September is child cancer awareness month

Wow it has been a long time since I have updated my blog. My husband and I decided to cut out internet from our house (besides our phone). This has made updating the blog a little more of a challenge. I still plan on blogging our fun adventures of our make a wish trip and our fun summer, but felt there was an important blog to post this month first!

A few of you may know that September is Child Cancer awareness month. I feel like this does not get as much publicity as other cancers. I thought it would be a good time to update everyone on my little ones progress and give you a chance to look at our journey.

Ammy had her happy no more Chemo day (for now) in January. This was a bitter sweet day. Ammy was very sad on her last appointment. We were very excited for no more pokes and to be done with the sickness, but she was very sad to be saying goodbye to our amazing chemo pal Jessie and to all of her doctors and nurses. This also starts a scary time in her treatment where there is no plan we just wait and watch to see what will happen. I prefer to be doing something about the cancer and not just watching it. Amethyst since then has had her port taken out, and has had 2 clean scans. If you have not been following us this does not mean that she has no more tumor, it just means that her tumor has not grown since the last scan.

Last week Ammy started her first "normal" year of school. Kindergarten was only 3 months for ammy, first grade required her to miss 3 weeks for surgery and miss class time weekly for occupational therapy and physical therapy. second and third grades were full of missed days for chemotherapy, so here we are in fourth grade and we are celebrating full weeks of school without struggling to stay with her classmates! As we focus on her education more than we have ever been able to before we are looking at the toll this has taken on her education. We are noticing a lack of concentration, she struggles with reading comprehension and is a little behind on some of her math concepts. What we have to figure out is if this is stuff that will fix itself with her being able to spend time in the classroom and work on skills, and what is effects of her chemotherapy interacting with brain cells.

Physically Ammy continues to have a lowered balance and lowered cordination on her left side. This is left over from her first paralysis/ surgery.

But more important than all of the above Ammy is a sweet loving girl who has a strength and maturity beyond her years. She is constantly teaching me how important it is to take each moment as a gift and to treasure it. The most important lesson learned is perspective. No matter how bad life feels there is always someone who has it worse, and in the midst of the hurt and pain there is always something to be thankful for!

In honor of child cancer awareness I would love for you to take a minute and see the many miracles God has given us, and take a minute to read what it feels like when your whole world stops. Our journey began in october of 2008, i encourage you to begin there!!