Four months

Four months ago today, our family got news that we thought only happened to other people. "Your daughter has pre B ALL a type of leukemia...we'll be having her in surgery tomorrow and starting chemo in the evening." Of course our hearts sank and we felt helpless and just shook our heads and said ok.

Now, 10 blood transfusions, 11 platelette transfusions, 12 rounds of chemo, 2 trips to the ER, 15 inpatient admits to the hospital, 3 trips to X-ray, 2 bone marrow aspirates, 5 lumbar punctures, a staff and pseudomonous infection, the flu, rhino virus, hair loss, innumerable feeding tube placements, bum rashes that are unbelievable, mouth sores that make sucking a thumb impossible, happy days, sad days, lots of tears, hugs and gallons of puke, Odette is still smiling and fighting (and growing)!

We didn't know all of the things that lay ahead and the future was uncertain: this is still true, but we do know that we are surrounded by great friends, nurses, techs, doctors, cleaning ladies and family and have an amazing daughter that is a fighter! GO ODETTE!!

Fundraising

I know that a lot of you would like to help Odette out. A friend has set up some Fundraising efforts and could use some help. If you would like to help out, call Ketra Remund at 801-766-8449 or you can email her at remspring@gmail.com

So many of you have already done so much for my family. Even though they may seem simple, they have blessed our lives imensly. The "simple acts of love" are sometimes the easiest and most needed. I have enjoyed phone calls daily just to make sure I am doing ok, a loaf of homemade bread or rolls just brought over, "prizes" left on my doorstep, talks to one of my sad children and a bunch of hugs. Thanks so much for all of your continuing support. It is a rough and long road to walk, but has been easier with all of you!

You Choose

We are up at the hospital once again doing, so far, what I would consider the worst form of chemo ever!! Ken and I absolutely both hate it. (I think we might still have to do it one more time, but it is way in the future.) It is the high dose metholtrexate. It doesn't drop Odette's counts very much, which is nice because then she can go out in the hallway to be on "parade", but it causes all sorts of havoc with her skin and digestive system. Sores everywhere, yucky skin and puke city is what we can expect for the next week or two. Absolutely miserable!

I was feeling rather irate at the situation here at the hospital and my life at home, when it dawned on me. You choose. You can choose to be mad at what life brings you, or you can choose to make joy and laughter. (Yes, the thought came to my mind, "When life gives you lemons, make lemonade.") I went out to get my breakfast, and there wasn't one person who was mean and glaring at others. All would say "hi, how are you?" and would smile. People are always laughing and choosing to have fun here. If anyone has a reason to be mad at the world, it would be some of the families here at ICS, but why choose to be mad? That just makes matters worse...makes you not be able to deal well with all other aspects of reality. Makes you always grumpy, unfriendly, scary and sometimes even can cause health issues. Like the sign at my house says, "A smile is like the sunshine." (It actually is a primary song that continues and says "it brightens up the day, it makes the world look brighter and chases clouds away.") This is so true. The more I smile, try and laugh and I choose to be happy, the more the bad things just slip away. (No, they don't go away, but I am able to better deal with them, or they don't seem so awful.) People around me are also more willing to be helpful and the kids are always more obedient! (This is an awesome bonus!)

I think that in choosing to be happy we are also realizing to let things go. There are many things in life that we can't control. If you can't control or change it, then you just need to let it go and choose to be happy. Don't dwell on it, just smile. You can't control how someone else drives, so just ignore them and keep driving your way. You can't control how others behave, what illness' come your way, or if you can keep your perfect job in this economy(if you have the perfect job!) I have learned that I need to let things go that I can't control or change and I have been much more relaxed and happy with my life. If I don't just let go, I get really irritated at almost everything going on around me, even the good. Just accept life and move on and make your own happiness.

Odette has obviously chosen to be happy with life and she definitely could choose otherwise. She isn't up here being grumpy and yelling at people. No, she is laughing, smiling, talking and even dancing. If she can choose to be happy in her situation, then I should be able to do the same. YOU CHOOSE...

Trials

This week has been kind of a frustrating week. We were suppose to be back for chemo on Monday, but once again Odette's counts were too low. Platelets were low enough (13) that we needed to go just to get a transfusion. Once up there, Odette's heart rate was at 200 and her oxygen level only at 80 percent, so they didn't want to let her go home. This seemed to occur only when we were feeding her, almost like an allergic reaction. In the morning we asked that they just change out the feeding tube and if that didn't work, to try a different type of formula-both of our family has milk allergies, so we thought maybe we should try soy formula. After we changed the feeding tube however, we did the first feeding and she was fine--no puke, no cough, no high heart rate! So, we went home.

She has been happy for most of the time at home, only puked up her tube once last night, but has laughed and rolled all over just so she could be close to Josselyn or Kathleen. (Guess it is good the kids are out of school for the next few days!) Today the nurse came to get Odette's blood so we can see if she has enough counts to start chemo tomorrow. Not really excited to go back to the hospital, but can't wait for this illness trial to be coming to an end! I think that we still have 22 weeks of treatment--not counting the time out for being sick!

It has been very annoying lately to think about this trial. There seems to be no escape from thinking about it. I know that we are given trials so that we can learn and become better people, more like our Father in Heaven. However some trials come from the choices we make as consequences. We can't pay our bills cuz we bought to many toys or we lost our temper and now we have to fix a hole in the wall. These types of trials, even though difficult seem to me to be more easily accepted, because we "chose" them by choosing our behavior. Odette being sick is not because of a choice that anyone made and so is very frustrating for me to understand. I am sure good things will come of it, there already are great things, but in the mist of it all, it is hard to see what learning and good is going on. My brother must have been inspired because he reminded me of the following scripture: Doctirne and Covenants Section 122 verse 7"... if the very jaws of hell shall gape open the mouth wide after thee, Know thou, my son that all these things shall give thee experience, and shall be for thy good". I guess I am just testing to make sure that the scriptures are true!

Like a Child

This week, my mind has been very full of so many different things about life. Recently our family has had the luxury (I say luxury because it got to happen all at once instead of spread over weeks!) to experience much sickness. We have had the flu, sinus infections, allergies, colds, coughs, head injuries and the reoccurring of other past health issues. It seems that when we get sick, the house if full of winy, grumpy, and mean people. As I thought about this, I thought about Odette's illness. I have never experienced any real serious illness that can even compare to cancer.

This week while Odette has been home, she has vomited daily. She has mouth sores so bad that her lips are covered with crusted blood and bleed every time she pukes or attempts to suck her thumb. Her bum rash is cracked and bleeding even with every kind of bum ointment being applied all to frequently. (We use at least 12 diapers a day!) Her body has to ache because she is always squirmy and has a hard time getting comfortable. She is obviously miserable. However, she will still try and smile at us as we talk to her. She tries to play with her toys when they are offered. She sits patiently in her stroller or high chair while Ken and I try and get some dinner or help the other children. She gives hugs and kisses when she is anywhere near our cheeks. Despite her pain, she still is a happy, pleasant, lovable person. She definitely is heaven sent. When I found out I was pregnant with her, I prayed that if I had to have more kids that she would be angelic...my prayer was obviously answered. Only a very strong, angelic spirit would be able to go through what she is going through.

I now know in greater appreciation what the Lord meant when he said to become as a little child. I need to be more like my angel baby and more patient, happy and be able to endure my burdens with greater understanding and joy. After all, this lifetime is but a short moment in the grand scheme of things. A sinus infection doesn't deserve all the time wasted complaining about it, but our families, friends and neighbors need all of the service, love and time that we have to offer. I pray that I can take the attention off of the unimportant things of this life, stop my wining and spend the time on what truly matters in life.

Quick Party

At our house, our motto used to be "be prepared and plan ahead". Now that has gone out the door and we take advantage of every spare moment and "fly by the seat of our pants"! Tonight we decided that we would continue our tradition for birthdays and break a pinate with all the family that could come. Thanks to a great neighbor, we even had some very cute birthday cakes! (I felt bad not being able to make time for this because I love to do fun cakes for the kids, but in this case, I swallowed my pride and am so glad that I did--the cupcake cakes were soooo cute!)

The kids has a lot of fun hitting the pinate and getting the treats out that Josselyn had packed it with. We didn't blindfold anyone because we have learned that the duct tape the store uses to put together the pinate is much more difficult to break than a homemade one! Ken had fun raising and lowing it though as the kids took a swing!














In not being prepared, we didn't have candles, but the kids didn't care...we sang and had cake and the very best kind of ice cream money can buy...cookie dough! (The kids favorite.)

Odette joined in for the festivities by watching out the window as the kids hit the pinate and then watching from her high chair. She obviously hasn't been feeling well, and we thought we were past the puke stage. However the party ended on a grand note of Ken getting covered in barf and Odette finally being able to relax and fall asleep. Hopefully when it is her birthday she will be feeling much better. I have learned that it is great to take advantage of all the time you have and its okay to not be prepared completely for everything because you can make your own fun or make do with what you have. You are creating great memories with your family no matter if you have candles or not!

Brandt is Eleven!

I can hardly believe that eleven years ago Ken and I were expecting our first baby! We didn't know if it was as boy or a girl because we wanted a surprise...and that is exactly what we got! We love Brandt and are so glad that he is part of our family. He is an excellent big brother and a great helper. He asked me today when he could have his first babysitting job so that he can earn money for a bike that he wants. I told him that he didn't want to babysit for me cuz right now I will pay him with food for dinner!

He was very excited when Josselyn and I showed up at his classroom today to bring him his birthday balloons. It is a tradition to take balloons to school on the kids birthday-however many they are years old. I had to leave some at home since Ken figured that 11 balloons would be difficult to manage on the bus. Besides that, Brandt is still so little, he would probably just float away! HAPPY BIRTHDAY BRANDT!!

Josselyn's 3rd Birthday

Today is Josselyn's third birthday! At the last minute we threw together a birthday party for her and a couple of her friends. We had a Halloween pumpkin theme since what else is easy this time of year?! She had a lot of fun playing pin the nose on the pumpkin, making a puppet and a balloon jack-o-lantern. When we sang happy birthday to her, she got all shy and wouldn't look at anyone. I can hardly believe that she has outgrown the "baby" phase that seemed like it would never end. She finally sleeps though the night at least 70 percent of the time! She adds so much excitement and humor to our lives, I don't know how we ever laughed without her! Happy Birthday Josselyn--may you have many more!!

Random

There have been a lot of just random things going on at the Schiess house lately, so I figured that I would write about them.

Odette had two trips to the ER in the last two weeks. One I have already written about, the second was because she got a fever over 100.5-the magic temperature that requires we go to the hospital, get blood cultures drawn and start an antibiotic as a precaution. Ended up that she probably just had the flu that has been going around the neighborhood and two days later the entire family at home ended up with it!

Odette was home for a few days and it was great except that I had to give her antibiotics every night at 2am! It is tiring to be the night and day nurse and attempt to do a little mothering in there somewhere. I loved it when Odette would be happy because Kathleen was practicing her piano and pushing her around in the stroller! Then is when I would attempt the dishes or the laundry that gets out of control with all the puking from Odette.

We are now up at the hospital while Odette has chemo for 24 hours and then we wait for it to clear her system and can go home. This chemo doesn't drop her counts, so about 5 days is what we should be here as long as things go smoothly--when does that ever happen?

Kathleen graduated from RAD kids at school. She was so excited to show off her new self defense skills that they have been learning. I am quite amazed that she wasn't to scared to yell. She barely talks loud enough at home to hear her when she is standing right in front of you!

Josselyn has been a turkey lately and once again is seeing what is good to put in her mouth. I found a bar of soap with a bite out of it and she told me she ate it! It is a good thing that she isn't the immunocomprimised child...I don't think there is anything that she hasn't attempted to eat!

Sometimes I wish for life to be what it was before Odette got sick, but then I am reminded as I was today during conference that trials can be great things-just depends on what we do with them. Yes, I hate my trial, but I love all the tender mercies that have come to me and my family because of our trial that might not ever have occurred. We are extremely blessed and our knowlege and testimonies have been strengthened like they could not have been any other way.

Show support for Odette with a t-shirt

This is a friend posting for Stephanie. We can't seem to get the tshirt file to upload from her computer so I'm doing it for her.

Show your support for Odette by ordering an orange t-shirt and wearing it every Monday! Cost is $5 for kids sizes x-s to Adult size XL, and $7 for XXL. Order by Friday October 9th by emailing Stephanie at stephandkenschiess@msn.com or calling Ashley L. at 8017662371. If you don't want this shirt, just wear orange to represent lukemia! The tshirts will be here in 3-4 weeks.

For family members who are reading this that live far away, she said the shipping is taken care of. You can send her a check or put it in the Odette Schiess bank account at Wells Fargo Bank and just tell her your order.

-note from friend-This is not a fund raiser. The price of the shirts are the cost to get them. If you would like to help financially, contributing to the Odette Schiess bank account at Wells Fargo Bank would be a WONDERFUL help!-Thanks!