HERE WE GO AGAIN!

Well, again we are at the hospital with a fever. Natalie woke up this morning with an upset stomach and fever. We had to bring her back in and unfortunatley she will have to stay for a few days at least. This broke my heart, I am so sad for her that she won't be able to start school Wednesday with her friends. There must be a reason, right? Protecting her from something maybe, who knows but I have to let it go. I was so overcome with emotion when we got here and I think I handle it even worse then Natalie does. As a mom, it is just so hard. I can't even explain it. I just long for the day my sweet Natalie can be normal again and hang out with her friends, go to school, all the things she should be able to do at her age. I know our God will heal her and I trust that is true but some days my emotions just take over. Please pray for Natalie to feel better super fast and get to school and please pray for our family as a whole.
Waiting, Trusting and Relying on God!
Love ~ The Erwins

We gladly wait!

Not a whole lot to report lately. Natalie has had a good week. Her counts are still low and she got another blood transfusion today. This is completely normal and her counts should start to climb now on their own. She will start the next phase as soon as the counts are up enough to move on. Usually at this point the doctors said you get a week or two off to give them time to recover. We are glad to have a break now because school starts one week from tomorrow and that would give Natalie some time to get started and feel really good. Please pray that Natalie gets to go to school and hang out with her friends like a 14 year should. She is really looking forward to that. Hope everyone is great and enjoying your summer!
Love ~ The Erwins

Counts are down! Spirits are high!

We went in today for a count check and Natalie's platlets were only 8 thousand. They should be in the hundreds of thousands so that is super low. She got a transfusion so that should boost them up some and hopefully her body will kick in soon and get them up as well. Her red blood cells were good. We have to be really careful for the next few days that she isn't around anyone that is or has recently been sick so we will be hangin' at home a lot.
Some really great news is she is up to 9 pounds on her weight gain. I was so excited to see that.
If I haven't already mentioned how much we appreciate Blood Donors.......Thank you so much. We depend on them right now and are forever grateful for everyone that gives.

GOOD TIMES!

Natalie is done witht the Ara-C shots for awhile. She got her last one of Friday and we are so glad. They really wipe her out. Her counts go way down after two weeks of those shots so now we just wait for them to come back up. Natalie got two units of blood on Friday so she is fueled up and good for a little while to give her body time to come up on its own.
Yesterday one of Natalie's friends had a party and that was fun. Nat was able to go hang out with a bunch of her friends and play "catch phrase". They always have a good time together. It was good for her to get to see everyone.
Oh - when we were back at the doctors office on Friday, they weighed Nat again and she is up 7 pounds! She looks so much better. Were feeding her anything and everything she wants. :-)

AMEN FOR EMEND!

We say Amen for Emend! Emend is the new nausea medicine Natalie is taking and thank you Jesus it is working. She also is taking a appetite enhancer and gained 4 pounds last week. We are hoping for another 4 or 5 this week. We are trying to get her back to where she was. Her physical therapist was very pleased with her progress again yesterday. :-) Tomorrow is her last Ara-C shot for awhile and we are glad to be done with those. They really make her feel yucky.
We go in tomorrow to get her blood counts checked and they think she might need a blood transfusion. This Ara-C really knocks her counts down. They will start to climb back up next week but until then she may need blood once or twice. We pray while her counts are down that she can avoid getting an infection.
I think thats it for now. Hope you are all doing great! Love ~ The Erwins

More Support

http://stevenlpearsonleukemiafoundation.org/SLP/Home.nsf/Page?Open&Id=Home

Friends of Natalie!

We shaved our heads for Natalie!

If you have pictures that you would like to add to the blog, send them to: missmindyevans@gmail.com

thanks!

BETTER DAYS!

The new medicine Natalie got for nausea is nothing short of a GOD send! It has made such a difference. Her appetite is increasing, she still gets a little sick to her stomach but at least manages to keep everything down. Hopefully this will not only beef her up a little but give her more strength and energy. Her walking is definatley showing improvement. She is getting physical theapy twice a week here at home and the therapist is excited to see the improvements she is making. We are too!
Nat's spirits are amazing and she is looking forward to school starting the end of the month and being able to see all her friends more. We are very hopeful she can start school on time and get back to normal as much as possible. She will miss more then the average kid but that is okay. We'll make the best of it until her treatment is complete. We hope you all have a very happy 4th of July.
Love ~ The Erwins