Wednesday, June 17, 2009

ook my can doo!

OK... sorry again for the delay. We opened a store on Main Street (P R O S P E C T).... and I have been staffed as marketing / art guy / random task.... things on the real estate front have picked up as well, so, needless to say, things have been hectic. So, here we go:

These are old pics... but sooooo good.
1. Rogan and cousin Shea, at Casey's 33rd birthday. I felt like a photographer on the Discovery Channel, capturing a rare feeding. I was scared to get too close.
2. Coco & Rogan: tub time.
3. Taking Cookie for a walk in Dad's sweat soaked snowboard socks and gloves.
4. Dr. Rogan, checking Sophia's ("Fia") blood pressure.

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I'm sorry I have yet to update Rogan's blood count charts. Her platelets & red blood are fine... but her ANC (bacteria & virus fighting white cells) are still very low (500 - 1500).... normal is around 5,000. We checked in with the docs and this is what they want... it is a good indication that her body responds to the chemo and that if it is suppressing her ANC then it is also killing the 1 or 2 cancer cells (if any) that may still be lingering. So, obviously she is at risk of picking up a bug... and the deal is if she spikes a fever of 101 for 1 hour or if she hits 102... then we go to the hospital. They immediately draw blood and run a culture over 48 hours to see if it is growing a bacteria. She also gets IV fluids and antibiotics to start fighting anything.

We are sick of being on quarantine, so we have been getting out a lot with her... just doing our best to keep her away from sick people. She spiked a fever last month and we ended up spending 2 nights in the hospital. It was miserable.... and super scary, because she showed no symptoms, besides the fever. She also had a some type of shift in her ANC... which led everyone to believe that it may be bacterial. Coco got banned from sleepovers at Primary's for being too wild... so I had to spend the 2nd night alone, with Rogan. Sleep doesn't exist there.... especially if you're over 4 feet tall or your kid's central line is hooked up to an IV and she's rolling over constantly trying to get comfortable. I only had to re-staff 1 nurse and overall, things were as seamless as can be expected. She ended up beating the fever back and when nothing showed on the culture within 2 days... we were cleared to go home and it was chalked up to a random kid fever. Stoked. It is so sad to see your kids get sick. I hate it.

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Her counts were zeroed out from the bug and she took a week off of chemo..... to recover, which is unnerving. Since then, she's just been plugging along eating and sleeping well and growing and getting strong like a normal girl. Here's a couple shots from her last spinal tap... best 1 yet, because the anesthesiologist was A+. He took the time to build a good rapport with her before he injected the meds... and she never got scared or cried.

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Her hair is coming back and it is epic. We snuck into Auntie's house and poached some eye make-up.... then accidentally smeared it all over the floor.

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These girls rule Norfolk Ave:

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October 2010 we'll be swimming!

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Rogan is amazing right now and we feel so grateful. She talks a ton... everything regarding a timeline is "2 weeks"... and anything regarding a quantity is "9, 10". She'll tell you a story about her mama bird or going on a Bear Hunt.... facial expressions are so intense and classic. She loves to "cheers" at the dinner table.... it's fun, except she likes to do it every 30 seconds and then she slams her milk bottle on the table like a Viking and sprays milk everywhere.

She loves to show off. She can stand on her skateboard and I'll pull her holding her and she says "look my can doo". Here she is at Whole Foods with her very own, well sanitized cart. "Follow me Mama!"

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Rogan lost her other Papa on May 2nd, after a valiant fight against an aggressive Melanoma Cancer. He loved her so much and was a brilliant Grandfather to her and a legend and mentor to us. Respect.


roger

7 comments:

jowo said...

Thanks for keeping us up to date. All look beautiful.

suzan said...

Your girls are so stinkin cute, I can hardly stand it! I'm so glad you have been able to get out more.

Way to go, Rogan. You're killin it! Keep it up sweatheart!!!

XOXO~ Auntie Susan

Jo said...

Rogan's hair is amazing! So great to see her out and about!

Send my love along to Casey and the girls.

Jo

ishybeanie said...

she is getting so big. I'm glad things are going well. Sorry about your dad Casey. We will be there again this summer, maybe we can stop by and say hello

Beth said...

What a trooper Rogan has been. Glad to hear things are progressing well. Looks like Norfolk Ave is in for a wild ride this summer with all those cute girls breakin' out. Give em hell, Rogan.
Hugs and Kisses

katherine said...

hi, I havent met you but am part of your Quik Retail family and following your blog. SOO glad to hear Rogan is doing so well. Go, Rogan, GO!!!!

LG + PL + LF said...

Corey - Congrats on the launch of the store, I have no doubt that its going to be a huge success. Rogan and Coco are so adorable and as always I love reading the updates :)