And the number was......

300. Ally's ANC only made it up to 300. So again, she is delayed. Last week, I really did want a delay. Just a little bit of a break allows her to sort of catch her breath and build her strength up so she can be beat down again. But honestly, this week, I didn't want a second delay. That would be two weeks in a row without the chemo and it scares me. I always fear the relapse and those evil cancer cells growing back. I just don't even want to give them the slightest chance. And the part that really scares me is that they are checking that all important MRD number right after 19 straight days without chemo. If it comes back undetectable (no cancer cells) I will be even more happy. If it comes back with some stray leukemia cells I am going to wonder about this delay. As I read back, this is confusing to explain. I will just stop. The future plan as of right now is as follows:

Tuesday 9/15 bloodwork
Wed 9/16 home health to come out and hook her up to fluids to hydrate her
Thur 9/17 Bone Marrow aspiration, spinal tap with chemo, and then hooked up to a 24 hour drip of high dose methotrexate--all inpatient
Fri 9/18-Sun 9/20 Remain in hospital until toxicity numbers drop in her blood/urine.

The whole cycle would then repeat again starting right after her walk on Oct 2. I made them promise that she could be there the night of Oct 1. The schedule is interfering with this huge gala that is happening, partly in honor of my mom. It is at my Dad's house and 450 people are attending. Ally will be in the hospital at this point, but I do think Jerad's family is covering at the hospital that night so that we can go. It also would repeat two other weekends in Oct which includes the weekend of Jerad and I's 13th anniversary and also the weekend of Halloween. I HATE THIS. I guess the schedule is what it is and we will just write this year off.

On a lighter note, here is a picture of Ally and some of her friends doing body tatoos in the front yard. Not the normal things that you see kids painting. But then again, these kids are not living the norm either. (BTW Relentless for a Cure is the leukemia motto)


Also, a little housekeeping on the t-shirts. We had fantastic success today with people getting right on to ordering their Ally's Army t-shirts. 80 shirts have been ordered in 24 hours! Thanks for the quick response. I just wanted to say you can write any checks payable to Janel Barnett..I will pay the bill for the mass order of them. We can't do credit/debit cards. Also, when you email your order in to Nicki, try to tell her who you are or where you live so she knows the best way to get them to you. Even I don't know everybody that is marching. (but almost!)

We also still have Ally's Army hats (posted on the blog earlier) and we just got more youth size Ally's Army bracelets in stock. These can both be purchased by contacting Suzanne Booher at booher1@sbcglobal.net

LAST BUT NOT LEAST: Today is the day! I am not sure if you have been keeping tabs on it, but we hit our goal of raising $10,000 for the Leukemia and Lymphoma Society today. I have watched that little bar graph getting closer and closer to goal every day. I do believe we are going to surpass it by a substantial amount. I know of a couple thousand more dollars that will be coming in. And I know a lot of the walkers are personally emailing friends and family right now to support them.

WOW.

Check it out here:
http://pages.lightthenight.org/soh/Dayton09/AllysArmy