Thank God for you all!!How do you like Cassidy's new "Ice Cream" hat? Dr. Jesse spent a very happy day with Cassidy. We went outside for a walk and played inside too. It was a very hot day so Cassidy wore her new "IceCream"Hat to cool off the sun. Dr. Jesse was so strong that she could pull the wheelchair with Cassidy sitting in it, Jesse pulled Cassidy around the driveway a couple times, so Dr. Jesse is now also called "Jesse the Black Nose Reindeer" for pulling Cassidy's sleigh.
Dr. Jesse also got Cassidy some nice fabric to make some beautiful skirts, will show everyone the new skirts when they are ready, so stay tuned!
Cassidy's teacher came with Cassidy's homework last night and helped her catch up. Cassidy was also busy finishing up her homeworks, she got so tired from doing too much homework this morning. Good thing Dr. Jesse came over in the afternoon to play so CaCa could take a break from her homework. CaCa is eating and recuperating well, she even gets to stop taking shots of one of the medication. Only her red blood cells are a little low from her vegan diet, but that should not be a problem for long as she eats more of red juicy fruits and dark leaf vegetables.
There is one more week to her next round of Chemo, let's pray hard for that to go well!
Pretty Hats Collection is going phenomenally well. Many have already started their search all over the world. Here are some drop off locations for your reference:
If you are from BTBC:
- drop off @ the Choir Room (or give to any choir member)
If you are from BSF:
- contact Auntie Connie Chan
Everyone else:
- leave a comment here with your contact info.
- Dr. Jesse will then come find you.
Way To Go ~~ Cassidy!!!
Mama Carmen told Dr. Jesse last night that the Blood Test done in the morning shows that all the counts in Cassidy looks good. There is no need to go back this Thursday for ChemoReady checks. Next round of Chemo is booked for next Thursday. Let us continue to pray that Cassidy continue to build up her body ready for the next round of treatment, which involves 3 consecutive weeks of medication.
Click HERE to see Cassidy's Tx Schedule and for Specific Prayer Items.
As we were all looking for pretty hats for Cassidy, Mama Carmen told Dr. Jesse yesterday that a little of Ca Ca's hair has started to fall out. This is one of the side effects from the Chemotherapy, nothing surprising. However Cassidy was quite upset at first and cried a bit, but then when Ca Ca's auntie brought her a new drawer chest and Mama Carmen told Cassidy that they will dedicated the whole drawer chest for Ca Ca to store all her pretty hats and scarves and bandanas, she clapped her hands in applause.
SO..... Ca Ca is now starting her Pretty Hats Collection!!! And YOU CAN HELP! Let us all search through all the corners of the whole wide world to find the prettiest hat and scarf and bandana for Ca Ca and help her build up her Pretty Hats Collection. The first one Dr. Jesse will try to find is a nice hat with wide rims and fluffy feathers, may be you can help find some too. Ca Ca's favorite color is PINK and any Happy Color!
Dr. Jesse invites you all to join in to get all the pretty hats and scarves and bandanas to stuff up Ca Ca's new drawer chest!
Ca Ca wants to share with you all a very nice picture of Dr. Jesse that she drew all by hereself.
Click below to download the file in your preferred format to see it, with some more pix submitted by Mama Carmen.
**It might take a few minutes to download, but it's worth all the time for such beautiful pictures.**
So Turn Up the volume, sit back & Enjoy!
File in SWF Flash format.
File in EXE Self-Execution format.
Dr. Jesse made a house call to Cassidy last night and found that she looks great. We are sure that she will be strong enough very soon to hold Dr. Jesse and to play. Here's a mug shot of the best friends.
This is the Day, This is the Day that the Lord had made, we will rejoice and be glad in it........
Ladies and Gentlemen; Boys and Girls ............ Cassidy is home!!! Praise the Lord that Ca Ca is recovering well and the doctor allowed her to go home this afternoon! She is already asking to see Dr. Jesse!!! And Dr. Jesse will go down to see her, but only from a distance......
However, as much as we all want to just jump into our cars and head down to see Cassidy and Carmen, mama Carmen asks that we all refrain from doing that, just yet. As much as she wants to thank each of you in person for all your love and prayers, the nurses advised that Cassidy should not be exposed to too many personal contact at this time.
One of her immunal indicator was at 0.1 when a fit person should be at least 0.5, and her other immunal counts are rather low, nurses told Carmen to not even bring Cassidy out too much, not to mention for too many people to see her. Therefore, Carmen asked Dr. Jesse to post this ASAP to hold people back from coming in to see Cassidy.
Let us pray for God's protection over Ca Ca that she does not contract any infection causing agents and that she continue to build up her immune system strong enough to go through the next round of Chemo. Cassidy is due back for blood tests on Monday, let us pray that the Sheng's get to enjoy their great weekend and Cassidy to get strong so she can thank all the aunties and uncles, Gor Gor and Jie Jie's and her little friends from church and school, in person.
"We're doing ok.....we both slept more.....not so much disturbance in midnights."
"Uncle Leanda & Auntie Connie stayed with her till 8pm.....They really made her day."
An earlier SMS from Carmen says Cassidy asked to see Dr. Jesse. Dr. Jesse also misses Ca Ca much!! Let's keep our fingers crossed that Ca Ca gets to go home soon after all the required tests so Jesse can come play!!
"Ca Ca has such a busy day today.....she had no time for breakfast and lunch.....Pet Scan in the morning, ultrasound at noon & x-ray after.....can't go home yet......."
Thanks to Auntie Connie and Uncle Leander who had stayed with Cassidy the whole Monday afternoon (May 21) and played with her. Here's what Auntie Connie sent me as per Carmen's request to post this on the blog journal..........
"Cassidy ate quite a bit today and the swelling of her left foot had shrunk a lot. Thank God for that.
Both Mama Carmen and little Cassidy wore a bandanna. Should have taken a photo for both of them.
Little Cassie said she wants to clean the floor when she goes to heaven, while Mama Carmen would like to sing praises to God all day long. So when you visit Cassidy, please tell her what you want to do when you are in heaven.
Cassidy also braided a 2-color 3-stranded bracelet. You probably would love to wear it!
She cried a bit when daddy had to go home and when Nurse Kendra told her that she would be off for 2 days and wouldn't be seeing her till Wednesday night. Little Cassie gave 2 roses to Nurse Kendra. She must be her most favorite nurse.
Mama Carmen would like us to pray for God's strength for Cassidy to go through the rest of chemotherapy, also for God to minimize the side effect, enable Cassie to articulate her condition to the medical teams and her parents, pray that God gives Cassie a good appetite, and for the whole family (Mama Carmen, Papa Andy, Aaron and Cassidy) to have faith and trust and rely on God and submit to God’s will."
"...we were spending the whole afternoon talking about Jesus, and Cassidy asked lots of questions about heaven. Cassidy said when she goes to heaven, she wants to clean the floor for God. She never talks that much."
Hello All,
Dr. Jesse would love to thank you all for checking out this blog, we have over 700+ hits in just 5 days, that's over 700+ hugs and kisses for Cassidy while she's fighting strong at the hospital.
Carmen and Andy are also checking in from time to time, so feel free to leave a message or words of encouragement in this blog, they will be forwarded to them automatically. Just hit the "# comments" line after each posting to type in your message. Stay tuned~!
"It's such a peaceful long weekend. We got her to sit in the wheelchair and made some crafts....she's busy making roses these 2 days! She eats a little bit more today."
Then Carmen sent a thank you note to Dr. Jesse for setting up this blog for Cassidy.
Yeah!!! Praise the Lord. Let's pray that she continues to build up her strength again and be able to go home soon.
Carmen wants to thank the 2 "gor gor", Eric and Stanley for their tips to make Cassidy happy. We are waiting for Cassidy to stay awake to eat anything. Carmen did try to give her things to look at or draw, but she seems not to be interested. Plus with the pulse monitor clipped to her right fingers, she cannot even hold anything to write or draw. Hopefully she gets to go home soon and as the drug effects subside, she'll be up and about to do something fun.
Carmen has came home to have a better night sleep while Andy stays with Cassidy in the hospital tonight. The oncologist doctor says he suspects some bleeding inside the tumor from the MRI but he needs to wait till the final report to confirm that. Also the PAT test is scheduled for next week, which will give even a better look at how the tumor cells are reacting to this first week of Chemo. Also the shots to boast white blood count and blood thinner have started.
Carmen says Cassidy is having like 6 different drips going into her and 3 drip monitors is connected onto her drip pole. With all these drips going into her port, the nurses had trouble getting blood from her central line port and they had to draw blood from her arm, so with those shots already started, Cassidy is getting a lot of pokes in her arm and she says it's hurting. Carmen also says she is still vomiting and is very scared of eating anything.
Nurses kept waking Cassidy up for tests and checks, and with different drips has different timeline, those monitors were beeping non-stop the whole night. Also with all the tangling tubes going into Cassidy, nurses were quite frustrated during MRI trying to detangle the tubes.
Carmen and I felt that other than the side effect of Chemo making Cassidy tired, she might be also too emotionally distressed that she would rather stay sleeping and not deal with all the trauma. Carmen tried to give her things to read but she was really not interested in seeing or doing anything. Let's pray that the side effects subside so Cassidy can be more awake to do something she likes and perhaps eat a little too.
May God bless Carmen with a good night sleep that she can recharge to continue this journey with Cassidy and her family. May God also guide Carmen to enjoy the time with Aaron while they are at home together and that they get to talk about things. Aaron is going to the EMD retreat this weekend, pray that he has a great time filled with fun and spiritual nurture. Pray also that Andy and Cassidy also enjoy their special time together.
"Cassidy still very sleepy. No eating yet. Foods through her line now."
"Cassidy still refuses to eat.....more vomiting.....will do MRI & PET Scan. Won't be able to go home, not till next Tuesday"
Cassidy was a sleeping beauty most of the day. Chemo makes her want to sleep and she complains of dizziness, but both doctor and us had hard time getting Cassidy to tell us whether she was really feeling dizzy or nauseous, that's a very important differenciation she has to be able to make and here's why.
If it was nauseous, then the doctor knows that it would just be the side effects of the chemo drug and they would not be too alarmed, although the doctor says the chemo should not make her sleep this much. But if it is dizziness, then they would need to be very cautious because it can be a precursor for stroke. And why would they fear stroke? Because ultra sound today found hat Cassidy has blood clots in her knee and that her whole leg is very swollen. This clotting is caused by the tumor above her knee and the doctor will prescribe "blood thinner" for her in injection form, for the whole duration of her chemotherapy - which may be up to 2 yrs.
The good news is, the doctor says Cassidy has a septic knee, meaning there's an infection, and they believe it's not the tumor growing down to the knee. The doctor says it won't grow that fast. With the antibiotic, they are hopeful that her swelling should get better in a few days.
With addition medication, Cassidy is passing water better since this afternoon. Further medication is prescribed for her to have a bowel movement. But her not eating is not helping. Cassidy did throw up a few times today and she got scared at eating anything that would make her throw up again. So let's pray that Cassidy would not fear eating and starts eating something and be able to hold them down.
Doctor found that Cassidy's protein level is severely low and they suspect that it was due to her no-meat diet. This is also a factor in her water retention and blood clot problem. They plan to prescribe protein and "food" to be given to her by IV to replenish because she is now too nauseated to eat enough amount to replenish what she needs.
All in all, little Cassidy has been a very brave girl enduring a lot of pain and suffering. Although a bit cranky at times, she is generally getting along with the nurses and doctors who take care of her and that is a good thing. Let's pray that she gets over the dizziness soon and be able to get up and around to join the playroom activities.
Carmen is very exhausted and stressed especially emotionally. Andy is holding up ok but Cassidy likes to bossy over daddy. Aaron also came to see Cassidy in the evening. Cassidy will have an MRI tomorrow, let's pray that God grant wisdom to the doctors to continue the best care and treatment for Cassidy. Doctor says Cassidy would likely have to stay for a few more days till after the weekend. Aaron will be going to the EMD retreat this weekend @ Redeemer college, let's pray that he has a good time at camp, while Mom and Dad focus at helping Cassidy get better so she is well enough to go home soon.
May16'07 - Official Launch of Cassidy's Blog @ http://cassidysheng.blogspot.com
Contact Carolyn or Chester for any inquiries. cli@cndctr.com
