Join Athena, Annabelle, and their Mommies for a walk!

Light The Night Walk is The Leukemia & Lymphoma Society's evening walk and fundraising event. It is the nation's night to pay tribute and bring hope to thousands of people battling blood cancers and to commemorate loved ones lost.
The Leukemia & Lymphoma Society (LLS) funds lifesaving research that has contributed to major advances in the treatment of blood cancers and treatments for other types of cancer, such as chemotherapy and stem cell transplants. These treatments have helped patients live better, longer lives. New targeted therapies that kill cancer cells without harming normal tissue are providing drugs and procedures that are improving quality of life.

Be sure to check my Web site frequently to see my progress, and thanks for your support!

http://pages.lightthenight.org/noh/Toledo09/NBrocus

Miss Annabelle - Days 2 & 3

Jon M wrote on September 9, 2009 at 2:37pm
Surgery went well. A bit later than expected, but done. She came out with all of what the surgeon could see of the tumor, and 6 tubes in her body. Tuesday eve the cathader was removed, back to diapers. Weds AM we got rid of the ventalator. Weds PM we got rid of the stomach tube. We are left with the IV(2) and chest drain tube. Annabelle is in some pain from time to time, but resting most of the time. She really wants a bottle from what we can tell, and we are hopefully going to give her one sometime today. We are on another road of recovery, and hopefully this will be another short trip.Thank you all for your thoughts and prayers!
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Post #2
Jon M wrote 8 hours ago
overnight the oxygen tubes in her nose were removed. The arterial line was removed. The chest tube was removed (kinda gross/kinda cool). It's looking like we might move to the Hemo/Oncology wing today.

Miss Annabelle

I wanted to share this post from her mommy so you can all be updated:

Nicole Lowry McKenzie wrote

Well as you may have guessed from the topic of this discussion Annabelle's surgery has been scheduled for September 8th @ 2:15 pm. So your next question is probably what does this mean? Well they are going in to remove all of the mass that they can (and heaven knows we want it ALL gone!) and then they will review the tumor's pathology (look at the cancer cells) to determine if she will need to undergo further chemotherapy treatments. If they are able to extract all of the tumor and if the majority of it tumor is comprised of dead cells she more than likely will not need to have any further treatment, she will however be monitored very closely (blood work, MRIs etc) for the next 5 years to make sure that she is doing fine and that there has been no re-growth. After that time she will be monitored bi-yearly most likely into adulthood. The upside is that typically once a neuroblastoma tumor is removed it does not come back so as long as we get it all we will have very little to worry about :)As always your thoughts and prayers are such a blessing to us and we ask that you continue to keep our little one, her family, doctors and nurses in your prayers as we continue down this challenging road.

Thank you all again for your love and support,

Annabelle & family

Annabelle Updates - Weeks 13-16

Week 15-16

Well it's been a rough week. Annabelle made it through chemo with flying colors but when we got home she got sick. After a few visits with her doctor she is finally feeling better and acting more like her wonderful self (praise God!)! Last week we also had her MRI and unfortunately it showed that Annabelle's tumor has had little to no reduction in size since her chemo began. This means that we are in for another 2 rounds of chemo then we will possibly be doing another MRI which may or may not be followed by surgery.In the week ahead we will have some time to just relax and enjoy! Hopefully her numbers will be up so she can be around all of her friends and at the end of the week we look forward to spending some much-needed family time together!Thank you all for your continued prayers and support, our hearts go out to all of you!Nikki, Jon and of course Miss Annabelle

Week 13-14

Hello all! Well it has been a very busy week (as you can probably tell from the lack of updates-we're so sorry!).Annabelle had yet another scan this last week to make sure the cancer has not spread and to determine what portion of her tumor is still "alive" and how much of it is "dead". Unfortunately we don't have any results from this test yet but we have been told that we are to expect at least 4 more rounds of chemotherapy before the tumor can be removed surgically.We are going in for her 5th round of chemo this week and we are all hoping she stays as upbeat during this round as she has in the past! On a more positive note our little girl has been doing an AMAZING job in physical therapy! She is walking like a normal 18 month old and everyone has been quite impressed with her progress (she's such a fighter!!!).You really have no idea how much your thoughts and prayers mean to us! Thank you all so much!Jon, Nikki and Miss Annabelle

And for some new pictures:

Fun with Doctors lol
by Nicole Lowry McKenzie

And don't forget! The benefit is soon! Go to www.AnnabelleMcKenzie.com

Annabelle Update

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Nicole Lowry McKenzie
Well it's been a rough week. Annabelle made it through chemo with flying colors but when we got home she got sick. After a few visits with her doctor she is finally feeling better and acting more like her wonderful self (praise God!)! Last week we also had her MRI and unfortunately it showed that Annabelle's tumor has had little to no reduction in size since her chemo began. This means that we are in for another 2 rounds of chemo then we will possibly be doing another MRI which may or may not be followed by surgery. In the week ahead we will have some time to just relax and enjoy! Hopefully her numbers will be up so she can be around all of her friends and at the end of the week we look forward to spending some much-needed family time together!Thank you all for your continued prayers and support, our hearts go out to all of you!

Nikki, Jon and of course Miss Annabelle

Back to Annabelle's FAITH

Annabelle Update - Pictures of her and The Bee

Athena and Annabelle got to play last night. It was absolutely lovely. Since they have had nothing but tragic surprises, we wanted to start a trend of POSITIVE surprises... thanks to many, many of you. So as a Mother's Day surprise we took them some artwork made by Athena and a nice big check. I wish every single one of you could have seen the shock and gratitude on Nicki's face (Annabelle's mommy).

Look at those eyes! She wanted some love and kisses from Athena... BIG TIME.

"C'mon... just a little smooch?"

The Bee is SUCH a prude!

Visit www.annabellemckenzie.com for info.

Also...

ACS :: What Is Neuroblastoma?

One quick thing...

Annabelle is in the hospital for her 4th round of chemo right now.

If you're the praying kind, pray it's her last.
Pray she feels OK.
Pray she and her parents have the strength for this.
Pray for the doctors who treat her.

http://www.annabellemckenzie.com

Annabelle Update

Annabelle's Benefit Dinner and Silent Auction

7 PM to 11 PM on Friday

June 19th, 2009

St. John's Jesuit High School

5901 Airport Hwy Toledo Ohio 43615

This is a 21 and over only event.

Tickets for the event are $10 in advance or $12 at the door.

Please get your tickets beforehand!

Dinner will be salad, pasta, and mixed deserts.

Beer and wine will be available for purchase.

Bring your dancing shoes as there will be a DJ.

Silent Auction Tables and 50/50 Raffles

Some Silent Auction tables will close hourly, so come early and stay late!

Ticket Purchase Information
Tickets are printed and in, please see the Tickets Link.

Go to www.annabellemckenzie.com for all the information.

We'll be going, so if you want to come hang and party (I mean, who wouldn't??) LET'S GO!!!!

Updated! Anyone that has ever read Athena Bee's, PLEASE stop by for this post

My dear, sweet neighbor Annabelle McKenzie is only 1 1/2 and has been diagnosed with cancer. She has gone through 3 rounds of chemo so far and we are praying that it will be over. As one can imagine, this has been very taxing on her family, so I am going to be devoting much of my energy into helping her. All sales from my Longaberger and AVON sites will generate donations to her, and I'm also making it easy to just give directly. (See button on the side)

Fundraising info to follow soon.

If you'd be willing to have a button on your blog as well, PLEASE let me know!