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I hope things keep going well for you and your family.

   

Latest news:

October 11, 2007

Cast countdown!!

I guess it has been almost a month now since our last update, and that means that Keira’s cast comes off soon. Oh, yah!! We are all very anxious for Oct. 22nd the day Keira’s cast gets changed. Yes, gets changed. They will be giving her a much needed bath and putting on a cast that just covers her ‘new leg’. This, I believe, will be on for a week or two.

She has adjusted very well to the cast (that starts from just under her armpits and goes to just above her knee on her left leg and covers her whole new leg). Her upper body is getting stronger everyday as she drags herself around the house. I think that Ryan was kinda liking Keira when she was less mobile……as she is always getting into his things.

So what’s next? We will continue with 30 more weeks of chemo. This will kill any microscopic cancer cells that may be ‘out there’ and can’t be detected on any scans. So, that puts us at June or so for completion of the chemo. As far as a prosthetic, Keira will be molded once she is out of her cast and then we will begin a series of fittings. Santa may be bringing her a leg for Christmas, if not, she’ll have it in early January…we hope! So she should be walking by the end of January?? Just kidding. It may actually take quite a while. But, knowing Keira….

We are also looking forward to spending some more time in the Valley as Keira has two, two week breaks. Just after her cast comes off we have a 2 week break from chemo and another one scheduled for November. It is a nice break from the treatment for her, as it gives her some time to re-cooperate and get some appetite back. In fact, she had 4 weeks off treatment pre- and post- surgery and her hair has started to grow back along with her eyelashes – she looks so healthy. But, I’m sure it won’t be long before they are gone again.

Ryan is doing great. He attends ‘Little Badgers’ pre-school when we are in town and really loves it. Aside from that he spends time with friends and many hours in the sandbox. And tomorrow we are going skating!!!!! Al is juggling…juggling work, a small reno at home, and the back and forth to Calgary. I’m just glad to be home for a while and hoping to get an hour or so of hockey in…

Again, thanks to everyone for your support. The e-mails/texts, phone calls, visits and the enormous amount of time people have put in doing various fundraisers. We truly can’t thank you enough.

Bye for now.
Daph

   

Latest news:

December 5th A New Leg for Christmas!

I guess six or so weeks have passed since our last update. Not a lot to report, other than we have enjoyed 5 weeks in Fairmont(with one trip to Calgary for treatment). We head back on Monday to resume another 12 weeks of continuous weekly treatment before we have another break.

Keira is getting around just fine. Climbing up furniture and stairs has been her challenge this week. Just as she masters something….we throw a change-up at her. On Wednesday, Dec. 12th she will get her first prosthesis. We are all looking forward to the new challenges that this will bring. But, it will be the start of her learning to walk again. Yippeeeee!

We are going to attempt to commute for the month of Dec. treatments. Keira is really strong and healthy now so we figure we can pull it off! If everything goes as planned she will be receiving a small treatment on the 24th, so we can return home before Santa arrives!

Ryan has continued with pre-school 2 afternoons a week and skating and hot chocolate on Fridays. We look forward to some more cold weather so that the Fairmont Fourm (aka. outdoor rink – for you non-hockey folk) will be a daily place we visit.

Enjoy the holidays…..I’m sure we will be seeing many of you.
Daph

   

Great! I was thinking about her last week, and I was meaning to ask you. I guess you are a mindreader too

   

I believe in prayer 100 %. I don't minimize of the different sicknesses and diseases for I know they are very real. I could tell you stories that are true. of people i have prayed for in the using the Lord's name. I can give names and phone numbers. This one young guy was always going to the hospital for surgery of removal of tumours. I prayed for him a few times, today He goes no more to the hospital, his name? kelly. Diabetes? I hate that sickness, not only has the Lord healed me of it, I have prayed for numerous people of that very thing, only to see the sugar go completely normal. I curse cancers, tumours, diabetes at it's roots. And they die. Using the Lords name, only born again Christians can do that, I say all this only to help. Nothing else, God knows my heart. My rewards come from God. Jesus said, "those that believe shall lay hands on the sick and they shall be healed, I like praying for the unbelievers more. I see many answers to prayer when I pray for them. That is what its all about, it is for you.I am giving my phone number for a prayrer line this Christmas, here it is 13069793234. Call anytime.

   

Latest News regarding Keira:

A little late but just in time for Christmas Keira received her first prosthetic leg. So begins her journey of learning to walk again. At first she wasn’t too keen to wear the leg. She didn’t view it as something that gave her much mobility – in fact it was quite the opposite. As many of you know Keira can get around just fine without a prosthesis. So getting Keira to wear her new leg was a bit of a challenge. Five minutes here and there was all that she would put up with. I even painted her toe nails to help in making a connection. Nice try mom! But, on New Year’s Day she decided that she didn’t want to take her new leg off. Wow!! She had it on for about 40 minutes and when we asked her to take it off, she shook her head and said no. Ahhh, what a great feeling for all of us!! Since then she has had no problems with having the leg on and is now walking around furniture and pushing a sit on car. She even stood and balanced for the first time by herself last week. I would expect it will not be long before she is able to take her first solo steps.

As far as her treatments are going she is doing reasonably well. We are nearing another 2 week break which is much needed by all. Keira is once again beginning to look a little worn out. She has also had several delays in her treatment due to the inability of her bone marrrow to recover to an acceptable level. So this extends our finish date. But, we have officially reached the halfway point….we can’t wait till June! What a party we will have!!

We head for more imaging (MRI,CT scan, chest x-ray) this week – we just hope all come back negative!!

We have been trying to spend more time in the valley and have been able to do so in part by the wonderful staff at the Invermere Hospital Lab. Being able to get blood results within minutes is critical to the logistics of us being able to stay at home. We are able to spend about 60% of our time here….and we so appreciate being able to do so. We are also so very thankful to have the house in Calgary (thanks Dean and Danielle). It is certainly a home away from home.

Again, I can’t thank our friends, family, and the many strangers enough that have and continue to help us through this ordeal. You truly make this difficult time a lot easier for us. Thanks!

   

Thanks Twister!

She sounds so positive! I can't begin to understand the ordeal they are going through, and then being as positive as they are!

   

2Cdo

Didn't know that......thanks for the tip.

I wonder how many more little, nasty, deadly, surprises are out there.

   

Latest Update on Keira Neal

New pics of her over on the facebook site. She's getting bigger and better every day.



April 23rd, 2008

Yes, I know that it’s been a while!
Several weeks ago I was thinking of getting around to doing an update and at that time I thought that there was not really a lot to report. But, now as I look back I guess we have hit some significant landmarks.

So, shortly after the January update we had a CT scan and MRI done which came back negative. Of course it wasn’t so simple and we had many anxious days waiting for the CT scan to be re-done. Keira had some ‘spots’ show up on her lungs – this doesn’t automatically mean that it is cancerous. It could be many things. I guess she was laying on her back for the scan and the lungs compress against the ribs and sometimes it makes ‘spots’ appear on the image. So one week after the results and two weeks post scan she was re-scanned on her tummy and all is OK! It seems like we just had these done and we have more scheduled for this coming Friday (April 25th).

The chemo itself has been tougher on Keira in the past few weeks resulting in more transfusions (platelets and red blood cells) and an overall tired look in her face. She also came down very ill on us last week while home in Fairmont. I’ll spare you all the details, but she was vomiting for several days and hit a fever of 41.5oC while having a white blood cell count that was dropping by the day. We took Keira to the hospital in Invermere where they started her on IV fluids and antibiotics. We thought once we got her started on this we would just take her into Calgary. Ahhh, no! They took her in the ambulance – sirens and all! And, it would have been by Air Ambulance or STARS helicopter had the weather not been so bad. So speaking of weather…….its damn cold her right now! And still snowing….and on top of that the Flames lost game 7. Sorry, back to Keira. So long story short she is better now but we couldn’t leave town for fear of her possibly getting sick again. Did I say she was better, I mean we were discharged but she decided yesterday to begin throwing up again. This led to a trip to the ER at ACH a half hour before the Flames game 7. Luckily this new children’s hospital has TV’s in every room so Keira didn’t miss any of the game. Whatever she did have, again seems to have passed.

As far is Keira’s prosthetic leg and walking goes (aka ‘her leg’) it has been a bit of a slow process. It took until about the end of January before Keira was really confident on her leg. She still is not walking on her own, but can basically run behind her walker. She has no problem walking holding just one finger of your hand, it’s the letting go and doing it on her own that is the next obstacle. She does however love an audience though and is always willing to perform for them. We begin the molding process this week for her next leg, as she is quickly growing out of her current one. It will have less support through the upper thigh and her foot will be more pointed. This will ready her for the next leg that will likely have a hinged joint.

We all know how special Keira is to us all…..she has also become well known with Orthopedic Surgeons across Canada as her case has been presented and discussed at many conferences already. In fact, we had a ‘photo shoot’ today for an up coming conference.

The count down is now on…..only 4 more treatments left. Then 3 weeks later CT scan and MRI. The official ‘end of protocol’ is June 11th, but that may move slightly if there are delays.

Some of you may be aware of the Relay for Life (12 hour walk/run for cancer). The event is on May 31st – June 1st in Invermere and Keira is this year’s honourary survivor. Timely – just ten days after her final treatment she will walk the first lap with all the other survivors. WOW! How can a near 2 year old be a cancer survivor so early in life? I encourage you to run/walk, find a team, collect some pledges for this event. www.cancer.ca My next update will be after she has completed her treatment protocol. Yahoo!! Its been a long year.

Later, Daph

   

I'm new here and have not heard the little girl's story before. I am glad she is doing okay. I have a 6yr old and a 19mo old. I cannot even imagine what the family has gone through. I will definitely be keeping this child in my thoughts and prayers. I wish I could be there to cheer her on on her 1st lap

   

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