so hard, I told her she needed to pick up Madelaine’s little brother Mitchell (6 months at the time) and that Madelaine was being admitted to the hospital for tests. Upon arrival they did some vitals and more blood tests. We met with the Hematologist (funny how they left out the Oncologist part of their title) and she stated that they could not tell us anything specific from her blood work, she could have the parvo virus or leukemia but they did not know enough from just her blood work so she was scheduled for a bone marrow aspiration Friday morning at 7:30.
Friday, January 9, 2004 at 2:33 pm we were told that our precious Ms Madelaine had ALL. We had to digest the information and calm down because a team meeting would be held starting at 4:30 to explain everything. This is the precise moment that all of our lives changed dramatically and forever, nothing will ever be the same again.
Madelaine began Chemotherapy Saturday, January 10, 2004. “Induction” as everyone refers to it. On her second bone marrow aspiration on Friday January 16, 2004, our nurse clinician whom Madelaine lovingly refers to as CaCa told us not to worry if she wasn’t in remission lots of kids aren’t. We were having a small birthday party in the play room (Madelaine counts were to low to have one at home), when our doctor walked in with the test results, she said that Madelaine’s cells at diagnosis were 76% leukemia and that they were now at .2%. We are in Remission.
Very special thanks go out to:
Nana and Gramps for their undying love and support through everything, including every clinic visit.
To our friends and neighbors who have held out their hands, hearts and prayers to support us.
To Dr. Sara, Dr. David, Dr. Elliot (Stoffman), Dr. McCusker and Dr. Yanofsky This is an amazing team of Oncology and Hemotolgy specialists who take very good care of me and my Family
I also want to thank Caca for everything she is one of the most amazing women I have had the luck to know, without her understanding and support of my entire family we would be lost.(We all love her)
 Normal Blood Counts
White Blood Cells (WBC) 5.0-15.0
Neutrophils (ANC) 1.5-10 (needs to be at 1 for chemo)
Platelets over 150
Hemoglobin 110-120 (she gets transfusion at 80)
From time to time we enter journal entries on our thoughts and latest developments regarding Madelaine's treatment. Please visit often as this will be continually updated.
Please sign our Guestbook. We are collecting all the wonderful well wishes from everyone and will be collecting them and placing them in a safe place for Madelaine. When she is old enough to understand the illness that she fought we will be letting her see what she went through at such a young and precious age.
Click here for The Snowglobe of the Month!
*HUGS* TOTAL!
give Madelaine more *HUGS*
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Here is the article written in the Winnipeg Police spotlight. Please read it as it is very important to us.
Spotlight article
As we continue on with this journey of Cancer and its related treatments, we have come to know several other families. They go to CancerCare Manitoba and could use your prayers and support. Take the following link and copy and paste it into your browser:
http://ftp.mts.net/~cwing/clinic friends.htm
The Strength of an Egg
Parents of children with cancer, or really any serious condition, are often referred to or viewed as having strength "like a rock." Albeit flattering, it isn't quite true. It is more like the strength of an egg. An egg, you ask? Yes, an egg. If you think about an egg, you will see the point I make.
An egg has a polished smooth outer appearance with no cracks or weak spots visible. It seems almost inconceivable that the inside might not be as smooth and solid as the outside. Most children, at some point in their lifetime, are shown the famous egg trick. An egg set at just the right angle can withstand enormous amounts of pressure and cannot be cracked or broken. Yet that same egg, tapped gently at an even slightly different angle will break. The contents, once so neatly concealed inside, will come spilling out, and the no longer perfect shell will be crushed. Then the shell looks so fragile that it seems inconceivable that it ever held any strength.
That is where parents of children with cancer are more like eggs than rocks. A rock is solid all the way through. If you tried to break a rock, it would be almost impossible. If successful, one would find that there was nothing inside but more rock. It takes a lot more than pure hardness to hold the hand of hope. These parents are not solid all the way through. They hurt, they fear, they cry, they hope. It takes a very careful balancing act to keep the shell from being shattered.
Balancing an egg while running a household, going for doctor visits and hospital stays, keeping the family together, and holding on to the constantly unraveling ties of your sanity can be very tricky indeed. Occasionally, the angle will be off and the shell will break, shattering hope and the neatly secured appearances of a truly fragile existence. Unlike Humpty Dumpty, though, parents of kids with cancer will pick themselves up and put themselves back together again.
by Juliet Freitag
"If your going through hell, keep going."
Winston Churchill
"If Children have the ability to ignore odds and percentages, then maybe we can all learn from them. When you think about it, what other chance is there but to hope? We have two options, medically and emotionally: give up, or fight like hell".
-Lance Armstrong.
Journal
Monday, January 4, 2010 8:58 AM CST Hello everyone and Happy New Year!!!
Madelaine continues to do well and i wanted to thank everyone for checking back with us. She has been attending school nearly full time since september and has missed very few days.
She continues to thrive and is doing very well in school. As far as updates, it is hard to think of them as everyday now is pure gold.
She is running around with her little brother and being a terrific big sister.
They had a wonderful Christmas and santa was very good to them. I will try to update more often, but for now, everyone just assume no news is good news.
Please dont stop signing the guestbook. I am going to be showing Madelaine all the entries soon, as she is old enough to read and is able to read herself.
So may 2010 be enjoyable and prosperus for all. Take care of yourselves.
Chris
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