Jaylie started "Kindergarten"

Jaylie's teacher came today! I guess it was kind of like the first day of Kindergarten for her. Jaylie has been really excited for a teacher to come to her house and teach only her. We tried to get her excited about it because it was hard for her when she found out she couldn't go to Kindergarten. She had been looking forward to Kindergarten for a couple years now, so it was sad for all of us. Luckily the school district has a home bound teacher who travels to the houses of students who are not able to attend school. Most of them have a compromised immune system. Jaylie can't go and be around a bunch of kids because her immune system is not strong enough and won't be until chemo is over. We have to really careful who we let in the house and where we take her. So don't be offended if you come over and we ask you health questions and make you sanitize and wear booties over your shoes:)  Anyways, she was excited all day long for her teacher to come. She is going to come to our house twice a week for an hour each time. Her actual Kindergarten teacher will give assignments and crafts etc to the home bound teacher to bring to Jaylie. I met with both teachers and the school counselor earlier this week and received a bunch of fun cutting, coloring and gluing type things and Jaylie loved it. She was so excited and did it all in one day! Both teachers are so nice and so willing to help, which is another huge blessing we have been given. Hopefully she will be able to join her class for the last couple months of the year and then go on to First grade. I just learned that in Texas you don't need Kindergarten to move on to First grade. You can just start with First grade. That made me feel better, I really don't want her to have to be behind. If she has to repeat first or second grade that is fine, but not Kindergarten.

Her home bound teacher, Trudy is really nice. Jaylie met her today and is so excited for her to come back. She did some things with Jaylie to see what she knows. I didn't stay with them, so I didn't know how she was doing. Afterwards she informed me that Jaylie already knew what she needed to know for Kindergarten. She said all the things she brought with her were too easy and she would have to meet with the Kindergarten teacher and come up with a different plan because she knows it already. She said if Jaylie was in Kindergarten she would probably be bored. I've heard that before from different people, but it made me happy hearing it from an actual teacher.  Jaylie really is smart. I am glad that I don't have to worry about her academically right now. I do worry about the future and the side effects of the full brain radiation (there can be many side effects that effect your learning), but at least right now she is fine. For that I am thankful. Hopefully she won't have the long term side effects that most kids have from the radiation and we won't have to worry about that. I am so glad Jaylie has a teacher coming to teach her, it will give her something to look forward to.

She has had a rougher week this week but is starting to feel much better. Tuesday was the worst day. It was really hard. Its so hard seeing her suffer and hurt. Tuesday night she couldn't sleep because she was hurting- her throat, her nose, her fingers, her toes, and behind her knee were hurting. It was hard not being able to do anything. She was tired and just not feeling well, never sick and nauseous though. She eventually fell asleep and was a little bit better the next day. Thursday was pretty good and today has been the best. She still is napping everyday and lays around a lot. I thought it was going to be much worse so I am thankful it turned as well as it did. We went to the clinic yesterday and had her blood checked and she was past the lowest point. Her counts are starting to go back up so she is starting to feel better. She made it through the worst part! And so did we! It's a relief that she didn't get sick or get an infection this time around. We are very blessed. Her oncologist was explaining that they always do the best on the first round of chemo because they go into it pretty strong and their numbers (they test a lot of things but mainly the ANC, platelets and hemoglobin)are high. After a round of chemo, the counts get knocked down and then recover but they don't quite get to the same high point, they are usually lower. So after each chemo round, they will start lower and lower so she will feel worse each round. They (oncologist and nurse practitioner) said she will have a 50 50 chance of needing a blood transfusion next time but for sure after that she will need them, and maybe more than once each round. She will have a higher chance ending up in the hospital from infections and sickness too. She has done so well so far so I know she will be ok, she is strong and she has been so blessed. People are praying for her all over the country and even in other countries. We are so thankful for all the support we have and for all your prayers. We really can't thank you enough for the outpouring of love and support!

Jaylie with her teacher, Trudy. She gets to call her by her first name.
She loves this Hello Kitty, you probably see her a lot in pictures, and Some of Jaylie's art work is on the fridge in the background :)

 

Jaylie at her appointment on Thursday watching a show. They have these tv's and x box's in all the rooms.

 Breklyn and Jaylie taking a bubble bath. Jaylie gave Breklyn a makeover in the bath and then did her hair and got her dressed and ready. They were so cute about it. This is how they looked, she did well! I love these two little girls!