A Restful Day

God knows when we just need a "time out". It was cold, windy and rainy today so Savannah and I went to the hospital to tie up some loose ends while Susie did some of our laundry. After that we came back to the Lodge to relax. We all decided it was a perfect day to just keep the pjs on, close the curtains, get in bed and watch movies all day. Later we ordered in Chinese food for dinner and then went back upstairs for more movies. They are waiting on me right now to start yet...another movie.
Savannah will be flying out tomorrow (Wednesday) at around 1pm. Susie and I will start home as soon as we get her taken care of. We are all anxious to get home again.
Savannah looks good and feels pretty good...she just gets tired very quickly.
Can't wait to see everyone again. It seems like forever.

Memorial Day

Savannah had to go back over to the hospital this morning and check in with her nurses and doctors. They did a blood test etc. and said that she is free to stay at the Lodge until she leaves NIH. We also heard that NIH was having several new patients come in the next day or two and they needed her room. It didn't take long for us to load a big cart down with her stuff and get out of Dodge! She has to get all her drugs and supplies tomorrow, talk to the doctors one last time and then we're outta here! Although it's possible that they won't schedule her flight til Wednesday morning so we might have one more night at the mansion :)
Today, after the big move, Savannah, Susie and I went to downtown Bethesda again to a shop Savannah had seen the day before. Considering that there wasn't an article of clothing in the shop under $150.....we left and went in search of other places to shop. We found several and had lots of fun!
We are getting ready to get in our pjs, put a movie in and have a girls night in. We are all exhausted!
They're waiting on me so gotta go! Love

A SUPER Sunday!

This morning Savannah called early to tell me that one of her doctors said she needed to get out and do something. We started making plans but before we really decided on anything, Donna called and said she and the girls wanted to come for a little visit. As it turned out, we had a great visit at the Lodge with Donna, Lilly, Rose, David, Aparna and Aparna's parents; Lalitha and Prasad (sp?). They are originally from India but moved here years ago and now live in Virginia Beach. They are some of the sweetest people ever! We really had a nice visit.
After that, Susie, Savannah and I went downtown to see a movie and eat dinner.
We saw Night at the Museum which was not our first choice but we got the theaters mixed up....anyway...it was cute. We ate at the Austin Grill. It was very good.
Savannah is going to stay the night with us at the Lodge. I think it will do her good to be out of her room for a while.
We Thank God for all the wonderful things He is doing for us and many other people here at NIH! Love to ALL!

Saturday, 23rd

Sorry....I forgot to post last night!

Today is a good day for Savannah. She feels better...no nausea or dizziness but still a small fever.
We might get to come home Tuesday or Wednesday.

Earlier we enjoyed a nice visit from Jeffrey, Donna, Lilly & Rose. Toward the end, Rose caught her second wind and did some Irish step dancing for us. Savannah and I were both wishing we had that much energy!

Kristi Parrish just called a few minutes ago and said the Benefit Rummage Sale was a HUGE success. We can't express how Thankful we are to Kristi for getting all of this started and to all of you who helped with it. I know everyone is EXHAUSTED!
Thanks also to all of you who shopped! We appreciate everyone SO much!

Please pray that Savannah's fever will go down and stay down! Thanks!

Thursday, 21st

Danny made it home yesterday afternoon and Susie got here safely.
Today the doctors said that Savannah's white count and platelets are still doing really good. She's on track. Today they gave her more blood and antibiotics and about 20 other drugs for various things....I've lost count of it all. They said after tomorrow she might not be neutropenic! Woohooooo! She's still having issues with nausea and dizziness so please pray that will all go away. She is also starting to take a bite or (maybe) 2 of some foods. Everything tastes different to her and she's just not hungry....she has to force herself to eat.
I've just tucked her in for the night so I'm headed for bed too! Love you all!

Oh!....almost forgot.....Thank you to all of you who have been helping get the Rummage Sale ready for Friday and Saturday. As you all know, I've had my fair share of yard sales and I KNOW how much work they are. It is SO kind of y'all to work so hard for us. Thank you.....Thank you.......Thank you ALL!

Wednesday, 20th

Danny left this morning to go back home and back to work. My good friend Susie is coming to stay the remainder of the time with me. She should be getting here some time this evening.
I thank God every day for all the good friends and family He has given us.
Savannah is on the mend. We are still waiting for her platelets to multiply and for everything to fall into place. The doctors are saying she might be ready to come home early next week instead of late next week like we first thought. I'm in no hurry...I would rather her stay a day or two extra and be stronger than to push it.....we'll see!
They have already scheduled her return appointment for June 10th. Things move fast around here.

May 19th

Today was another lovely day in Bethesda. Savannah is feeling a little better and her sense of humor is coming back . Earlier we watched American Idol together and BTW....GO CHRIS ALLEN from Conway, ARKANSAS!!!!!....anyway, I took her on a walk around the hall to get some exercise before putting her to bed and we got the giggles. She was acting really goofy. Maybe it was the medication...(not!) Whatever it was, it was good to laugh with her again.
For our Anniversary Danny and I went to downtown Bethesda and ate lunch at a quaint, trendy little place called the BlackFinn Grill. It was very good. We went in a couple of shops and then headed back to check on our BABY! It was a beautiful day to be out and I think it did me good to get away from the hospital even for a couple of hours. Keep up those prayers please! love to all!

Monday, Monday

Today we entered Savannah's room to find her receiving 2 more units of blood. Her hemoglobin was down to 7. That could be another reason she is so weak. She's still neutropenic so they've still got her on all kinds of antibiotics. Her right arm where she had the tumor removed is swelling more than usual but I don't know what they can do about that. I sound like doom and gloom but actually she feels and looks a lot better...she's just really tired.
She received some mail today so that pleased her.

On a much lighter note...Danny went shopping by himself today! Tomorrow is our 25th Anniversary so he decided he would take off on the metro to Pentagon City Mall to find me a gift. It has 4 stories with some really nice shops. I've been there before so I knew what he was getting into...and I told him...but... he was determined to go! SEVERAL hours later, he returned with a beautiful silver and crystal snow globe with a picture frame in the top and on the bottom he had our names and "25 years of Loving" engraved on it. He did a good job. He must REALLY love me because He really HATES Malls! :)
Tomorrow, Tuesday, May 19th is also my Dad's Birthday!!!!!!!!!!

!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! HAPPY BIRTHDAY DADDY !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Things change fast!

Wow! yesterday we thought the bad was over and then it all changed. Savannah gave us a good scare last night. Her fever spiked, she was chilling, her heart rate was speeding, it seemed everything that could go wrong did....for a little while anyway. Danny and I both decided to stay the night.
Aunt Lou got the prayer chain going at home and by this morning they said she had turned the corner. She is exhausted, fatigued and extremely weak from the treatment but now that it's over, her body just needs time to build itself back up. They are giving her drugs to help with that too.

Thank You God

Today, we had a wonderful visit with Jeff, Donna, Lilly, Rose, David and Aparna.
They came over to the Lodge before going to see Savannah. We sat around in the kitchen area and had coffee and a little later...lunch. We took a walk thru the garden and then headed to the hospital so they could say "hi" to Savannah before they had to leave.
All in all, it was a very good day. :)

Yeah She's thru w/ IL2 !!!!!!!!!!!

Thursday afternoon until this morning (Sat) has been a little rough on us all. Mostly Savannah! The IL2 has so many side effects. The nausea and shakes were probably the worst ones. They had to put her on oxygen because she was having a hard time breathing due to the fluid on her lungs and she was having some very real, vivid dreams. They said that's when it's time to stop!
She is still neutropenic which means she has no immune system at all, so the next 7 - 10 days they will be trying to get her immune system back up and running.
Since Thursday Danny and I have been taking shifts staying with her. Danny was gracious and let me have the day shift and he took the night. He's used to the night thing with his new job so that helps but we're both pretty tired. Not physically just emotionally.
Today I'm just sitting here watching her sleep. The doctors are calling it "chill" day. She gets no treatments just some good old fashioned rest. It's a nice day to chill because the hospital is always dead on the weekends so there is not a lot going on like during the week. It also is a little overcast here and looks like it might rain......always a good time to kick back!

If anyone would like to pray specifically, Please pray that she loses the fluid off her lungs and that she doesn't have any long term side effects from the chemo
AND of course for complete healing!
God is Good! He has blessed us beyond compare. love y'all

An INCREIBLE God!

It was so SWEET! Earlier one of the TIL LAB Techs came in to meet Savannah. She brought her a hand made card from all the people in the lab. She said that they had been working with her cells for weeks and wanted to put a face to the cells. She said Savannah had AMAZING cells. Til cells that other peoples Til Cells could only aspire to be like! Of course she was being silly but she said that every day they would come in and count them and it would blow them away how fast and strong they were.
The card said "The entire Til Lab staff would like to congratulate you on receiving all 47.6 billion of you cells. They were such a pleasure to take care of......"
She said they are studying why her cells grew so good and fast and some peoples don't.
I should have told her it was all the prayers.....that's something they won't find out in the lab. :)
They gave her 47.6 billion cells and by the time she comes back for her check up in 4 weeks they said she will have over 89 billion cells fighting the cancer. Isn't that AWESOME?

TIL CELL DAY!!!!!!

Today is til cell day...the day we've been waiting for....the reason we're here!!!!
It only took about 30 minutes or so to get them and now they are just monitoring her to make sure she stays stable. Right now, she feels pretty good but around 3:00pm they will bring the dreaded IL2 in and get that started.

When I came in the room today, Savannah had a "thing" on the computer for me to watch. She, Bo & Shelby had written love letters to me and then Savannah had put a variety of pictures of our family (with music) on a DVD for my Mother's Day gift. It was the best gift anyone could have given me. Of course I started crying and then Savannah did and Danny just laughed at both of us. It was the sweetest thing EVER!

While I've been trying to write this post Savannah has had all her vitals taken, done her physical therapy, seen her Infectious Disease doctors and the Chaplain. Man, am I slow or what?
I am SO slow (as a matter of fact) that they just came in to start the IL2...so...probably should go talk to them.

Tuesday, 12th

Today was another beautiful, sunshiny day in Bethesda. After Savannah's treatment we checked out her dream store...ANTHROPOLOGY. She found a couple of cute things she just had to have!!! After that we visited White Flint Mall, did a tiny bit of shopping and had dinner at The Cheesecake Factory. She was so tired afterward that we came straight back and put her to bed. I don't think we will be trying any more outings that big for a while. She's just too weak right now.
We were supposed to go to Baltimore tomorrow to meet Jeff, Donna & the girls, David & Aparna (Donna's brother and his wife) and Aparna's brother and his wife and new baby. We were going to meet at the Inner Harbor and go to the Aquarium and see the sights there. Well....Jeff & Donna both came down with a terrible bug and Savannah is just not up to a trip that long so we are going to have to save that for another time.
Her last chemo treatment will be in the morning at 5am. Thursday is till cell day.
They will give her the till cells around noon and then later in the afternoon she will start the Interleukin 2. That's the part I'm dreading most. They say she will get very sick. They will continue the IL2 until her body can't handle it anymore then they will stop it. After that she will be very weak for a few days. From then on we will just be waiting for her immune system to get back up to full strength.

Thanks for the prayers...please keep them coming!

Monday, 11th

This afternoon Savannah felt like going shopping . We went to the Wig Shop where we had plenty of laughs. I think the little Asian man who owned the shop was wondering about us till we told him we were from Arkansas. He seemed to take us in stride after that. Some people ...(danny & savannah)... just give Arkansas a bad name! :] We found The Container Store and ULTA (similar to Sophora) and had dinner. By that time Savannah was getting very tired and another storm was brewing so we called a taxi and headed for NIH. Savannah is once again, all tucked in for the night and by now probably sleeping tight! Our LOVE to ALL!

Mother's Day

Today was a lovely day!  The sun was shining, there was a nice warm breeze and as I sipped my coffee on the patio this morning,  little birds were flittering all over the place in the garden.

  Donna (my sister-in-law), Dottie (her mom) and my nieces, Lilly & Rose all came to visit Savannah this afternoon.   It was really pleasant.  We talked, lounged around, played games and then came over to our humble little mansion to walk through the gardens and have some coffee.  Later after they left, we had a late lunch/early dinner, fought over the massage chair (again) and took a little nap.    Savannah is back over at the hospital now all tucked in for the night.  I think we wore her out! 

 Tomorrow looks like wig shopping day and possibly other shopping too!!!

We feel all the prayers being prayed and we appreciate it SO much.

God reminds me daily - HE is in control...not the cancer!

Last night was a little uncomfortable for Savannah. The chemo made her skin turn really red and her face & lips start burning. She was running a fever too which is normal but it was a little higher than they wanted it to be so they ran more tests to make sure there was no reason for infection. Today, she is feeling much better. They just started her on the 2nd chemo that is much easier to tolerate. She will receive that daily for the next 5 days. During that time, if she feels like it they will let her go out on pass to shop, eat or see the sights. SO......all is good for now. :)

Friday 8th

Today we woke up to the beautiful sunshine and warm breeze which is in sharp contrast to the gray, stormy weather we've been having. I think the sun has helped our attitudes as well as the nurses, doctors and everyone else.
Savannah is very sleepy today so we're just leaving her alone unless she wakes up needing something. The nurse just started her 2nd dose of chemo a few minutes ago. All is going well and the doctors say we're on track. :)

Thursday 7th

Today was fairly uneventful til around 4pm when Savannah's research nurse stuck her head in the door and told us they did the last check on the till cells and everything was a GO! They started her chemo around 5pm and aside from one little bit of nausea (which they medicated her for) she is very tired but doing good.
Danny and I are tired...even though we haven't done anything but walk back and forth from the lodge to the hospital. I think ours is mostly mental exhaustion.
We feel your prayers and we're so thankful for them.

Savannah's address

Some have asked for Savannah's address here at NIH so here it is -

National Institutes of Health
Building 10/CRC, Unit 3NW
9000 Rockville Pike
Bethesda, MD 20892

Patient - Savannah Dutton, Room 3-1640

Wednesday 6th

Savannah spent last night in her hospital room so she could have a procedure done this morning to put a pick-line in her neck. That is where they will administer all the fluids, drugs and till cells.
We're happy about that considering she has tiny veins and doesn't like being stuck repeatedly with needles. She is having some discomfort but the pain meds they gave her are starting to kick in.
They told us this morning that the new scans they took showed some growth in the existing tumors. There are some new spots also on her liver and lungs. They said it is not surprising considering she hasn't had treatment yet. When they start the treatment, it will effect ALL the tumors in her system so that's a positive!
PLEASE pray that the treatment works, the side effects are minimal and that she gets no infections while her immune system is down.

Danny caught the Metro earlier to go to the grocery store but he's been gone quite a while. I hope he's not lost......or.....maybe he's just searching from store to store looking for Savannah's pomegranate body wash she ordered! :) She's definitely got him wrapped around her finger.

We Love Y'all

Overwhelmed!

As I sit here trying to write this.....I am at a loss for words.

  

 The Benefit for Savannah was beyond successful.  We are SO thankful and humbled by the outpouring of love and generosity that our friends, family and community have shown us.   We will never be able to thank all of you that were involved!  Hopefully we will have the opportunity to pay it forward one of these days.

They are saying at least 400 were served food... (I'm thinking maybe more) and it was estimated that there were between 600-800 people that got through the door to listen to music, visit and bid on the items auctioned off.  Some came, saw the masses,  left a donation and didn't stay....so there is no telling how many were really involved.  :)

Diane Cramer and her whole family along with many others too numerous to mention, did a FANTASTIC job cooking, organizing, serving, etc.   It was a HUGE undertaking and they pulled it off without a hitch.

We are also thankful to the musicians who performed (they were wonderful)

We appreciate the Auctioneer and all those who donated those yummy looking pies, cakes, cookies and other desserts as well as household items to be auctioned.

We are so blessed!  

It might be a while before I can get Thank You cards out but all of you involved......you know who you are........please know that we Thank You and we thank God for you! 

NOW ABOUT SAVANNAH.....

Monday was a blurrrr!   We didn't get much sleep Sunday night.  Danny and I flew out of Tulsa at 7:45am and Savannah flew out of XNA around 10:30am.  We caught shuttles to the lodge at NIH.   We all took naps. :)    Savannah had to check in the hospital and have some tests run but then they let her stay in the lodge with us. We found an awesome Italian place that delivers to NIH so we took advantage of that for dinner.   After that we found a massage chair in the 3rd floor sitting room. We fought over that for a while and after we were all de-stressed.....we went to bed.

Savannah had to be back over at the hospital at 7am for more tests.   Since then we have been hanging out doing....pretty much ...nothing.   She has to go back over in a little while for an MRI then come back to the lodge for the night.

This is such a beautiful place and they have thought of everything.  It is comfortable and useful and a haven from everything else going on around us.

We are so Thankful and so Blessed. 

Again THANK YOU.....WE Love you ALL!