Lexe remains in the hospital.  Today marks the 28th day of her round four stay.  She still has no immunities.  Todays lab results showed, again, an Absolute Neutrophil Count of 0.  Lexe is resting comfortably and has been able to stay infection free.  She continues to receive units of both packed red blood cells and platelets.  This will continue until her bone marrow "wakes up" and her body starts to produce blood cells on its own.  Its hard to say how long it will take Lexe to start producing cells but we have been told that recovery from round four is usually the longest.  Most patient need at least 40 days.  We sure hope that Lexe is able to beat that number.  Our entire family, and especially Lexe, is ready for a permanent reprieve from the hospital.  Until then we are all keeping our fingers crossed that Lexe will remain infection free.

Yesterday Lexe's University of Arizona soccer team had a hugh win over nationally ranked Cal Bears. It was fun to track the game.  The game was televised on Pac-12 TV and the following link contains a small segment explaining to the televised audience why Arizona's warm ups all are #13:

Arizona honors teammate with Leukemia

Once Lexe starts to show positive cell activity we will let everyone know.

Over the past few days Lexe has been fever free.  The powerful combination of antibiotics she is receiving are working.  Her latest blood cultures have shown no bacteria growth.  Lexe has felt very sick over the last couple of days most likely the result of her current drugs.  Her stomach is taking a real pounding and she is constantly nauseated.  She has forgotten what it feels like to feel "good".   Lexe has told us that her current medications make her feel worse than being on chemo.  Unfortunately she will need to continue taking these antibiotics for several more days.  The latest lab results show that Lexe still does not have any immunities.  Its hard to say when Lexe's immunity system will rebound but it could be a week or more.  This zero immunity period is frightening.

Despite the way she feels, Lexe is a real joy to be around.  She is focusing on the future and is anxious to restart her life.  Lexe is the most positive person we know.  The finishing line is in sight!!

The following link is a story about Lexe told through the eyes of one of her Utah Avalanche teammates who is currently playing soccer at the University of Southern Utah:

http://www.suunews.com/news/2012/sep/13/madison-wood-suu-player-mission/

Sorry to report that Lexe had another setback.  Lexe finished her fourth and final round of chemo 8 days ago.  Chemo went pretty good with steroids helping to keep her fevering down.  The biggest concern over the last week was the amount of weight Lexe has lost between rounds 3 and 4.  Her providers were working on a strategy to help her regain some of her lost weight.

Early Sunday morning Lexe awoke to a rather large fever, 103 to 104 degrees, and had her blood cultured for bacteria.  We found out last night that Lexe cultured positive for a gram stain negative bacteria.  She is again septic.  This sepsis is a result of her having no immunities.  She has started to fever really hard and is very nauseated.  Her blood pressures have had periods of being very low.  She required an IV bolus this morning to help get her blood pressures up.  So far she has avoided a return trip to the Intensive Care Unit.  Lexe continues to receive units of both platelets and blood.  She has required demerol to help control the rigors, a condition of sever shivering brought about by fevering.  Lexe is currently on four different antibiotics, Vancomycin, Fortaz, Flagyl, and Gentamicin.  These antibiotics are very powerful and hopefully will kill the bacteria causing all the issues.  Further blood culturing, results we are waiting for, will help further nail down the best drugs to use against this bacteria.  Lexe is also c difficile positive.  C difficile is a bacteria that we all have in our digestive tracts.  Constant antibiotic use, and chemotherapy, can cause c diff to overtake all the good bacteria in our digestive tracts causing major problems.  This is being treated with the drug Flagyl.

We are very hopeful that her lungs will be spared any trauma from this episode of sepsis.  We expect Lexe to start producing some of her own immunities in the next 10-14 days.  Till then, join us in crossing our fingers!

For all of those who have joined Team Lexe Kicks, if you haven't emailed Hadlee your tee-shirt size, PLEASE DO IT BY THE END OF THE DAY!! This is the only way to guarantee getting the right size!! We also need to order the tee-shirts!! Please email you size to teamlexekicks@gmail.com ASAP!!!! Thank you so much!!

We are very happy to report that Lexe received her last dose of chemotherapy this morning at 3:00 AM!!!!  Lexe's fourth and final round of chemo is complete.  The week went pretty good with only a few bumps.  During chemo Lexe was put on steroids every six hours to help keep her Ara-c induced fevers down.  This lead to fluid retention and an ongoing battle with high blood pressure.  Now that chemo is over, Lexe has been taken off of the steroids but her blood pressure continues to be elevated.  We hope that her blood pressure will start to trend down soon.

We now enter the very scary zero immunity zone.  The next 2-3 weeks Lexe will be very vulnerable to infections.  It was at this point last round that Lexe went septic and ended up in the Intensive Care Unit.  Needless to say we have restricted all access to Lexe in an attempt to keep her safe.  Once Lexe's counts recover she will come home hopefully having beat leukemia ready to continue on with her life.

On a very positive note, the bone marrow studies done prior to the start of round 4 showed no evidence of leukemia blasts.  We are very optimistic!!  We are so grateful to all of the many wonderful people who have stood with us during this trying time.  It is impossible to comprehend having taken this unexpected journey without all of you standing should-to-should with us.  Your support has  enabled us to endure this trial.

On Saturday the Tucson Star ran a story on Lexe and her U of A team.  The story was on the front page of the newspaper.  The attached link will take you to the story:

http://azstarnet.com/sports/soccer/college/wildcats/wildcats-helping-as-lexe
-kicks-leukemia/article_483d245e-1531-5c5c-aae8-58a3960b130b.html

Just a reminder that September is childhood cancer awareness month.  Since our experience with leukemia, we have all become very aware of the many children fighting this terrible disease.  Lexe has formed a team to help raise both awareness and funds for childhood cancer research.  The following information was part of an earlier post.  If possible please join us on September 29th.  We are hopeful that Lexe will be able to attend:

To our Family, Friends and Lexe Supporters,
      On September 29th, CureSearch will be having its annual walk in Salt Lake City. The walk will be held at Sugar House Park (1300East 2100 South). CureSearch is a organization that raises money and awareness strictly for childhood cancer (most cancer organization only give 4% to childhood cancer). The walk consists of individual teams. Each of these teams are made in honor of a child who is fighting or has fought cancer. Each team raises money, all of which  goes towards finding a cure for all types of childhood cancer.
     We have made a team in honor of Lexe called "Team Lexe Kicks". We would love to have as many team members as we can! To register for "Team Lexe Kicks", you can go to our team page which is www.curesearchwalk.org/saltlake/teamlexekicks.
     To register, click on the 'register' button. Then click on the picture of Utah. It will take you to the link for the Utah race. Click on that link and agree to the waiver. It will then take you to a page where you select what type of team. Click on Join a team. After that type in the name 'Team Lexe Kicks' and select our team. You will then be directed to our team page. At the top of the page, right under the title, is a 'join our team' button. Click on that and then fill out your information and donation amount. (It is a $10 registration fee for anyone over the age of 15). Click submit and you are done! Those who register before September 2nd will receive a Lexe t-shirt to wear at the walk.  Also, even if you don't participate in the actual walk, you can still donate money to our team.

     To get more information on CureSearch, what it does and the walk, go towww.curesearchwalk.org. If you have any questions regarding Team Lexe Kicks, please email Hadlee at teamlexekicks@gmail.com. Also, after you have registered, email us your name(s) and t-shirt size(s). Thank you for all of your love and support! We hope you can join us in this event to "Kick Cancer!"