Cincinnati Children's

We got word on Friday that the wonderful nurses at Dayton Children's have pushed to get Maggie's GI appointment changed from October 30 to October 6. We are very happy and grateful for them doing this and hope that with this appointment we will get some answers and a treatment plan.

Maggie has been doing pretty well. She is still having her episodes, but they are not nearly as bad as they were last week. I think the potassium boost and being finished with steroids helped the situation.

In general, I'm just so tired of dealing with these issues. I would like to move on from this life of worry and enjoy every moment rather than wonder/worry about Maggie's conditions and whether or not she will be with us the rest of our life. I feel like someone has paused our life for these 2 years (and more) and we can't move on. I'm tired-- we're tired. We just want our baby girl to be healthy.

I want to thank Westminster Presbyterian Church in Dayton. We got a surprise call from one of their ministers, Kay Davis-Dudding, last week wanting to support us. We had been in contact with Kay while spending much of the summer in the hospital last year, but once we got home, we lost contact. Since Maggie got sick, we haven't been able to go to church often due to her counts and treatment (now that we are in maintenance, we do not attend church during steroid week for obvious reasons). Going to church has become a special occasion. Anyways, Kay called and asked if the deacons could bring us a meal once a week and we received our first one yesterday. It was so wonderful and we are so grateful to them for this ministry.

Being in Dayton without any family nearby, we often feel alone, but this call was much needed as we are dealing with so many transitions and complications with Maggie's disease. It gives us the strength to continue one more day. Thank you Kay for initiating this wonderful ministry.

Please pray for a little baby named Lincoln, who we met while in the hospital. Lincoln was diagnosed when he was about 3 months old with ALL and has just relapsed-- he is about 9 months. Again, this disease is absolutely relentless. There is no reason why children should have to go through this.

Light the Night

We have been talking for a long time about participating in the Leukemia and Lymphoma Societies "Light the Night"event in Kettering. Last year we heard about it, but we were in the hospital more than we were home a year ago, so we did not participate. However, this year, we would like to walk at this event for Maggie.

Though Maggie is not walking, we will be carrying her as we walk-- as we've been carrying her through this disease the last year plus. If you would like to walk with us or would like to donate to this event on behalf of Maggie, you can go to her team webpage: http://pages.lightthenight.org/soh/Dayton09/Maggie

We hope we will not be walking alone, though we know that we are also doing this last minute. But, guess that has been our motto this last year-- plan at the last minute because we never know what might come up.

As for Maggie, she is doing a bit better. This afternoon and evening she was very fussy and seemed like something was bothering her when we offered her food. She also was quite tired today as she took a nap over 2 hours (with a poop break in-between). Tonight she also went to bed early. Hopefully this is her body catching up on sleep that was missed last week and repairing itself from the harsh toxins that entered her body. Please continue to pray for Maggie and check out her site if you get a chance.

Relief

I took Maggie back into the hospital this morning for a scheduled lab draw to check her electrolytes. With this lab came a new finger poke, which Maggie was not too pleased with; however, the pink band-aid she received on her finger has been a hit. She has "talked"about it most of the day and held her finger up to admire her "pink" band-aid. What can I say, band-aids and stickers tend to heal all wounds. I am so glad that this does the trick as it reminds me she does have some normal 2 year old traits.

The labs measured her potassium and carbon dioxide levels, two levels that determine hydration. Her potassium went from 2.1 yesterday to 3.5 today-- a big jump and just below the normal range. Her CO2 level went from 10.9 to 18-- another level just shy of being within the normal range. So, Dr. French did not need to see Maggie further today for more hydration methods. Though she had about 6 diarrhea stools last night, her body managed to maintain her levels. After a stool when Maggie woke up this morning, we have not seen one since, which is a rarity in this house.

This evening Andy and I were able to get away and spend some time together. We were able to "escape" our life by watching a movie tonight on the big screen. The last time Andy and I did something alone together was in November of last year. Since Maggie has been born, we have had 3 "date" nights. We know that nurturing our relationship is very important, but with all that has been going on, we just have not had time to do so. We have read in books that often marriages struggle to survive when a child is diagnosed with cancer and I can totally understand why. The continual stress of a sick child wears on everyone involved, and for Andy and I, the last 7 months have been particularly hard on us as we have had to deal with Maggie's cancer AND diarrhea. So, it was much appreciated that we spent an evening together.

The last day and a half my parents have come to "rescue" us from the day-to-day stress. It is so hard to keep up with regular household chores, especially during steroid week. My parents were able to take a couple of days to come down, clean up the house, fix up things that had been neglected, and give us an opportunity to have a "date" night. In short, I think they gave us some of our sanity back. We are very grateful for their help and all the support that we receive from our families.

Please continue to pray for Maggie, that we can find a resolution to this diarrhea problem, that the side effects to the chemo and steroids will disappear, that we can have some "normalcy," and most importantly the cancer will never return.

The Clinic

I called into the clinic this morning again to explain Maggie's symptoms of diarrhea and difficulty breathing. I think finally I got through to them when I shared over 13+ stools and she was breathing very fast. I would compare Maggie's breathing to a person who had just run a race. Thankfully she told us we should come in and so we went in around 10:15 am.

After describing the side effects, they ordered Maggie's labs to be drawn as well as an x-ray on her belly. They determined that Maggie's breathing difficulties are due to her distended belly. The x-ray showed a lot of air in Maggie's belly as well as some solid stool (we have yet to see either). Maggie's labs showed that her potassium was down to 2.1, the lowest Maggie has ever been (3.7 and above is normal). Maggie's bi-carb, another description of her hydration was at 10.9 (normal is between 20-27). This would be considered dehydration, however she had 6 wet diapers before she was given fluids. The nurse explained to me that due to Maggie's breathing difficulties she most likely was not expelling the CO2 well enough, therefore, the low number. Dr. French explained it was all related to her diarrhea (obviously).

So, finally we got Maggie hooked up to fluids, 2 hours of a potassium bollus and 2 hours of rehydration fluids. I asked Dr. French whether Maggie's potassium dropped throughout the course of the week of steroids or during her 13 episodes the previous day, he said most likely the previous day. I then politely explained that I had tried to bring Maggie in on Monday, but was denied. Whatever the reason, she needed to be seen and I am glad that we were able to at least replenish her electrolytes some.

Dr. French is to the point where he is getting pretty frustrated with the diarrhea situation. He came into our clinic room tonight, after being there for 8 hours, and came up with a "game plan." He is taking her off her of appetite stimulant, Megase- this a possible diarrhea inducer. He has also said that once Maggie has one liquid stool to give her 5 ml of Immodium every 3 hours until it stops. If it doesn't stop, that evening we will be giving her an antibiotic that will hopefully stop the diarrhea. If this still doesn't stop it, Maggie will have to come into the clinic to get a shot, and then I will take home the remaining 3 or so shots to continue to give her. This is the routine that they use for kids that take an actual chemo drug that causes diarrhea. We have already begun this new regime as Maggie has had 4 diarrhea stools since coming home from the clinic. Ironically so, she didn't have one stool while there (they wanted to collect a sample which we then had to do at home). Diarrhea is our life so I can't imagine that we won't be going to stage 3 of this regime often.

One other piece to our new plan is that Maggie is not allowed to drink milk or juice, or eat raw fruits or vegetables. They want to do anything possible to not aggrivate the diarrhea further.

As for the Cincinnati Children's GI specialist. A wonderful nurse at Dayton has already made a call to the specialists and has said she will be "whining" to them to get Maggie in sooner. She is a wonderful woman who actually attends the church that we've been going to in Dayton since we moved here. Hopefully she'll be able to make a difference and we can get Maggie in sooner than the end of October. Dr. French is adament that the chemo is not causing this diarrhea. He has never seen a child suffer like this before.

Maggie will go in for labs tomorrow morning to see whether her levels have come back up. Please pray that they will be within the normal range and that Maggie's diarrhea will go away completely.

It never ends

Well, on the positive side, Maggie's demeanor is improving. She is beginning to talk again and has gained some appetite interest again. She managed, for the most part, to keep her food down, except for a spit-up during her nap. Yesterday Maggie did really well until the evening and then ended up vomiting 2 times at Andy's brother's house, and then started her diarrhea once again to total 6 episodes yesterday.

Now to the not-so-positive-side. I called the nurse today hoping that they would want to see Maggie because her potassium could be low, due to all the excretions. She also had such a rough week with all of the side effects to the chemo and steroids that we wanted her to be looked at to make sure she was okay. However, we were denied a visit to the clinic saying that we should wait until the end of the week if Maggie's diarrhea persisted. We learned that many of her side effects were caused by the Vincristine chemo, which makes us think that she is receiving too much. Her fine motor skills were affected, she has fallen twice when she tries to crawl, she had stomach pain, jaw pain, she couldn't keep her head up, she was listless, slept much of the time, and when she wasn't sleeping she was crying constantly. Maggie is now hoarse as well and has a bit of a cough, which I thought was a symptom, but the nurse said today it was most likely from 3 days of crying. Supposedly Maggie's vomiting and nausea is not from the Vincristine, but instead from the steroids--perhaps a reflux problem. Whatever the cause, this last week was one of the worst weeks we've experienced in a long time. It cannot continue like this each month.

And now, Maggie is having rapid-fire diarrhea. She has had over 13 episodes today and I am sure we will experience much more tonight. I have decided regardless of what the nurse says tomorrow, we will be visiting the clinic to get Maggie looked at. There is absolutely no reason why she should be experiencing diarrhea or any of the other remaining side effects like she is.

And to make things even better, we scheduled our second opinion with Cincinnati Children's GI doctors today and the soonest they could get us in is October 30. So, we must go another month and a half constantly worrying about whether Maggie's electrolytes are okay. And, the poor thing will continue to eat, but not gain any strength or weight from her food because it leaves her body too quickly for it to absorb the nutrients. It's just this horrible unending cycle. Who said that Maintenance was going to be easier? Andy commented tonight that Maggie's side effects are worse now than they were when she was getting high dose chemo. We realize that fighting cancer wasn't going to be easy, but this is a bit more than we expected.

Please pray for dear Maggie, that her diarrhea will at least subside a bit, that we might get some answers to how to deal with it soon, and that she will fully recover from all the toxins that are being put into her body.

Lingering effects

We saw a moment of our old Maggie today when she asked for cake and said "Dada." We thought maybe she was coming out of her steroid trance, but that was only a moment of our old Maggie. Maggie has been dealing with nausea and vomiting today. She has vomited on 3 separate occasions, each time completely losing the little food that was in her belly (and medicine as well).

These steroids are just HORRIBLE on Maggie. They transform her and make her miserable. We have noticed that her eye-hand coordination has been affected as she put her hand in my milk today and when trying to grab a fry, grabbed my hand instead. I have never seen it this bad before, let alone this type of effect. I hope it is only temporary and this will resolve itself soon.

Please continue to pray for Maggie that the effects of the steroids will go away quickly. She is continuing to moan much of the day and is just as I said earlier, miserable. It aches us to see her feeling and acting this way.

Steroid-Hell

I wish I could say things were going better, but unfortunately they are not. When Maggie wasn't sleeping on me today, she was crying. This morning she was especially limp and listless, struggling to keep her head up. I don't know if this is due to the steroids or the meds we gave her to sleep last night. We ended up giving her Benedryl around 11:00 and then Ativan around 3:00. Maggie cried much of the night in between moments of sleep.

I just don't understand why steroids have to be so rough on her. I understand that they are difficult for all children, but I am sure that other kids are not constantly crying throughout the day in misery or pain. Maggie cried in pain much of the afternoon into the night last night, but I believe this pain was due to a bellyache in which was relieved before she went to sleep. Today much of her crying consists of discomfort or overall feeling of crumminess.

Maggie hasn't eaten hardly anything since yesterday for lunch. I managed to get her to eat some jello today and after coaxing her, she did drink some chocolate milk. Thankfully we are keeping her hydrated, but that's about it. She began keeping her mouth open this evening, which resulted in some drooling which makes us wonder if she has mouth sores, teething, or jaw pain from the Vincristine chemo she received on Monday. There should be no reason why she would have mouth sores as she hasn't received any chemo that would cause this and her counts are high enough to combat anything. Which makes us think it would be the latter.

Regardless, our inability to communicate with Maggie is very frustrating in that we are unable to help her. We can't quite remember the last time that Maggie responded this way to steroids, but we pray that it will subside as the effects wear off. I gave Maggie her last dose of steroids (for this month) tonight, so hopefully we'll begin to see signs of the "old" Maggie tomorrow night or Sunday.

Though we don't often see Maggie smile, I can't wait to see her smile, listen to her talk, and even tell us "no, no way, nope." Please pray for Maggie especially during this time.

Inconsolable

I took Maggie to get her labs done today as she has been inconsolable all day. Since she has had diarrhea, we wondered if perhaps her potassium was really low. It ended up that though her potassium did drop from 3.8 on Monday to 3.1 today, it was not low enough to get an infusion or cause her constant crying. The disheartening thing was that we went in there with Maggie crying and we left with her still crying, not being told how to help her, other than an increase in her oral potassium (which will not help the pain that she is in).

Maggie has basically cried since noon today. The only time she doesn't cry is when she is in the stroller going for a walk. The walking seems to lull her to sleep. So, we have spent much of the day walking the neighborhood. It is so hard to watch her cry and not be able to do anything. This is no ordinary steroid whine, this is a full-fledged pained cry. Something is hurting her, but we don't know what due to her lack of communication. We wonder if she has stomach pain or if her teeth are hurting her. We have no idea other than the fact that she is refusing to eat, drink, or take her medicines, which normally she will gladly do.

Please pray for Maggie that whatever is causing the pain, it will go away immediately. If this continues, I am to call the doctor tomorrow. I just pray that it will pass quickly. We have 1 more day of steroids and then hopefully all will wear off and our baby will come back.

Good and Bad

Good: Grandpa Bixler's piano recital was quite a good time. It was an afternoon of deep pride for grandpa and for Maggie. It was also a chance to thank a home community, church, and family. It was a great chance to meet two of our fellow leukemia families whom we've read about and followed online. The music was great, and we enjoyed every minute of it. Lastly, grandpa raised $5,000 dollars for children's leukemia research! Wow. We are humbled by his efforts and grateful for the support that the community demonstrated.

Bad: Maggie's diarrhea is very bad right now. When did we start with this? February. I wonder how much laundry detergent we've gone through since then? We continue to follow our almost-daily ritual of trying to decide if we need to take Maggie to the hospital to double-check that she is okay. Getting covered in liquid poo while in public barely makes us flinch anymore. The referral to Cincinnati Children's can't come quick enough. We are told that it could take a month or so to be seen.

Good: A very kind lady named Sue who often works the booth at the hospital lets us park for free. She has saved us a LOT of money over the past 14 months. The permanent pass that she gave us was taken away but she continues to let us through when she's on duty. She does it with a caring smile, too. Tonight Whitney said that it is gestures like this that makes her think that she can get through another day. Which speaks to how wonderful Sue is and also how worn down a mother of a child with leukemia (and nasty side effects) can get.

Bad: Whitney is 60% through her first steroid week without my being home during the day to help. Please say a prayer for Whitney and Maggie to get through the rest of the week. Maggie isn't falling asleep well (because of the steroid) and not staying asleep well (because of diarrhea attacks).

We should end with a positive I guess......Maggie is beautiful.

Steroid Week

We are on day 2 of 5 days of steroids for Maggie. Yesterday morning we went in for her monthly chemo infusion, anti-pneumonia infusion, IVIG (antibody infusion), and the start of steroids. Maggie's counts looked very good and Dr. French was happy to see her doing well, minus the diarrhea issue. He also commented on how different it was to see Maggie eating (she was munching away on butter with bits of potato and chocolate milk). We are always excited to see her eating as this once was not the case. And this is partly the reason why Maggie has been able to manage her diarrhea so well.

Her potassium was at 3.8 yesterday-- within the normal range even though she has been dealing with diarrhea for over a week. Maggie's managing it with her food and liquid intake, however, once we got home from the hospital, her diarrhea got out of control. It continued this evening as well, so she has had 3 very bad bouts of it. I just wonder how well her body will actually be able to manage given that she is losing so much liquid.

Dr. French also came in to talk to me yesterday about the possibility of being referred out to another GI specialist in another hospital. This diarrhea issue has been going on for so long and she has 10 more months of treatment, so it is likely that it will continue. I don't believe Dr. French is satisfied with the GI specialist at Dayton and what she decided. Basically, the book has been closed on Maggie's issues from their perspective, but it is hardly finished. After Andy and I discussed options, we have decided to look into a GI doctor at Cincinnati Children's to see if we can find anything else out.

I am to the point where I just assumed we would have to manage her diarrhea, but if there really was something else they could do, it would be very welcomed. To fight cancer is very stressful, but to add chronic diarrhea to the list adds to the stress. We continually wonder if she is hydrated, her potassium is within the correct limits, etc. Not to mention the amount of laundry and clean-up that we must do since diapers were not meant to handle diarrhea. Though I don't want to put Maggie through anymore invasive procedures, if they could find something, we would be so happy. And after talking with a nurse yesterday, what Maggie goes through daily dealing with diarrhea is probably more rough on her than a colonoscopy.

As we go through this rough week of steroids, please pray especially that Maggie's diarrhea will go away, that her body will maintain hydration and potassium, and that the effects of steroid will not be too great (fussiness, whining, sleep, etc.).

Thank you so much for your continued support. We appreciate all the comments and prayers.

Update and Big Weekend

Sorry for the tardy update. We've had a busy week and some computer difficulties as well. Maggie did go to the clinic and was given a good report. Her potassium was relatively low from her diarrhea, but it wasn't low enough to need to do anything different (no IV infusion). That was a relief for us as we know that sometimes she manages okay even with severe diarrhea for a few days.

More importantly, we got to see her blood counts for the first time in a long time, and they were in great shape. Her platelets have risen since the last time they were read and her white count and red count are fine as well. It was great to get the good report, and also nice to get the counts a week early so that we could relax until the next visit.

Maggie goes in for her next clinic visit for chemo on Monday and will start a week of steroids then as well. So, we begin our cycle of treatment, side effects, and slow recovery.

This weekend is exciting for us as Whitney is in her cousin's wedding today, and we have an exciting concert planned for tomorrow. Maggie will get to see both sides of her extended family this weekend.

My (Andy) dad is a pianist and provided the soundtrack for my childhood. I remember waking up on Saturdays to the sound of his practicing, he played in church quite often on Sundays, and in general, he filled our walls with beautiful music. He is very gifted. When Maggie became sick, he decided that he wanted to hold a benefit concert to support pediatric cancer research, and Sunday (tomorrow) is the day. He has spent many, many hours planning the concert, arranging some of the pieces, and getting them all ready to perform. A local family recently started "Lydia's Hope," a children's cancer foundation to support research...in honor of their daughter who lost her battle with AML leukemia earlier this year. The proceeds from the concert will support Lydia's Hope and will hopefully contribute to meaningful findings to better understand, treat, and defeat pediatric cancers.

It is going to be a wonderful event, although I don't know fully how it will feel until we get there. I know that it will be a very moving and uplifting time and I hope that Maggie feels well enough to be able to enjoy it. I know that I will be very proud of my dad, my daughter, and as always the families that have or will share our struggle.

We'll post an update and hopefully some pictures in the early part of the week. Also, we'll pass along info about Lydia's Hope and the projects it supports.

Thanks for your continued support and interest in Maggie.

Possible clinic visit

We have decided to call the clinic tomorrow and see if we should go in to get Maggie's counts checked. She has had diarrhea pretty much since Friday and so her potassium could be low. Maggie and I will be heading to Columbus on Wednesday for meetings for the duration of the week and then heading home for the weekend for my cousin's wedding and a benefit concert (more details about that later). Being that we will be gone for 5 days, we feel that it is probably best that we check her out so that we don't have to make a visit to another hospital later in the week.

With this visit will most likely come the most dreaded CBC (blood counts). We have talked before that when we haven't received counts in several weeks, our comfort level drops quite a bit. I worry a lot that the CBC will show "bad" numbers, but I think most families hold their breath even slightly when that time comes. Please pray that her counts will show that everything is on track and that they are perfect.

We are pretty sure now that the reason for Maggie's diarrhea is because of her chemo drug, Methotrexate, that she is taking on Wednesdays. About 2 days after taking the drug, she begins having diarrhea episodes, except normally they subside after about a day and half. This episode has lasted much longer and being that she will again receive Methotrexate on Wednesday, we want to make sure that she has some "room" to lose potassium.

Other than this bit of projected news, we had a pretty good weekend. Andy had his 30th birthday yesterday so we got out of the house and headed towards the Cincinnati area to a new outlet mall and Ikea. Today we spent the day with his family and my parents celebrating his birthday, along with his twin brother. Maggie had a chance to "play" with her cousin Ian and his cousin Eliza. Though she didn't readily play with them, there were moments where she came out of her shell and interacted with them. Those moments are really priceless for me as they don't often occur.

Please pray that Maggie's diarrhea will go away, that her counts will come back normal, and that she will never deal with cancer (or its side effects) again. Also, please say a prayer for a family that we have been following on caringbridge, as they lost their 1 1/2 year old baby girl, Alana, to cancer yesterday. This disease is cruel and unfair as little, innocent children are losing their lives. It also again reminds us of the reality of the disease and what it can do. All I can do is hold my little girl even more tight and pray that God will heal her.

Transitions

Today began a new day for all of us. Andy began his first day of a year-long internship in Cincinnati (the last requirement to receiving his doctorate degree). With this comes a lot of transitions for all of us.

Since Maggie was diagnosed, Andy took a year off from school and so there was always one of us with her. My job was very nice in that I could do a lot of work from home, so I was able to be home and at the hospital with Maggie also. So, in essence, Maggie has had both of us at home for the last year, and Andy and I have been there to support each other as well. This will no longer be the case.

Andy's commute to Cincinnati is about an 1:20 minutes and so he will be having long days. He actually got home tonight and was very tired (this is the first day in a long time that he has worked an 8 hour day). I will be taking on most of the care of Maggie, which in the past 5+ days, has been quite wearing as Maggie has been very needy and clingy. I have been "unemployed" this summer, though working part-time teaching at the college, but hopefully (for money's sake, not time's sake) my grant will be reinstated soon, so that will change as well. With that, I will try as hard as possible to be with Maggie during the day and then will work evenings and weekends. Regardless, things will be very tough for all of us and we will all be pulling long days.

Today was my first full day of taking care of Maggie and after having Andy around for a year, I took for granted the help and support that he provided. For example, my day began at 4:45 this morning when Maggie woke up to tell me that she needed "washed." Her diaper had once again betrayed us and she had wet through her clothes and onto the sheets. Rather than clean the sheets, I put a pad on top, changed her, all the while hoping she would go back to sleep. Not the case of course, and so for the next 40 minutes I walked Maggie around our house waiting for her to fall asleep.

At 7:45, Maggie again awoke to her bowels and her diaper again did not help us out and so the pad was dirty, as was Maggie. I changed her again, noticing that she was still tired (which I was happy about since I had not fallen back to sleep until after 6:00). So, I again walked her for 15 minutes and she went back to sleep.

Finally at 9:00, poor Maggie again awoke to her bowels and again, I took to cleaning her up. This however was not the end as not more than 15 minutes after that she went again, but this time it went all up her shirt and onto the rug. She and the rug ended up with a morning bath to finish things off.

Now, why am I sharing these poopy details? It's to tell you that our life is a 2-person job. It is rather difficult to handle poopy situations as the lone man (or woman). For this reason, I miss Andy already and know that this will be a long year. But, at the end of the year we will have two success stories-- a healed Maggie and a Dr. Andrew Bixler.

Turning tides a little bit-- Maggie again had her physical therapy this morning and things haven't changed much. She still cries continuously through the entire 30 minute session. I have skipped out on the last 2 sessions because it absolutely agonizes me to hear her crying like that and looking you in the eye like "rescue me." Her PT did say though that there are many kids who cry and actually refuse to do the work, but Maggie doesn't. She might cry, but she is still doing what is asked of her.

One little step in the right direction occurred today as Maggie stood on her own with no support for 30 seconds. She had done it for 5 seconds before, but this was a new record. I was so proud of my little girl as she stood there. She also used a walker and walked back and forth across the room. Our goal was to get her walking by her second birthday, but it doesn't look like we will. Our major issues are motivation or interest and confidence. The motivation is the key as she is content to sit and watch tv or be carried all day. She will talk about other children running or walking (her favorite right now and has been for over 2 weeks is "Ian walk."), but for some reason she doesn't care to do so.

It was good to see her progress though today as we feel in the last 2 weeks she has regressed. I think I just need to become a little more stern and have PT sessions in our house everyday. That will be rough for the both of us.

One more thing that Maggie is doing very well at is EATING. It is so weird to see her want to eat, but so wonderful as well. She has been a big fan of soup, so during her nap (all of 30 minutes) today, I made her a batch of potato cheese soup. She has been eating it constantly ever since. Hopefully this (and other items) will pack on the pounds, but more importantly, that her body will be able to absorb the nutrients and not lose it all in her stool.

Please continue to pray for Maggie as she fights this horrible disease and its side effects. And also pray for us all as we go through many new changes and transitions this upcoming year.