KW Poker Run - Jessica's Story

Keller Williams Federal Way Presents:

The Second Annual
Purpose Driven Charity Poker Run
Saturday August 23, 2008

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Read Jessica's Story

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Testimonial

The Purpose Behind the Event

Ok so last night was probably the toughest time for Jessica. Her temperature was 102.2 and her white blood count went all the way down to zero.

Your white blood cells are the ones that fight off infection and battle cold and flu viruses a very very important part of her cancer treatment. A normal count would be between five thousand and ten thousand
with extra stored in the spleen.

Jessica has no spleen and now her bone marrow cannot produce any blood cells. Bone marrow produces white and red blood cells along with platelets and she is low on all. She gets red cells and platelets replenished through transfusions and the white count is helped by re-infusing her with stem cells that we stored from her before the heavy chemo along with a few other drugs. Any way it is a very complicated process to say the least.

Currently she is in a lot of pain because in dealing with cancer we must do many things that all of us as parents would never in a million years allow our children to have happen to them. We’ve driven her body to a point near death by pumping the Chemo poisons of Etoposide, Ifosfamide, Cytoxan and Carboplatin into her body in hopes that cancer will die. Trying to find that balance point were cancer growth stops and the natural cancer fighters of the body will take over. We pumped drugs in like Mesna to help the bladder to survive. Ketorolac to help with pain after surgery because other pain meds will cause systems to shut down when used with Chemo. Zofran to stop the production of stomach acids so the intestines and stomach will not be damaged. Sucralfate rinsed in the mouth to stop sores from forming and it’s a good one to swallow to help the intestines but good luck to anyone who can swallow that. Morphine for obvious reasons but she can't have it until the pain gets really bad...

The list goes on and on and Luanne and I spend our time reading through endless papers about all of these and other drugs and their side effects. Side effects that sound like a scene from Saturday Night Live.

“May cause liver damage or failure, stomach ulcers, head aches, shortness of breath, fatigue, low blood pressure, abnormal liver function, mouth sores, hair loss, diarrhea, kidney damage, hearing and eyesight loss, blood in the urine, confusion, seizures”

and yes the big one death. The list goes on and on.

Last night Jessica lay in pain, Luanne in bed with her rubbing her back and I in front rubbing her feet and her hair, I laid my head in front of her un-blinking little brown eyes as she stared into mine with her faced twisting in pain I remember asking god to let me take her place. The nurse comes in to hook her up to drugs and for a very long ten minutes we wait for the Morphine to take effect. And when it finally does she begins to drift off to sleep where in that long lost void she can play with her friends without worry.

I find myself watching her not wanting to go home and leave her and Luanne there without me. And now I’m home where all I can think about is Jessica and what is happening when I'm not there. Will she die without me? Sleep will come for an all too brief hour or two.
Thanks you my friends for all your wisdom, encouragement and the occasional bit of money! (Marc) The late night talks! (Steve) and the hard work, (Deanna, Jason, Anne) The shared wisdom ( Marc, Jesse, Jon) Thank you to My daughters, Katherine our temporary mom at home, and Valerie for working at a toy store.. : ) My boys Ricky, Barry, Paul, and Tomas. Keep Jessica in your prays I know god has a plan for her life.
Wally, Luanne, Jessica and family.
PS thanks for letting me rant. : )

I’m home after relieving Luanne. I was with Jessica for half of yesterday and most of today… I and Luanne are like two ships that pass in the night. I think we talk more on the phone then when we were dating. So Jessica had a nasty time she couldn’t sleep longer then ten or fifteen minutes at a time, the rest of the time was spent with me rubbing her back and legs. Her temperature through the night and today bounced between 103.2 and 97.8. This meant lots of tears and rolling around in bed, and of course no sleep for me, not that I could sleep anyway. She’s been getting Morphine every hour and fifteen minutes. Finally today we got switched over from small doses of morphine to a morphine drip with an activation button for her. Whenever she is in pain she has a button to push that will boost the amount of Morphine that is running in her lines. She has plenty of toys and crafts to do, but no will at this time. Her white blood cell count finally rose today to 200, a good start. They run blood cultures every 3 to 8 hours depending on her temperature. Blood sugars tested from her urine every time she pees. When the cramps come it helps to rub and pat her on the back. This is the toughest time because she looks into my eyes unflinching with tears welling up. But in a strength that has become only Jessica, just a few minutes after the pain begins to subside, she’s telling me she wants to play a game! So we play “Go Fish”. We never make it through the game but we enjoy what we can. No food or water but I sneak her an occasional ice chip that makes her feel better along with her hot pad on her tummy. Oh and thank you, you know who you are, for the Chicken Tortillon (sorry for the spelling). : ) Jessica is on the up side now. Lots of pain left but it should start to get better! The hard part I guess is knowing that we will have to do it again one more time about three weeks after she gets home.
Jessica, Wally, Luanne and family.