Happy 4th Birthday!

The below was published to CarePages.com on November 17 at 4:36pm. Kristi asked me to re-post it here, sorry that it is a little belated! - Kari

Greta turns 4 today. We can hardly believe she is already 4! We're celebrating tonight by going to the mall to ride the merry go round as she reqeusted. We're having a family party this weekend where Greta requested everyone wear princess dresses.

Greta had her regular clinic visit last week. She once again looked great and her counts were all normal. She gave a bit of a fight for her flu shot. It took two nurses, mom, one child life specialist and her doctor to get it done and a whole lot of screaming, but once it was over she quickly went back to playing and laughing agin.

While at clinic, her doctor talked about her next scan taking place in January. Which would also be her two year post transplant anniversary. It is amazing to me that its already been two years since then. What a busy two years it has been!

We'll update again in January when we're back in for scans. Until then, we wish you all a happy Thanksgiving, Christmas and New Years!

With love,

The Betz Family

Clinic Appt and Other Happenings...

Greta was back at DeVos last week for her check up and for some lab work. Everything is still looking good for Greta and the doctors are very happy with her counts. The great news now is that we are only going to the clinic every two months and her scans are every 6 months! We of course have mixed feelings about that. It was nice to have that reassurance that the cancer had not returned every 3 months so waiting for 6 months will probably make Randy and I worry a little more when she gets the next one. But it will be nice not to put her through the full day of scans as often.

Greta was also due for another vaccination while we were there and later that night she complained that her leg hurt and she woke up several times that night crying in pain. The pain continued for the next day and when we were getting her ready for bed we noticed that her leg was pretty swollen from her thigh down to her knee and when she walked she just dragged the leg behind her. We called the doctor and they reassured us that this was pretty common and could last 3-5 days. Unfortunately it made for a pretty miserable weekend for Greta.

Greta did start preschool this month and her ballet classes. She was very excited for both and much to my surprise (and very unlike her brother) she jumped right into both classes without so much as a second glance back at mom. She loves her preschool very much, but I think she would like her ballet class to happen every day!

We'd also like to request you keep another one of our DeVos friends in your prayers. Max who is 7 years old is fighting a brain tumor and just found out that the chemo and radiation treatments haven't stopped the cancer. Please pray for the miracle his family is so desperately needing.

Thanks for continuing to follow Greta's progress!
The Betz Family

Greta is Good!

We got the good news today, Greta is cancer free. The scans showed some inflammation in her chest, her doctor joked that this was an expensive test to show that Greta has a cold!

Now we're at the cottage for a week of sun, swimming and boating. The kids are very excited to have Grammy, Opa, Mom and Dad for nine days.

Thanks again for all your continued support and prayers!
The Betz Family

Scans Wednesday

Greta has her clinic appointment tomorrow for her pre-scan check up. Then her CT and Bone scan Wednesday. Please send some prayers our way for good results and for her parents to not get too overwhelmed with worry!

We hopefully will get results back before we leave for our vacation on Friday. As always we'll post as soon as we hear!

Big News for Greta

Greta is finally potty trained! And the great news about that is she can now go back to playing in the play room while we are waiting at clinic instead of being isolated in an exam room! We took advantage of that at her June clinic visit. Her counts and her blood work all looked great. So we are off again until July when she'll have another clinic visit and her CT and Bone scans. Hopefully if the scans all come back good, we'll be able to space the clinic appointments out more than a month apart.

We did have some excitement a couple weekends ago for Greta. She got a big cut in her foot from someone opening a door right into her foot as we were entering a restaurant. She ended up with about 7 stitches in the top of her foot. She did a lot of screaming for the stitches and when the doctor came in she said "No Doctor!!" I think she's seen enough of them in her 3 1/2 years!

Otherwise, she's doing wonderfully! We've been able to go swimming a lot so far this summer and go for rides in the boat. She loves the water and loves for daddy to "go fast" in the boat. We're hoping for some great 4th of July weather to spend on the lake.

We hope that you'll keep Greta and our family in your prayers. Especially Greta's great aunt Lynda and Great Grandpa Ray as they are both fighting their own battles with cancer.
Thank you,
The Betz Family

Two Years Ago...

Two years ago today, we got the news that Greta had cancer. The next day I sent out this email to everyone in my contacts:

We are in need of a miracle. Some of you may know, some may not, but we need some prayers for our little Greta. She is currently in the hospital with a cancerous tumor. The tumor is outside her left lung and has caused it to collapse. Greta will be starting a chemo treatment tomorrow afternoon so the next 3-7 days are critical as to how she responds to the chemo. The doctors have told us that this is a treatable cancer, but with her age, it could require 6 months to a year of to treat. Please, please include our family in your prayers.
The Betz Family.

We got our miracle! Thank you to all who followed our story and prayed for Greta's healing. We are truly blessed and we are so thankful for every day we have to share with both of our kids. We've been privileged to meet many families during the past two years that are fighting cancer. We've unfortunately have met many kids that lost that battle and were taken from their families too soon. We hope that you will continue to pray for those families too.

This is the time of year that many communities hold a Relay for Life campaign to raise money for cancer research. We know without this funded research, we may be telling a different story today. We need to continue to fund that research so we can help the families that are getting the unfortunate news today that we received two years ago.

Greta's grandparents are taking part in the RFL in Clarkston, MI and are taking donations. Please go to the website below and donate if you are able. We are also planning on participating in the RFL in Rockford, MI where we hope Greta will be in the survivor lap.

Thank you again for your prayers, for celebrating with us and for your support!

The Betz Family

The American Cancer Society - 2010 Relay For Life of Clarkston MI:

Sorry for neglecting to update the blog, I had updated the carepage and forgot to paste it onto here as well. Our apoligies for leaving you hanging for so long! Here is the post from March 18th:

Miss Greta's scans came back great. She is still cancer free and we are relieved again! She was so brave yesterday and such a good girl and did both her CT and Bone Scans without sedation. She was amazing. The good news now is she won't have to go all day without food or drink for her tests.
A thank you to the child life staff at the hospital who go out of their way to make sure Greta always has a good time at the hospital and made sure she was comfortable with and during her scans. They are amazing people who don't just make the hospital time tolerable, they make it fun. So much that Greta asked to go back today

Scans Tomorrow

We're heading back tomorrow for our day of scans at the hospital. We go in at 8 am so Greta can get an IV set and an injection for the bone scan. Then we have to keep her entertained and without food or drink until 1pm when she'll get her bone scan and her CT scan. The good news is that she is due for some vaccinations tomorrow so they can give them to her while she is sedated for her scans.

Please pray for Greta tomorrow that her scans come back normal!

Thank you!

The Betz Family

Happy "Birthday" Greta!

Today marks the ONE YEAR anniversary of Greta's stem cell infusion, when she got a fresh start after beating Ewing's Sarcoma.

She is a very different girl from the one who came home from the hospital last year!

Lots of honey blonde hair is coming in, and Greta gets more talkative and animated every day. She has the greatest sense of humor, and is an absolute joy to be around. She is going to give her brother a run for his money :)

Thanks for all of the continued prayers, love and support - we are counting our blessings by the truckload for our healthy baby girl.

Much Love,

Kari