Please keep Brynlee in your prayers

I took Brynlee for her 6 week check-up today.  They did a full work-up on her with the CT scans and blood work.  Her blood counts are a little off and they found a spot in her sinus.  The doctor wasn’t too worried at first saying that because she was sick last week and she now has a cough and runny nose, that was probably the cause of the spot and blood work presenting differently.  So I went home not too worried until the doctor called me and said she took a closer look at her scans from today and compared them with scans from her original diagnoses.  There is some concern because the spot is in the same place as the original spot that they found in her first scans.  So now here is the hard part, we have to wait 4 weeks to take her in for more blood work and scans.  The reason for the wait is if it is just because she has a cold we need time for it to drain and clear.  So when she goes for her scans it will be clear.  If it is the cancer it will still be there.  In the mean time we watch her close for any lumps or fever, which could also be signs that it is back.  The doctor said she isn’t too concerned, we just need to check it out.  Well I’m the mom and so I’m trying to not completely freak out but am very worried.  But this is why we have frequent check-ups, to make sure we catch it if it does come back.  So now we wait and hope for the best.  But it does not hurt to please remember her in your prayers, we would be very grateful for the support.  We will keep everyone posted when we know something.

The Festival of Trees

Last year when Brynlee was in the hospital we took her on many, many walks.  On one of our walks we noticed an area where they had people working trying to get people to sign-up for the Festival of trees.  Jeff said “wouldn’t that be neat if we could do a tree for Brynlee”  at the time there was no way we could have taken that on with everything else we were dealing with, but walked away talking about how someday we would do that for her.  Well the someday has turned into today, we have signed-up to do a tree to honor Brynlee and all that she has been through.

 

If you don’t know anything about the Festival of Trees it’s because you probably don’t live in Utah.  The Festival of trees is put on every year at Christmas time and it is a sight to see!  Hundreds and hundreds of trees and other Christmas crafts are donated and are usually in honor or memory of someone.  All of the trees and other things are displayed for a few days at the Sandy Expo center, you can buy tickets and go look at everything displayed.  We did this with our kids last year and it was amazing!  On opening night they have an auction and everything is sold, you can buy a ticket for this night as well and bid on any of the things there.  Every single penny goes to Primary children’s Medical Center.  Jeff and I feel we need to give back to Primaries for all they have done for Brynlee, and to Honor Brynlee for all of her accomplishments.

 

So the reason for this post is to let you know that we would love your help in this project.  In order to participate we have to purchase the tree, decorate it and most of the time there are other things around the tree that are for sale with it.  For example, when we went last year there were simple things like toys and gift cards up to really big things like whole living room sets with fireplaces.  It was amazing to see what people had donated.  So we thought we would spread the word to see if we could get some help.  Our theme for our tree is “Baby It’s Cold Outside”  We plan on doing everything in winter colors with a warm quilt and hats and other things that would go with the theme.  I was even thinking how neat it would be to get things like lift tickets for a ski resort.  So depending on how much help we get depends on how far we can take this project.  We just want you to know your welcome to become a part of Team Brynlee and help give back.  The best way to donate would be to just click her donate button on this blog and donate, leave us a little note letting us know you want to help for the Festival.  Or you may donate directly to us, call me if you have any questions, ideas or would like to be more involved.  Donations of particular items can be donated as well, like gift cards or things that would go with our theme.  Just make sure everything donated is new.  We feel like we have been so blessed and supported through Brynlee’s whole ordeal, we would love to see that continue as we give back to Primaries.

The Festival will run from December 2-5 with opening night on the 1st.  For more info on the Festival you can go to www.festivaloftreesutah.org

Brynlee’s tree will be in aisle J spot 13 so go check it out if you can.  You will not regret attending this great event!  It’s an amazing way to bring that holiday spirit!  Let me know if you would like to help, thanks so much!  Jeff and Jen  801-372-1353

Just a few pictures of Bryn doing crafts and playing at Primaries during her long stays there.  The hospital really does a great job at helping them feel like their normal and can still have fun.

The success of the HopeKids 5K

The HopeKids 5K was a huge success and we had a great time!! Team Brynlee raised $450 and the whole group raised over $24,000. So a HUGE thank you to all who donated! You know who you are and we love you for it! Not only did we participate in the 5K but they had a lot of other fun things to do. Lots of food, fun and entertainment for all who joined with us that day. A big thanks to Elliot, Lisa and Keith who ran with us, thanks for your support. And to our family that joined us to help watch our kiddies, that’s a bigger job than most will ever know:) So here’s pictures from the big day and the next post will be all about our next fundraiser to help Primary Children’s. So watch for that. We love Primaries and want to do anything we can to give back. Nothing can compare to saving our sweet girl, but we’ll do what we can!
Our team that ran the 5K

The shirts we wore. We did them in gold…it’s the color for childhood cancer awareness.

Fun with bubbles

The Princesses were even there!

Lots of Starwars people too

And of course, face painting

And last of all Kade staying real close to the food:)

One more day left

We only have one day left to raise money for the HopeKids 5/k. “Team Brynlee” is doing awesome!! Thank you Thank you, to all who have donated. We never thought we would be near the top of the list as highest team, but were only 4th from the top right now. If you go onto the web site to donate and you look at the top teams, the first two teams don’t count as the top teams. They are the leaders of the group and their money counts but they are not in the race to get top contributor. The top three teams will win prizes I guess. We are just excited to be up near the top!! So I thought I would put one last plug in to see if we can get enough donations to make it into the top three. If you have a minute and a dollar or two contribute to Team Brynlee at http://www.active.com/donate/uthopewalk select our team and donate what you can. Any amount adds up to something great, if everyone reading this would do it. Thanks sooo much for all everyone does for Brynlee. She’s doing awesome!!! I will post pictures after the race. But here is one of her wanting her picture taken on the first day of school. All the other kids were getting their pictures taken and she needed hers done too, even though she doesn’t go to school

I love this girl, and am so glad she’s here with us still……a miracle for sure!!!

Help us help HopeKids

Hey Everyone,

As you all know, Brynlee, has been doing extremely well since undergoing her cancer treatment. We are so thankful to all of you for the generosity and help and support we have received. I need to ask another favor of you all. HopeKids is a support group for cancer kids that we have been involved with. They have been such a great support for her, by putting her in contact with other kids like herself and showing her and our other kids that there is fun to be had after chemo. They are having a fundraiser 5k walk/run on September 19th. We have signed up to participate in the event. We need to raise $250 for the cause. If you could help just a little bit, a few dollars, for Team Brynlee, we would be so grateful. We are also looking for 3 more people to join our team for the event. If you want to participate with us, up at “This is the place heritage park” on the 19th of September, please let us know.

Directions to contribute are as follows:

Go to the website: www.active.com/donate/uthopewalk

At the top of the webpage, click on the button “become a fundraiser”

Just below that button another will appear, “Join a fundraising team:” select: Team Brynlee

Another window will display with Team Brynlee on it and the place where you can donate on her behalf.

Thanks again for all your support for us, and our beautiful, healthy little girl!!!

One year ago today

Just thought I would do a quick update today. One year ago today I found the lump on Brynlee’s neck that turned out to be a tumor, two and a half weeks later we found out she had cancer. You would not know it now, she is doing GREAT! I actually take her tomorrow to her clinic visit. We still go every six weeks for check-ups and they continue to give us good news. The Doctors tell us that we would most likely be the ones to notice somethings wrong if the cancer comes back. So anytime she’s acting strange or does something wierd I try not to freak out.
Brynlee has been having a fun summer so far. Brynlee’s dad has been in Missouri for work all summer so we are trying to do some fun things to pass the time until he comes home. We just got back from San Diego where we spent two weeks with family having some fun. We did the beach and the pool a couple times, we were also able to visit the Zoo and water park. I will post pictures of our trip. Jeff was able to fly home for the 4th of July weekend and that was so nice. The kids really miss their dad. Whenever Brynlee’s in trouble she cries for her dad, he’s the nice one since he’s not around.
My latest challenge with Brynlee is trying to get her to give up her bink. She has a serious attatchment to that thing and it’s driving me crazy! Before she got sick we almost had her off of it. But of course as soon as we knew she was seriously ill we pretty much didn’t care anymore. So now that she’s doing so well it’s time to try and get her over it. I’m thinking it’s going to be harder on me than her:)
Other then that life is smooth sailing right now and I look forward to the day they declare her cured! That should be sometime in the year 2013, Brynlee will be seven years old. Again thank you to all those who support us and check her blog to see how she is doing. We are forever grateful for the love and support we are given.

The Card family on the 4th of July

Brynlee with her Dad, she was so glad he came home for a visit.

Bryn at the pool on our vacation

Enjoying the beach

Playing in the sand with Sadie, Brynlee loves to play in the sand!

I thought I would do one of her hair it is amazing to me how fast it has grown!

During chemo

7 months later

I saved her hair from before and it’s very much the same except for a little more blond and it has more curl to it.

Finally an up-date

Life has been crazy for us and a lot has happened since I last posted anything part of the problem was I misplaced the cord for the camera so I couldn’t download pictures to post. So we have a lot of catching up to do.
Brynlee has been doing great and has been busy enjoying life again. It is so great to see her healthy and happy acting like a perfectly normal three year old.
Brynlee turned three on March 24th. To celebrate we had all the family over and Jeff’s sister Kris made Brynlee a princess cake with all the princesses on it of course. Brynlee loved it and all the wonderful gifts and attention she recieved on her special day.

Brynlee on her birthday in the princess dress she received from make-a-wish

Aunt Mariah bought Brynlee a crown, looks cute with her spikey hair!

Blowing out the candles

We belong to an organization called HOPE KIDS. It’s a group for children with life threatening illnesses and their families. This group has all sorts of activities and fun things for us to do. They throw big birthday parties for all the hope kids and so here is a picture of Brynlee at the hope kids party. The party was at a skating slash bounce house, arcade type of place.

Bryn with sister Sadie enjoying cake at the hope kids party

One thing that was really exciting was that Brynlee’s hair was actually getting long enough to need a trim. Aunt Kayce cut her hair to help it have more shape and style. It’s looking so cute!

Brynlee had a great Easter, she colored eggs and had an egg hunt and her favorite part….LOTS OF CANDY!

Coloring eggs

Eating lots of chocolate

I just took Brynlee in for a check-up on Tuesday and they said everything is looking great. She will have another set of scans done in 6 weeks and if all looks good her appointments will be every 3 months for about a year and then they will stretch them out further and further apart. She will have to have an echo done on her heart once a year for the next 5 years, due to some of the chemo she received. Certain chemos can damage the heart. So they watch it to make sure there is no side effects. So she is looking great and we couldn’t be happier. Thanks again for all those who continue to remember Brynlee, she’s a special girl for sure.

Brynlee’s check-up

Brynlee had another check-up today in the clinic at Primary Childrens. They did CT scans and blood work, all tests came back normal. Once again the Dr’s and nurses are all so impressed with how well Brynlee responds to the tests. I was worried this time because she doesn’t have her central line anymore so they had to give her an IV. I tried to prepare her before hand and told her she would have to get a little poke. She cried for a second but they were able to get the IV on the first try so she got over it quick. In the past with other IV’s they have had to poke her several times before they could get it to work, so I am grateful it only took once.
The Doctor said that Brynlee will probably need to be seen every six weeks for the next two visits and then they can take the visits out a little further apart. We kind of like them often for the reassurance that all is well.
That’s the latest for now, I just wanted to let everyone know that she’s doing great. Thanks again for all the love and prayers for Brynlee.

Brynlee’s wish trip

Brynlee’s trip was a huge success full of fun and a lot of great memories. As most of you know Brynlee really wanted to see the princesses and so that’s what she did. Make-a-Wish sent the whole family to Florida for a week. When we arrived in Orlando we were met by two men who work for a place called “Give Kids The World”. This was the village where we stayed on our trip. The village was an awesome place where the kids were spoiled the whole time we were there. I told Jeff that it must be a requirement that you have to be extremely happy all the time in order to work there. It’s all about the kids there, including an all you can eat ice cream parlor that opens first thing in the morning, incase you want ice cream for breakfast. They have a carousel that Brynlee had to ride every morning after breakfast, infact she wouldn’t eat a very good breakfast because she had to get to the carousel. Everything at the village was free to us, including meals and entertainment it was a great place to stay.
The village gave us tickets to all the Disney parks, Universal Studios and Seaworld. So needless to say we didn’t have a lot of down time trying to fit everthing in why we were there. We had a lot of fun and of course the highlight of the trip was meeting the Princesses. Brynlee and her sisters were in heaven with them. Brynlee wore a button on her shirt that allowed her to meet all the Princesses without standing in line. Anytime the park workers saw her button she was taken right in to see all the diffrent characters. Her button also allowed us to get on every ride without having to wait. That part was great, it allowed us to be able to get sooo much more done in the week that we had.
So again, a big THANKYOU to make-a-wish, the village and the girls who adopted Brynlee’s wish. It was so great to see Brynlee and the rest of our family having so much fun after all we endured the last several months. We will always remember the great times we had there, it was wonderful.

Brynlee with Snow White

Cinderella and Brynlee

Brynlee loved all of the Princesses

Sleeping Beauty with Brynlee, Kade, Kenzie and Sadie

Bryn with Daddy on the Dumbo ride

Going on the roller coaster in Toon Town, Brynlee didn’t like it. According to her it’s fast and it goes down!

The carousel was a favorite

The whole family at Disney World

The family with Minnie and Mickey

Bryn getting her nails done at the spa they had for the kids at the village

The girls having ice cream at the village

The plane ride home….tired but happy

Brynlee’s new glasses

We discovered that something wasn’t quite right with Brynlee’s left eye, so we took her in to have it checked. She has been diagnosed with something called “Esotropia”. Which basically means her eye is pulling to the center. Her body has been working so hard to fight the cancer that her eye has become weak. I guess it’s not uncommon for this to happen. The doctor said it’s correctable, she will have to wear glasses for a while and do some excersises to help stregthen her eye.  So now she is sporting little pink glasses for the time being.