Friday, June 29, 2012

For those who may be interested, KSL, Salt Lake City channel 5, is airing a segment on Lexe Saturday June 30th.  The segment will air at 6:30 pm and again at 10:35 pm.

Lexe is developing some positive cell activity.  We are all hoping that she can come home some time next week.

Sunday, June 24, 2012

It has been awhile since our last post.  Lexe has concluded round 2 of chemo and is now in count recovery mode.  Lexe's ANC count is 0, meaning no immunities,  and she is reliant on blood and platelet transfusions.  Things are going good, no fevers or other illnesses just a waiting game.  Its hard to say how long it will take Lexe's body to start producing cells but hopefully she can come home in about 2 weeks time.

 A group of soccer players and coaches from the Netherlands, who were in Utah running soccer camps, heard of Lexe's story watched her goal on youtube and requested a visit with Lexe.  The visit was arranged by one of our neighbors.  They are a great group of folks.  Lexe was given some cool gifts from the Netherlands.

Lexe's new Dutch friends
Lexe's U of A coach, Lisa Oyen, shared with us a link to a short article on Lexe in Wildcat Wednesday,  a University of Arizona Athletic Department publication.  Scroll down once you open the link and the article is called "Courage Personified".  Again the school continues to stand strong behind Lexe.  Go Cats!
http://www.arizonawildcats.com/sports/inside-athletics/spec-rel/062112aaa.html

Last Monday Lexe was visited by a special friend, Taleah Stevenson.  Taleah is 3 years old and a fellow leukemia patient and is doing great!  Laurie's good friend, Trisha Orr is Taleah's grandmother.  The fight against cancer bonds together people of all ages and sizes.

Lexe and Taleah
Jeremiah Jensen texted us yesterday to tell us that KSL will be airing a segment on Lexe during next weekends Sportsbeat Sunday program.  Jeremiah spent several hours in our home and is a great guy.  We are interested to see how the segment rolls out.

We are all doing great.  In a few weeks time we can officially declare this experience 1/2 over.  Lexe remains upbeat and happy.  Despite some hard days, we all feel blessed that Lexe is so strong, both physically and mentally.






Wednesday, June 13, 2012

Round two of chemo has been a bit rough.  Today is day six of eight.  There is light at the end of the tunnel!!  Lexe had several nights of very high fevers.  During one tough night Lexe's fever spiked up to 106 degrees.  She had an episode of the rigors, extreme shaking and shivering, that needed to be controlled with Demerol.  The nursing staff at Primary Children's is outstanding and they have worked very hard to keep Lexe's fevers and nausea under control.  Eating is difficult right now.  Lexe has developed mouth and throat sores that make swallowing very painful.  She is currently using a morphine pump to manage  the pain.  In typical Lexe fashion, she needs to be forced to use the pump.  Getting an honest pain indication from Lexe is usually a negotiation.  Lexe is one tough cookie!!!

Thank you to all of our support team who have provided our family with meals, rides, gifts, gardening and the list goes on.  Most of all thank you to those who have provided a shoulder to lean on during crummy days.  

Saturday, June 9, 2012

Round two of chemo is officially underway.  Lexe was admitted to the hospital on Friday morning and the day began with a spinal tap and chemo in the spinal column followed by the start of chemo in the evening.  The next round will be much like the first round, ten days of chemo every morning and evening.  Lexe will be in the hospital again for approximately one month.  

Lexe is currently not feeling well she is already running a fever.  Darn!!

It was wonderful having Lexe at home, we felt normal for a couple of weeks.  The highlight was her graduation.  Lexe was able to attend her graduation and even walked to get her diploma.  She was seated away from the graduating students and was one of the first names read.  Lexe walked and we went straight home.  Not ideal, but she made it!!

being received by school administration

Finally!!

Diploma in hand, we headed for the exit

Lexe Selman, class of 2012
The goal Lexe scored during her Utah Avalanche Tournament last Saturday, the game she was not supposed to be in, is receiving a lot of media attention.  We were happy that someone captured the goal on film but we did not expect to receive this much attention from it.  Lexe's goal, and story, was the lead off story on Fox13 several nights ago.  Rick Aaron came to our house and interviewed Lexe and several Avalanche teammates along with her Coach Jo Barney.  We felt that Rick did a great job with the story and we were happy that he focused significant attention on cancer awareness and AML.

http://on.fox13now.com/q5eaSOR

This same story with be played again Sunday night at 10:05 PM on Fox 13 Sports Page.

KSL Sports Beat will be featuring Lexe and her fight with cancer towards the end of June.  Jeremiah Jensen spent a couple of hours at our home last week interviewing Lexe and our family for the story.  Jeremiah promised us that he would devote a substantial amount of time to cancer awareness and leukemia.

Thank you to all those who been so very kind to our family.













Sunday, June 3, 2012

The last several days have been great!  Lexe has continued to enjoy her time at home.  Last Friday, Lexe had her bone marrow aspirate and we expect to get the lab results back Monday or Tuesday.  Keep your fingers crossed.

This past weekend Lexe's Utah Avalanche club team played two games in Park City against a team from Colorado.  Lexe's physician gave her permission to warm up with her team.  Well as it turned out, Lexe's coach decided at the last minute to let Lexe start the game and take the opening kick.  She was supposed to kick the ball out of play and then leave the field.  But once the whistle blew, it was game on!  She jumped into the game full tilt with her central line and all.  She ended up scoring an amazing goal less than one minute into the game.  One of her U of A coaches was at the game and his comment was "this is something out of the movies".  It was one of the most remarkable things we have ever seen.  One of the spectators at the game filmed the goal and put it up on YouTube.  The link is below.




Lexe warming up with her team 

Lexe's Avalanche family, her "94" team mates.

Moments before the start of the game on Saturday.