Ella had her clinic visit yesterday. Her ANC is only a bit higher: 800, up from 749 last week. They will have to go back next week for another blood draw.
Her weight is up though, which is fantastic! Joe says she is eating better every day!
That’s the full update for now! Some new photos below, including some of Ella modeling a super-adorable new dress from Uncle Tom and Aunt Ceci.
Ella’s been doing really well, friends!
Joe says she’s definitely more relaxed and has fallen into a groove being at home. She had clinic today. Her ANC (absolute neutrophil count) is 749. She definitely needs to be above 500, but in the end her ideal is above 2000. The docs believe she’s making her own cells and say that it can fluctuate. Maybe she’s fighting a cold or something else, but it’s unclear.
Ella will have clinic again Tuesday. Her counts will dictate when she has her Hickman removed. Other than that, Ella and co. are just working to get her eating again. It’s been hard. They think she likes bold flavors because the chemo may have changed her tastes. She’s nibbling, but nothing substantial. Once she starts eating better, they can remove her NG tube. We can’t wait until she’s tube free!
At the end of it all, Ella will decide when she’s ready to have everything pulled out, but everyone is very happy to be home! AND, Ella’s eyelashes have started to grow back! (She’s got the best eyelashes). Now, just waiting on hair. Can’t wait to see what color it’ll be.
Fun Ella Fact: Her new favorite song is Uptown Funk by Bruno Mars. She calls him Bruiso Mars.
The latest Ella update from Joe!
As we said before, the chemotherapy can affect EVERY part of Ella’s body. Ella’s oncologists have taken it upon themselves to be very proactive (which we appreciate) rather than reactive. Between every round of chemo, Ella has had her hearing, kidneys, and heart tested. This morning, it was time for the kidneys. We had to be at the hospital at 7am for her GFR (a test to see how her kidneys are functioning). Ella was injected with radioactive liquid at the beginning of the testing. In order to avoid “contaminating” her Hickman line, the nurses started an IV on her. This means that Ella started her morning with a needle poke in the hand (NOT happy with that….trust me).
After the IV was started, Ella was taken to another room where she was laid on a table. The radiology tech then injected the radioactive liquid through the IV in her hand and for 7 minutes, she stayed on the table, and they took pictures (similar to a real-time xray) of her kidneys and bladder. It is amazing because within the seven minutes, you can see her little kidneys and bladder “light up” on the screen. It really shows the radioactive liquid flowing through her body.
Once done with the “pictures,” the IV was pulled from her hand and we were free to roam the hospital. We returned to radiology at 10am and 12pm for blood draws, which were to show how well she could excrete the radioactive material. (If her kidneys are functioning properly, the blood levels of the radioactive material would lessen and lessen).
Seeing that we had to stick around for blood draws, we made a visit to 4 Henson which is the Oncology/Hematology/BMT floor where Ella received her treatments. Ella got to see some over her favorite nurses, nursing assistants, nurse practitioners, Child Lifers, etc. She also made a stop in the playroom and played with some games, including Connect 4. (Ella’s really good at Connect 4. As you can see in the photo below, she’s already connected 5, 4, and is about to connect 4 more. Girl crushes everything).
We also had to go to Oncology clinic to talk with her Oncologist, Dr. Ginn (the man responsible for giving us a CANCER FREE ELLA!!!!!). Ella is usually not very happy seeing him (we think because he is one of the first doctors she saw after her surgery in July). Ella had a great visit with Dr. Ginn, though. He was the ONLY person that she actually interacted with today!
Dr. Ginn was very happy with Ella’s tests, procedures, and blood work. As we all have heard, her MRI shows no evidence of tumor!!! Her lumbar puncture — where he drew some spinal fluid to check for cancer — showed NO signs of cancer!!! Ella’s heart tests (EKG and Echocardiogram) were normal!!! Her blood draw today even showed some progress. Lately, Ella’s ANC (absolute neutrophil count…the important white blood cells needed to fight infection) had been on a downtrend. Today, her blood draw showed her ANC leveling off and stabilizing. Her hemoglobin and platelets were also good (no need for blood or platelet transfusions). We are hoping that this means that Ella is finally engrafting (her body is accepting her stem cells that she received after her last round of chemo, and they are hopefully starting to grow mature cells). This would be the start of her immune system coming back!
So, on Tuesday we will have another clinic visit for a check-up and blood draw. If her blood test shows more stabilization of her ANC, white blood cells, hemoglobin, and platelets, Ella may be able to have her Hickman line removed soon! Dr. Ginn mentioned that he likes to try and remove the central line ASAP because they are sources of infection (the line basically ends in her heart and any infection could end up there…NOT good). If things are good, Ella may have her line removed in the following WEEKS and may even move to once-a-week clinic visits and ultimately once-a-MONTH!!! We weren’t expecting that at all!
Once all of this is done, Ella will have another MRI in May to make sure the cancer has NOT returned!!! Ella needs to continue CRUSHING this cancer for the rest of her LIFE!!!
Go Ella Go!
PS. Fun Ella Fact: Her favorite food right now is peppermints.
Crushed it.
Huge day for team Ella! As most of you have probably heard by now, Ella’s MRI came back clean. Zero sign of cancer. Words can’t express how thankful and so full of joy we all are. She truly crushed it.
An update from Joe is below. We’ll continue to post here as Ella does her clinic visits and gets MRIs. (For one year, she’ll get an MRI every 3 months). Thank you to every one for your thoughts and prayers through this brutal journey and for all the support, which came in many, many forms. Each of you played a special role in these last six months, and we can’t thank you enough. Please continue to send love and prayers her way as she makes her way through this next year.
Way to go Ella! You did it.
More on the day:
Her MRI was great and her hearing test came back great, too. She only has some high pitched hearing loss, so no need for hearing aids (one of her chemos caused the hearing loss).
She had to be intubated (tube down her throat to help her breathe) for her MRI. It is such a long process that they have to put her to “sleep” so she doesn’t move. She also had a lumbar puncture where the doctor put a needle in her back and took out some spinal fluid to check for sign of cancer cells. She also had an echocardiogram (ultrasound of the heart) and an EKG. The chemo can affect her whole body including her heart. We won’t know the results of those until Friday most likely. We have clinic on Friday. Our oncologist talked about cake and ice cream and a party at clinic to celebrate!!!!!
CANCER FREE. BOOM.
Positively Ella 