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!"