Mon, Apr 30 ... hi all!

I managed to pry the keyboard from Chris :)
I wanted to thank you all for your amazing support. I have been overwhelmed by the wonderful messages and positive thoughts. I hope you all know how much it means to me. I feel soooo lucky to have you all in my life.
My new {unpaid} job - a daily trip to Stanford's infusion treatment center - is going well so far. I've been feeling really well, and we've been watching my white blood cells growing like the little champions they are. (go guys!)
We're meeting with my doctor this week to figure out chemo phase 2. Perhaps they'll figure out how to cram 4 months of treatment into, say, a weekend. :)
fun: one of my drugs wipes out my potassium, so Chris has been making me banana milkshake concoctions!
love to you all...
hill

Sat Apr 28th - guess who's home....

Yes - Hillary was discharged today - about 4:30 pm to be exact. I asked her what she wanted me to make for her first homemade meal in over 3 weeks and she said Thai - so we got take out....she wouldn't have wanted me to try to learn cooking Thai at this point. Stevie and Carey and the two boys drove back to So. Cal today as well, and Margie flew home also which was good timing by all. Starting tomorrow (and every day for next 3 weeks or so) Hillary will be back at the Hospital for six hours a day to get a drug infusion. Hopefully by the end of the next week we'll have a better idea about the next round of chemo treatment - the good news is this will also be as an outpatient. Enjoy some belated photos...


Margie, Hillary and Brett


Hillary, Stevie and the boys


party time with Carey, Stevie, and the boys

Fri Apr 27

Another good day today here at Stanford - the Dr's still think Hillary should be able to go home this weekend, I guess after they see her white blood count tomorrow they'll decide ( I think her white blood count was 1.8 today. Hillary had fun with her nephews today - she even dragged her IV stand out to a grassy area to enjoy the nice warm weather - the nurses probably thought she was going to make a break for it......but no, she returned to her room. I think they enticed here with tater tots and Ensure. Margie brought in some pizza so we all had pizza and ice cream for dinner - not a bad Friday night. I'm staying here tonight, so we'll probably either watch a movie or see what's on the tube.

Thur Apr 26th

It will be a short post tonight as there isn't too much new to report. Hillary felt good again today, ate all of her meals and even two Cliff bars as snacks, which is great to see. She had another good day with her two nephews (and sister and mom of course), and had her longest walk outside (with her pink mask and pink robe of course). The Dr's think there's a good chance that she might be able to go home this weekend. Her white blood cell count was 1.2, so as soon as it's closer to the 6-10 range, she should be able to go home. I'm not sure what the exact number they are looking for is, but hopefully she'll be home this weekend.

Wed, April 25th

Three weeks ago tonight was when Hillary and I went to the hospital due to her abnormally high white blood cell count. As I'm trying to balance a little work with the hospital time, I have to admit, I know a little less of the day to day happenings here at the hospital. I'm staying here tonight, and from what I heard from Stevie, Margie and Hillary, it was another good day as Hillary is eating more and getting in plenty of walks, she even got outside again today.
It sounds like Hillary should be able to go home in the next week, maybe even by this weekend - it all depends on when her white blood count gets back to a normal level. I think a normal level is when the white blood count reaches between 6-10, which really means 6,000 to 10,000. The days after the chemo when they wiped out her white blood cells, red blood cells and platelets, her white blood count was around 0.1, and stayed there for quite a few days. Just in the past few days it has gone from 0.1 to 0.2 to 0.6 to 0.8 today. I guess they expect it will continue to increase until it gets closer to the normal 6-10.
Overall Hillary had a great time with her two nephews today and hopefully tomorrow her white blood cell count will get over 1.0. I think the over/under is 1.1....

Tue, Apr 24

Today Hillary was back to her 4 walks again, and even managed to make it outside on two of them for a bit with Margie to enjoy the beautiful weather - her first time getting fresh air in almost 3 weeks. She also continues to eat a little more each day - I think she ate most of her breakfast of cream of wheat and a pancake, all of her lunch and all of her dinner (I think it was another make-it-yourself egg salad sandwich). She felt good all day, which always helps. The day ended with a surprise visit by her sister Stevie and family - Carey and the two boys, Charlie and Tommy. Hillary was expecting Stevie to fly up Wed am by herself, but the four of them drove up from So. Cal today and surprised her this evening - she was completely surprised and is excited to spend some time with them the next few days.

Mon, Apr 23

Hillary wanted to send out birthday wishes to a bunch of people (she's sitting next to me dictating to me :) Happy "our" birthday to Jess Lewis, Happy birthday to Jess Powers, Happy almost birthdays to Paige Wagner, Amy LaRue, Shannon McHugh, and Kendal Reis! She had another good day - she even walked up and down the stairs.....not attached to her IV stand of course. Dr's say she is right on schedule. We're off to hit the sack

Sun, Apr 22

I'm pretty happy to report that today was pretty uneventful at the hospital. Hillary felt pretty good all day and her appetite appears to be returning a little as she had a good breakfast, ate all of her pasta for lunch, and had most of her cheese and fruit plate for dinner along with a little ice cream for desert. We had several visitors today including her cousin Brett who is in town from the East Coast for work tomorrow.
To clarify something I mentioned yesterday, I mistakenly said she might get chemo three times a week for four months as an outpatient, which sounded like a lot. The Dr's clarified today that one of the possible outpatient chemo treatments would start a few weeks after she is discharged. She would get chemo for three days the first week of the month, then have three weeks with no chemo treatment, just monitor her progress, and repeat this for three or four months. Three days of chemo for the month sounds a lot more reasonable.

Sat - Apr 21

Luckily Hillary felt better today than she did yesterday morning as there were big plans for her birthday (well, big for being in a hospital room all day). Tom and Margie had some balloons delivered to her room this morning and we had some ice cream to celebrate Hill's b-day and she opened some presents in the late morning. The nurses put up some birthday signs around the room when we were off on a walk and later came in and sang "Happy Birthday" to Hillary which was great. Margie made some friends as she passed out ice cream to some of the nurses and others on our floor. Hillary got a chance to read the last few days of the blog and all of the comments - she loves reading everything. We're keeping it pretty mellow tonight as Hillary has been a little tired this afternoon/evening - we'll probably watch Anchorman, which neither of us has seen, then hit the sack early.
I wanted to let everyone know that with Hillary responding well to the chemo, and if she keeps doing well with her cells growing back, the Dr's said she could possibly be discharged in about 2 weeks, which would be about 1 month since we got to Stanford. After that there would still be a number of things that would happen as they would do another bone marrow biopsy to see how the cells are doing, and there would be more chemo - probably for several months (maybe even three times a week for 4 months), but this would be as an out-patient. Obviously this is all dependent on Hillary continuing to do well, but it's great that they are talking about the next steps - and Hillary being able to go home in the near future.
I wanted to thank everyone for all of the comments on the blog, the gifts Hillary has received, all of the cards, the text messages and the voice mails. She loves hearing from everyone - even if she can't get back to everyone. They all put a smile on her face.

Fri, April 20

I finally posted a few more pics - one with her new do, and the other one trying out one of her potential new looks - very stylish. She looks so cute with the new look, I think a few of the nurses are jealous of it.
Hillary actually started the day pretty slow, we didn't get the best night sleep as they were changing out some of her medicine last night. Between less sleep and some of the effects of some of the medicine, she wasn't feeling too hot this morning and decided to rest up today and hold off on visitors. We've been so fortunate in how good she's felt the past week, we have to realize she'll have more energy some days and less others - today happened to be a lower energy day. After she rested up some she felt a little better, got in two walks, had a veggie burger for lunch and cheese and fruit for dinner, followed up with a little vanilla pudding and ice cream for desert. I knew she was feeling better when she beat me 3 games to 2 in Connect Four - I'll get her back tomorrow. We then finished up an few day old game of Yahtzee, and her dad got the best of us....I was on the losing end, I guess my luck (or skill) ran out from last night. Margie is staying over at the hospital tonight, hopefully they get a decent night sleep before Hill's b-day tomorrow.

Thur, Apr 19th

Another short post as I'm staying here at the hospital again tonight. It was another good day - the Dr's said they would see if Hillary's white blood count will increase by itself, or if she would need something to help them grow back (not sure of the technical terms since I wasn't here when the Dr's made their rounds today). They did say that the final analysis of the bone marrow biopsy was the same as the preliminary analysis - which was good. She got in a few walks today, and ate a good amount of her meals. We just finished up a little Yahtzee tournament with Bill and Michelle - fun times - I won't brag about who won. I'm delinquent in posting a pic of Hillary's new do - but tomorrow for sure....
She has a few visitors tomorrow, so another busy day for her - then I'm guessing she'll hit the town for happy hour - or maybe just take a stroll down the halls of the hospital and cap it off with an Ensure.

Wed, April 18th

I'm really going to keep this short as I'm staying at the hospital today and looking to get some sleep and watch some quality TV with Hillary. Hillary was feeling pretty good today - she ate a good breakfast and almost her whole cheese pizza lunch. She had an urge for ice cream in the afternoon - and lucky for her Sarah B. was coming to visit, who happily picked up some Ben and Jerry's....and coincidentally, Hillary wasn't too hungry for dinner. I'm glad she was hungry for some ice cream though- she's happy with the task to gets some calories in her diet - after last week when she really didn't eat much at all. She had a few visitors today, but since I was out part of the day, I really don't know all that she did today - but I know she got in a few walks. I'll try to get a pic posted tomorrow with her new do - I meant to get it posted today.

Tue, April 17th

From the previous post, obviously it was a great day. By no means is our fight against the leukemia over, but it was a great step along the way - now hopefully it doesn't come back in upcoming tests as her body tries to build good red and white blood cells and platelets without the leukemia cells.
We celebrated with a few games of connect four and an episode of Entourage - season 3 - good stuff.
Hillary's appetite continues to improve. Breakfast was the standard egg and pancake. For lunch, Hillary ate almost all of her cheese pizza, and for dinner, after the our standard mac and cheese and tater tots getting overruled, she ended up with a make-it-yourself egg salad sandwich - she was given two pieces of bread, two hard boiled eggs, and a little mayo. It was more fun watching Hillary make the sandwich, but she ate it all - I think the first time she's cleaned her plate here.
I attached a few pictures - One with the mask Hillary 'gets' to wear when we go for our walks - she sounds like Darth Vader when she talks with it on. I also added a picture of Hillary with the haircut halfway done - unfortunately I didn't have one with the final buzz - but I'll try to upload one tomorrow.
Margie is keeping her company tonight - hopefully they're getting some good sleep.

Good News

I figured good news deserved a mid day update. I'll keep it short and sweet (just like Hillary), but from the preliminary analysis of the bone marrow biopsy, we were just told that Hillary responded well to the chemo and the Dr's didn't see any blasts (leukemia cells). The final results won't be for a few days, but they expect it to be the same, and then we'll know what happens next. There will probably be a preventative round of chemo and I think they said they would probably do another bone marrow biopsy in few weeks to check on how her cells are recovering (I think either way, she needs about 2 weeks to build back her cells), but for now we are happy with the news.

Mon, April 16th

Today was a pretty eventful day. Although Hillary was a little tired the first half of the day, she managed to eat a decent amount of breakfast and lunch. They then did the bone marrow biopsy early afternoon, and she was such a trooper - she said it didn't hurt as much as the first biopsy, but I know it wasn't the highlight of her day. After that she started feeling a little better (the Vicodin couldn't have hurt either), and she wanted to take the scissors and clippers to her hair. She wanted to take pictures, and she really did enjoy having her hair cut. It was a joint effort between Margie, Tom, and myself. It's very, very short - and she will soon realize the benefits of short hair - low maintenance. She said she's looking forward to her first shower and not having to spend 1/2 hr blow drying her hair. We tried on some hats and scarves and she looked great in all of them. She wanted to show her new look off to the nurses - and got raving reviews. She is soo cute with the new hair cut. We did save the hair to donate, which made her feel even better. Then we went for a good walk - even went up the elevators so she could see another floor and the entrance to the hospital. After that, it was mac and cheese and tater tots again... though apparently they want to serve something else tomorrow night - I crossed out the choices they had for tomorrow's dinner to keep with our mac and cheese, but we got vetoed for something else for tomorrow....apparently they want variety in her meals.
Since I get to sleep over tonight, I'm off to watch a little TV with her and get some sleep.
I will update everyone with the results of the biopsy tomorrow - with fingers crossed, prayers, and positive thoughts for the good outcome we're hoping for and expecting.

Sun, Apr 15th

Hillary had another busy day with 4 walks, several visitors in the afternoon, and family in and out. Her appetite is slowly returning - eating a little more for all three meals - even an oreo brownie for desert. Stevie left today - it was great to have her here the past 5 days, hopefully she'll be back soon. I know it was hard for her to leave, but with Hillary looking good and in such good spirits, it made it easier.
Over the past few days the Dr's have determined that Hillary's AML is related to her having an inverted Chromosome #16, which they say is a good thing, since it gives more information as to Hillary's type of AML, why she got AML, and it helps them in treating her type of AML. Although I've tried to do a lot of reading on this, I still don't fully understand what all it means, but at least it's more information about Hillary's Leukemia.
Also several people have asked me - yes, Hillary is going to lose her hair in the next week or so from the chemo. As some of you know, she was actually growing her hair out to donate an organization that would use it for patients that lose their hair in the hospital.
Margie stayed over tonight with Hillary - so hopefully they had a good time - I think they were going to watch one of the Planet Earth segments on the Discovery Channel - a pretty amazing series.

Sat, Apr 14th

Since I just posted Hillary's comment (see previous post), I'll keep this short...
From her post, you see she had another good day. Eating is getting a little better - she had part of her pancakes and eggs for breakfast, a whole 1/3 of a grilled cheese sandwich for lunch, and for dinner she polished off her tater tots and a good amount of the mac and cheese - I knew the tater tots would be a winner...she didn't even save any for me. I posted another picture of her - the pink phone she is on actually plugs into here cell phone, and it actually works. I tried to post a few more pics, but for some reason it didn't work. ...maybe tomorrow
The Dr's came by again this morning - once again, they were positive is what they are seeing, and hopefully the bone marrow biopsy early next week will show what they (and all of us) are hoping - that the chemo killed all of the leukemia cells.
We just finished a 4th walk today - another record.....I think the fact that she read the blog and I had mentioned that our goal was to get 4 walks in gave her a little incentive to do it today - hey, whatever works :)

Post of Hillary's Comment

Below is a comment that Hillary posted a few hours ago - I figured I'd copy it as a new posting for those not reading the comments - chris


hi everybody!We are on walk #3 and I am having a good day---just stopping by the e-mail station. Thank you for all the wonderful messages....they bring tears to my eyes. xoxolove, Hillary

Fri, April 13th

We've been in the hospital for 9 days now, but Hillary and I were talking today how the time actually has gone by pretty fast. I think a lot of it has to do with how well she has done all week. Between the Dr. and nurse visits, a few walks, a few meals, a few visitors, a little TV, and a few other things, the days fill up pretty fast....she's keeping a pretty busy schedule.
We got good news this morning as a result from a test that was done yesterday that confirmed that the Leukemia hadn't spread to the spine. Though the Dr's said it wasn't common, it was possible, so it was good to hear that the test came back negative (which is positive for us). Other than that, there was nothing new from the Dr's - which is good from our standpoint. The bone marrow biopsy will be either Monday or Tue and then it might be a few days to find out the results, and this will really tell us how well the first round of Chemo has worked on her bone marrow.
Today was a pretty busy day - with three walks once again (maybe one of these days we'll get that 4th one in, but by dinner time she's pretty tired). During one of the walks we went to the room with the computer, so she got to read a little of the blog and some of the emails everyone has sent - she is so thankful for such a great network of family and friends. I may try to add a few pictures of her here in the hospital in the next day or two.
Breakfast was a few bites of scrambled eggs and a half of an english muffin. Lunch was grilled cheese, and she ate more than she has in a meal all week - which was great. I wasn't there part of the day, but apparently she got the best of her dad in a few games of Connect Four. The highlight of the day was Hillary getting a foot and hand massage - the second one since she has been here - apparently it pays to be at Stanford Hospital (no the massages aren't free, but they are very reasonable). She was hoping for a mani and pedi also..... but unfortunately they aren't allowed due to infection risk. For dinner she also ate a little more than she has most of the week, which was great to see. She also got a few games of Connect Four and Yahtzee in, then I left her with Stevie for what I'm sure turned into a wild Friday night.

Thur, April 12

I'm going to keep the update short tonight as I'm staying with Hillary and we have a lineup of Thursday night shows we're watching.
It's good to report that today was once again, a good day here. In the morning rounds the Dr's said her Red blood counts and Platelets were at good levels, so she wasn't going to need any tranfusions today. Every few days she has needed some to keep her blood balanced, so most of the day she just had an IV of saline solution to keep fluids going into here body.
Though Hillary's appetite is still lacking, she is trying to eat some at each meal. We went on three walks today - the most since we've been here, and she is doing great - I think she even has a strut going. The Dr's have emphasized how important it is to try and walk and eat. Walking not only gets her out of bed, but gets the body moving to keep her strenght up in her lungs and heart (I think)
She had a few more visitors and that's also keeping her talking, also good for her - she's probably seen enough of a few of us, so she's happy to see new faces here at the hospital.
She had a pretty good night sleep last night, and hopefully another good one tonight.

Wed - April 11th

Hillary was feeling and looking good again today. The Dr's are still waiting for a lot of the results to identify which specific kind of AML she has, and are still happy with how her body is reacting to the Chemo so far. She ate some pancakes for breakfast and a few bites of pizza for lunch. Being a vegetarian definitely limits the choices of meals....luckily we found the childrens menu, so she now have a few more choices like grilled cheese, pizza and tater tots. She is often eating some canned fruit, and eats just a little of the actual meal. It's amazing how small her appetite is - even if she is hungry - she has a few bites and gets full.
She went on two walks today, which was great to see.....and if we can keep the walks up maybe her appetite will increase a little. She had a couple of visitors, and all in all it was a positive day all around.

To keep busy, she is reading plenty of quality magazines (if anyone needs to be updated on Brad and Angelina or Anna Nichole Smith's baby - she'd be happy to update you), beating me at electronic Yahtzee, eating, seeing Dr's and visitors, and napping.

10 days and counting until Hillary's 31st b-day

Thanks again for all of the kind words and thoughts and prayers

Visiting Hillary

Hillary is in the Main Hospital at Stanford - on Pasteur Drive (parking is on Blake Wiblur Drive) . She is in Wing F on the Ground floor. She is allowed to have visitors (and if she is awake she enjoys seeing people), but we're trying to spread them out to keep it to a few visits a day. It's tough to know when she will be napping, so if you want to come by, just realize that it may be very brief if she is on drugs that make her a little sleepy.
Please email me or call me if you want to swing by..

Chris

Tuesday - April 10th

It's Tuesday evening and it was another positive day for Hillary. It started off with the Dr's saying that they were happy with Hillary's response to the chemo so far - at least from what they can see in her blood cells. Yesterday was the last day of the first round of chemo. It sounds like most patients can expect to get a second round of chemo - mainly they don't want to take any chances.....though I'm not completely clear on the timing of when it would be. Obviously we won't know until 11 days from the original Chemo dosing as to how the chemo perfomed in her bone marrow, but from the blood tests the Dr's were happy with her blood counts so far.
She ate a little at breakfast, lunch and dinner, and went for 2 walks today. The second one was the longest she has walked since getting to the hospital, and it was soon after her sister, Stevie, arrived, so I think she might have been showing off. Stevie is staying with her tonight at the hospital, so hopefully she has another good night. Last night she probably had her best night sleep at the hospital - with two 3hr blocks with solid sleep and no interruptions. Usually it's maybe an hour max between interruptions - either nurses or bathroom breaks.
Even though yesterday was the last day of Chemo, it will be making her feel a little weaker over the next few days as it continues to kill blood cells in her bone marrow.
I'll try to update tomorrow if we hear anything new, but she continues to have a great attitude and we really like the Dr's and nurses - she has to be their favorite patient - but I'm a little biased.

Chris

Original Email with details

Family and Friends - Some of you have heard the bad news, but most have not - I wanted to let you all know that yesterday Hillary was diagnosed with AML - Acute Myeloid Leukemia. It happened very quickly - she got blood drawn Wed afternoon and it came back with with unusual blood counts. She was taken to Stanford Hospital about 2am Thursday, the diagnosis was confirmed Thursday afternoon and they started Chemotherapy soon after that. Often it isn't known why someone gets AML.

As some of you know, she went to a Dr last Friday and was diagnosed with Mono. On Tuesday of this week she had another few symptoms, went back to another Dr and said she had looked all the symptoms up on-line on Wikipedia and was a little concerned of Leukemia - the Dr said he really didn't think she had Leukemia, but they took blood and we were called back Thursday night after the blood work showed abnormal cell counts. Her current Dr's couldn't remember anyone ever diagnosing themselves with Leukemia - a testament to how resourceful Hillary is and it helped getting herself into the hospital and treated earlier than it could have been.

As many of you know, though Leukemia is very serious it is also curable. We are all in good spirits and realize that it's out of our hands, we just have to hope the treatment works. There are several things we have in our favor. We're at Stanford - probably the best place Hillary could be for Leukemia with excellent doctors, which is extremely comforting. Also, the fact that she is young and in good health will help in her fighting the disease and recovery. Hillary looks very good, and is having an amazingly positive attitude.

She will be in the hospital for the next month. As for the process, she had a bone marrow biopsy yesterday that confirmed the diagnosis and she will get Chemo for 4 days, then 7 days after that they will do another bone marrow biopsy to see how she reacted to the Chemo. This means we really won't know how her body is responding to the Chemo for 11 days from now. Once we find out those results we'll know more about the next steps.

We all know that Hillary will fight through this and will come out even stonger.

Unfortunately she isn't allowed to have any flowers in her room. Anything sent to her can be sent to our house and I can bring it to her....I'll also check to see if she will be in the same room for the next month, and if so I'll send the room number. I won't be on email that often the next few days, so I won't be able to respond to things quickly.

I'll try to update if we get any new news, but I think we just have to wait, hope and pray for Hillary.

love to all - Chris

Monday, April 9th

I just wanted to let everyone know how good she looks and the fact that her attitude couldn't be any better. She's cheerful and still kind of a smart ass - I guess they haven't given her any drugs for that yet.

Today, Monday, was a good day for Hillary. She ate part of her breakfast and lunch, and more importantly - she kept it down. She didn't keep any food down Fri or Sat, but ate a little Sunday and even more today. We even went for a little walk around our wing in the hospital in the mid afternoon (she's pretty proud of the mask she 'gets' to wear when we went for the walk) She slept most of the Saturday, but she has now had two nights in a row where she has gotten some decent sleep, so she was very alert for Easter, and has been very energetic today as well.

Today is also the last day of her first round of Chemo....so far so good.

I know it's only a brief update and everyone's waiting to hear about her, so now that this is set up, I'll try to keep updating it every day or so - Chris