MY Charlize and her opportunity to live a wonderful life!

I saw the photo they posted of you on their site - so cute of you both. Oh, and the photo of Caedmon smiling - how precious.

I can't even imagine what that little girl is going through. I'm sure having a fresh person there is a huge huge huge relief for everyone involved.

Smiling at the image of Charlize beating up on Steve...

I dreamed about her. I dreamed that she was just fine. Hope it comes true for real. She was about three years old and had blond curls and a cute checkered shirt on. I was telling people in the dream, hey, she's just fine, she's all right.

I too believe that but the medical protocol is abusive. I hope for her health and believe that not myself but God is in control. I just am wondering His plan. But in ALL THINGS give thanks. I trust in my creator to bring His plan and what ever that is I accept it. Right now tonight I pray for a positive moment in my families life. Thank you Lord!

Thanks for the picture. Cute Wishing your family the best.

What an adorable photo - thinking good thoughts for both of those precious children, and their parents. They must be exhausted. Thank goodness Grandpa Steve is there at times to give some relief!

Steve, the picture is priceless! My heart still aches for you and your family, and you are all constantly in our thoughts......

Kylaluaz, that's a great image of Charlize in the dream. I will hold that image of her, happy, healthy, in the future.
Yes, Steve, the medical protocol does feel abusive,, doesn't it? And she is in as good a hospital as you can get for little kids. She has come this far and every day is another one closer to healing. She and her parents are very lucky to have you.

Steve, I have been keeping your dear granddaughter and her family in my prayers. I sincerely hope things turn for the better and become less painful for her soon.

Steve, apologies for not being around much - just stopping by during a cancellation and caught up on Charlize and your family. Warmest thoughts for this new year. I hope by time we get to the end of it you have a two healthy grand-kids.

Sent on Valentines day with heartfelt sincerity.

Laurie

Her battle is still mostly attacking her stomach with chemo paralysis so no feeding is working as of today. She started on Total Parenteral Nutrition (TPN) just to keep her alive and to fight the GI infection she is battling. But today I get to leave AK and get to her bed-side. She is my heart and keeps it full as I see her tease the Doctors as they do their work. The joy(?) of young children with cancer (if there is any) is the fact that they don't know that life is any different, than battling each day for your life.

Give her a hug for all of us. Such a brave little sweetie.

She needs you there to help her hold on. How long can you stay? I hope a good long while and no other emergencies calling you. She still has her fighting spirit if she is teasing the doctors. I bet she has endeared everyone around her.

Yes, please give her a big hug from NJ also. I am positive she has enamored everyone she meets. So glad you will be with her.

Hugs to you Sofer.

Nice to hear she is having a little fun with the DRs. I think of her often and pray that she is soon restored to healthy life.
Also, so happy you were pulled out of the water. Be safe and have a good visit with your family

Steve, I'm sending prayers Charlize's way, and yours as well, my friend.

She is still dealing with the immune suppression and the viral attack to the gut was followed with a bad bacterial infection. She still is not able to keep food down to digest it but I did get her to eat the protein liquid in the best cereal in the world, "Cocoa Pebbles". LOL She kept it down long enough to get the nutrition out of it, about 7 hours. So each morning that I was there it was time for her chocholate fix. She in constantly getting TPN (IV food) but that is hard on her blood sugar, and liver. So we hope????? we can get off it sometime soon. She is getting very combatant with simple proceedures like finger pricks for glucose levels even when I do mine in front of her every day. I am now home and trying to fix all the broken stuff since I left. Our very expensive new furnace is broken and my electric floor heater is needing a new thermostat so I am off and running.

She is hanging in there! I never thought I would be glad for cocoa pebbles. You have one busy life, Steve.

Yep and I am taking care of my 88 year old mother who is easy but dimentia is taking its toll. My DW is an angel to cover for me when I am gone.

What a splendid lady. Treasure her lucid moments and join in her alternate world as best you can.

Your mom is so beautiful and looks so young. Hugs to her.

It is not my mom it is my beautiful wife. This is my mom last christmas in Hawaii. Not bad for 87 yrs.

This message was edited Feb 25, 2011 7:18 PM

Two lovely women. Lucky you.

Sorry. Well both of the women in your life are beautiful and young looking.

She got HOME yesterday and is hanging in there. No food staying down but the food tube is maintaining her diminished wt. Ya Hoo!

Sofer, how much longer does Charlize have on her chemo? Hopefully when they are done bombarding her poor little body with toxins, her digestive system will have a better change to recover. What a difficult fence to straddle - kill the cancer but nurture the body. Positive thoughts continuing to pour down south to her and the family.

She is in a long chemo battle. Not until July does she end weekly treatments. The dammage is suposed to be temporary but..... She is one of the few that have the paralysis of gut due to the chemo. They don't even want to wait 2 days to let her recover. Tough cancer. Though no evidence of regrowth on last weeks CT.
Charlize is at home and when the tubes and IVs are detached she now does the "freedom" dance and laughs and smiles as she bounces on the bed. It is almost a tear jerker to watch such strength in her fighting for her life with moments of PURE JOY!

She is indeed an inspiration.

Inspiration for sure!!! {{{{{HUGS}}}}} Charlize

Steve, I have been following Charlize's struggles on Mary Bridge Hospital's Care pages.....all your family is so amazing during such incredibly difficult times. You all have a lot more prayers in your court than you know and certainly all of mine!

How wonderful that she is home again!

Yes, wonderful that she is home. Such a brave little girl. We all pray she feels better every day.

Hooray that she is home!!! That is surely a hopeful sign that she is doing better though there are yet more chemo treatments to endure. May you all have some moments of respite to enjoy the comforts of home before that begins again.

Hope is the gift that we all have with the Joy of our child. Thank you Spirit of Love!

How precious that picture is!!! Definite joy on her face as she helps take care of baby brother.

Beautiful picture of your grandchildren. Charlize is a very good big sister!

That picture shows the spirit of His love. She is beaming with happiness despite her sufferings.

http://www.carepages.com/carepages/BeautifulGrace This is the home page for a daily up date on her battle. Lots of vomiting since chemo all day and night but she rests when she can. Her parents are very tired, and trying to handle it. I can only thank God for the power he put in my daughter and son-in-law.

I thought I would post the great news. Thank you God!
Charlize's Updates

We are at our halfway point and things continue to go well! We were admitted again on Sunday morning to prepare Charlize’s TPN delivery to be compressed to a 12 hour time frame, so she is able to receive it opposite of her Chemo throughout this week. This afternoon she was unhooked from her TPN and given a 45 minute brake until she was put on her fluids and prepped for Chemo. We had fun walking around visiting with everyone and getting movies and juice. The Doctors and Nurses have had a great time with her this stay already, as they have had the opportunity to see her as her true self. The past few months she has been so sick, that they have seen a totally different little girl then what we know her to be. She has given them small glimpses here and there, but now that she is feeling better she is cutting loose; giving everybody a good show yesterday as she ran out of her room and danced naked in the doorway.
On Saturday she had the best day she has had in months! She had a blast at the Seattle Science Center in Seattle with her cousins. Charlize did great with keeping her hands clean and listening to mommy. Leia told her prior to going in that she had to ask before touching anything and then had to sanitize after she touched it. Charlize asked every time before touching something and never complained about sanitizing afterward. She was so good and had a great time. She rounded out the night at her cousin’s house playing chase and wrestling.
Sunday morning came too quickly, but you cannot escape the inevitable. Even though she is feeling well, we never look forward to a five day stay. Charlize on the other hand was happy to see everyone. She kept asking to see different nurses, and was being silly with everyone. While she had her break from TPN last night and was unhooked from her tubes, she made several trips out to the nurses’ station making requests for ice chips and movies. Yesterday and today she has continued to eat better; we have had some high calorie juice boxes and a milk shake to help along the process as well.
Today we got her TPN compressed to a 12 hour delivery. She has tolerated the accelerated compression over the past two days, but her liver enzymes are still climbing. We are hoping we will see a drop in those levels by tomorrow, given that she will have two days with only 12 hours of delivery. This will give her liver a break from working around the clock, filtering and dispersing the nutrients continually has put some stress on it. Her least favorite part about the TPN is she gets her finger poked a couple times a day to test her blood sugar. She has maintained normal blood sugar levels through this past week, and she has cut her cry time in half after the finger poke – we are making progress.
This is day one of a pretty heavy cycle of Chemo. She has not vomited yet, and we are praying hard that she will be able to get through this week with as little as possible. Please pray that the chemo will do its full work at killing of the cancer, but that she will not experience the severe side effects that she has experienced in the past. We are really hopeful that we will be able to get through this week without losing the ground we have gained over this past week.
We are halfway there, still pressing on and pressing in!

Love and prayers for this brave little trouper and her family!!! Thanks for the update, Sofer.