Guess where we are!

.....on a cruise to the Bahamas?

No.

.....in a hotel, taking a break, during a move cross-country?

No.

....on some sort of adventurous and exotic summer vacation?

No.

....how about just even sitting in our house together as a family?

No.

If you are guessing wrong you probably should spend more time reading our blog!

....We are in the hospital, of course!

After our CureSearch yard sale on Saturday (THANK YOU, THANK YOU! to all who donated items, came and helped organize/run it, watched our kids, etc. - it was a huge success! We'll post pictures and more when we get home from the hospital), we noticed Elena had a fever that night. Elena and I headed up to the ED at Primary's. We were sent home in the wee hours of the morning on Sunday with no more fever, an ANC of 1000 (she doesn't get admitted unless it's 500 or less), and results from blood and stool cultures pending. Last night, we got a call from the ED, telling us that something had grown out from Elena's blood cultures and that we needed to get up to Primary's immediately for her to be admitted. In other words, she has a blood infection. It was all very mysterious and nerve racking - the nurse sounded worried, no one had a lot of information for us, except that it was "rare", and yet Elena was looking and acting just fine for the most part.

Well, there truly is peace and power in knowledge- today there are more answers and we are feeling better. We now know that it's a common gram-negative, cocco-bacilli bacteria called Haemophilus Influenzae. Apparently 75% of healthy adults have this bacteria in their nose when they get swabbed and there bodies just fight it off with no problems. They don't even know it's there, but for the swab. But since Elena is immuno-compromised, it is able to cause problems for her. She is on a strong antibiotic that should knock it out in a few days. However, her ANC tanked between Saturday night and this morning and she's only at 225 now. Her ANC has to go up and she needs to go 24 hours without anything growing out in her blood cultures and then they'll release us. So there is the update on us. We went a whole month without being in the hospital! :) Kind of ironic that she's had more hospitalizations since we stopped the "harsh" treatments back in December than she had during the first 8 months of treatment. But oh well, we've been enjoying a lot of aspects of Maintenance and we're grateful that her body is strong and there is medicine to help her when she needs it.

One last thing: Thanks to all those who have been supporting our efforts to raise money for CureSearch! We feel so passionately about it. We know we have asked for help supporting a lot of different causes and it can be confusing to know where to put your support when you only have so much to give. This is definitely the "big" cause that we're shifting our efforts towards from here on out and we appreciate your help because we can't do very much alone. If you are able to help, we ask that you please give to CureSearch. Like one of our other cancer friends said recently- there are two causes that we will beg, plead, and grovel for your support of: 1. Our "Day of Hope" efforts (which we'd like to make an annual thing to "give-back") and 2. CureSearch. There are tons of GREAT causes and organizations out there, but this is the one that, for us, matters the most- childhood cancer research. It is oh so important to us and to so many families that we know and love. We don't know where we'd be without the advances that have been made through research. CureSearch is THE organization for childhood cancer research. Thanks for giving! Just click the link under the green "themometer" to the right or look at the post under this one to make a donation or join Team Elena!