Happy Thanksgiving

We celebrated Thanksgiving at home this year with some of our family. Greta is feeling great right now so she was a happy little girl all weekend. We are so thankful for this long stretch of time at home as a family. We have one more day at home and then we return to the hospital on Tuesday for her last round of chemo before her stem cell transplant next month.

Thankfully there is little to report right now. It's a slow blog month for us, which is good news, the less excitement the better. We hope all of our friends and family had a nice holiday and also have lots to give thanks for too.

With love,
The Betz Family

Bald is Beautiful!

We're getting used to Greta smooth little head. It's hard to keep your hands off of it!

We took Greta on an unscheduled visit to the clinic on Friday as she was sleeping a lot and very cranky. They gave her another blood transfusion and she was much happier. We celebrated her birthday on Saturday with a small family party. She did a great job opening her presents and even blew out her candle on her cake. She was certainly the life of the party.

She went back to the clinic (scheduled) on Tuesday to get her counts and she is headed back up. The staff came in and sang Happy Birthday to her and gave her a present while we were there too. We're back again on Friday to make sure she doesn't need any platelets or blood transfusions before the weekend. Then Kristi, Gavin and Greta are headed to Clarkston to spend the weekend with Grammy and Opa.

Should hopefully be a much needed quiet week for us. We're certainly looking forward to Thanksgiving as we have a lot to give thanks for this year!

Love,
The Betz Family

Birthday Gift!

We got a great birthday gift yesterday from the doctors and staff at the hospital. According to our standard 2 week scheduling we were to be hospitalized over Thanksgiving and her stem cell transplant occurring over Christmas. But the doctors agreed to put off the last round one week which would delay the transplant a week (which we were assured would be okay for Greta) and would allow us all to be home for both Thanksgiving and Christmas! I was doing a little dancing at that news! Although we are a little cautious at getting too excited as you never know what fever or illness will do to change that schedule. But for now we have a lot of hope that we will get to spend the holidays together with the whole family. That also means we have almost 3 weeks at home.

We are counting our blessings!
Love
The Betz Family

Short and Sweet, just like Greta!

Greta's 13th round of chemo was a quick one, for once she hydrated quickly and we were able to start by 8pm last night. It's only an hour injection so she was done before bed time. However, she has to have some antibiotics before discharge but we should be home sometime later this afternoon. We don't mind these quick visits so much.

We should be home for two weeks now until her last regular chemo treatment with a few clinic visits in between. Monday will mark Greta's 2nd birthday. 6 months ago weren't sure we'd see this day. It is certainly something to celebrate and we are praising God that we will get to!

With Love,
The Betz Family

Time at Home

We were released early Wednesday morning and were able to get home in time to enjoy the great weather. Greta is feeling wonderful and had a great time playing hopscotch with our neighbor friends Emma and Alli. She went back to clinic on Friday and her counts were back up so we had a quick visit. We are scheduled to go back to the hospital on Tuesday for her next chemo admission. It's only a one day stay so we should be home again Wednesday.

Thanks so much for all the concern you expressed this week and for the continued prayers.

Love
The Betz Family

Another Fever...

...put Greta back in the hospital today. She was doing great this morning, but she spiked a 101.2 fever around noon. So in we go. Her counts are still way down so she'll be admitted until they go back up. As long as her fever is back down we should be okay to go home in a few days. Most likely this will push back her next chemo admission to early next week.

We'll keep you posted!

Love,
The Betz Family

Happy Halloween!

We spent most of Friday at the hospital, Greta needed both blood and platelets when we went in for labs so we were there for about 8 hours. But we were able to get home in time to get dressed up for trick or treating. Fortunately it was warm enough that Greta was able to go along with Gavin and her cousin Aidan. After watching them for several houses, Greta decided she needed to give it a go. We'll post some pictures soon!

We're back to the hospital for her next chemo on Friday and should be out by Saturday afternoon. As always, Greta is doing great and is happy to be home and playing with Gavin.

Thanks again for all your prayers!

Love,
The Betz Family