Finally...

Just 2 days short of two weeks, finally, Indie is home. It felt so good to hug her and see her NOT lying in a hospital bed. Hugs all around and now we are whole as a family. This was the longest that she had ever been away from the family, (besides Heidi, who stayed with her at Primary Children's). This just feels SOOOOOO GOOD to have her home.

Shout it! Shout it! Read all about it!

There is a nice article in the Deseret News in the Davis County section about the fundraiser/head shaving assembly. We haven't seen it yet, just heard about it from yoyograndma and grampaw. Also, Indie is tons better today after sleeping for about 18 hours straight. She is of the dilaudid pump and starting to taper down to a tablet dose of methadone so she can come home by Sunday, maybe, maybe, maybe Saturday. We are all so anxious to be back together, it feels like it has been forever. There are many kids here who have and will be here for weeks and months, so we are very thankful that she can come home. Thanks for your comments, please keep them up, don't be afraid to just say hello! (Indie hasn't read them much but it keeps me going) - Thanks, Love, Heidi

Wednesday, December 27

Well we made the best of Christmas. It definitely will be one that we will never forget. It was very stressful up until Christmas eve, not quite knowing how things would turn out, but it really wasn't too bad. Jason, Avery, Gracie and Ivy opened up gifts at home, then brought Indie her gifts to open at the hospital. The hospital provided a nice Christmas dinner for immediate family, so we ate it while Indie slept. Thank You so very, very much to Allison and Camille who filled in for me and pretty much did all my Christmas tasks. Of all that you have done for us, I really owe you big time for this one!

Indie is doing much better today. Her fever has stayed down and her blood counts are coming up. She is still having a little pain in her back between her shoulders so she will have an x-ray to see if it's some weird thing I can't pronounce, let alone spell. The CT scan she had yesterday looked normal, still a bit of infection in one lung and the blood clot is starting to diminish slowly. Her eye has stopped drooping, that was a huge worry, especially for Indie. She was certain she was going blind from all her fevers, like Mary Ingalls. She is sleeping like a baby and smiling like the darling that she is.

Also, as much as I hate to discourage visits, the Nurses can't stress enough to me the importance of absolutely no sick visitors, for Indies sake and the other patients as well. All the kids that are in this unit are here because they have no immune system at all so the slightest little "bug" can make them extremely ill. And we really want to get her home asap of course! -Thanks

Thank you .

Without family what Indie and our family is going through would be horrible. We as a family Myself, Heidi, Indie, Avery, Gracie and Ivy are so grateful for the dinners, the babysitting and all the nice things that we sometimes don't recognize. At this time of year we are truly grateful for the gift of family and friends who care for our family when we are not there. For the rides to and fro, for the prayers well wishes and cards. You are the most valuable people in the world to us. If you are wondering if you are one of our special angels the count yourself amongst them. Again words fail at this time they do not communicate the gratitude we as a family have for you. We love you and may you have a Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year!
Love
The Dunlaps

Traits of an Angel...

Indie what I want to do now when things seem dark is to have the sunshine pierce the clouds. I would ask that all who read this and who know Indie would contribute one or many things that we love about her and her special spirit. ... When you get better and can read this I want you to know that:
1- When you smile my heart melts.
2-You have always had the gentle spirit of an angel with a heart that knows no limits.
3-Your rosy cheeks have inspired me from the first day that we met till the last second since I saw you.
4-You have a gift to inspire the best in people even when you are not feeling well.
5-You are my firstborn and have the first spot in my heart, your name is written and etched by the Holy Spirit in my soul.
6-Your Faith in God and people is unwavering and inspiring.
7- When I think of you my heart swells with love and pride.
8-You give of yourself so freely that people that meet you are amazed. Remember the lady at the Christus statue? Free food for life at her restaurant!
9-Your ability to make people feel loved and included is amazing.
10-I love your quirks that make you unique and special. Remember when you would always ask everyone, " Can I have that"? You still do that to this day and I love you for it.
11-Late addition: when you would flap your arms like you were trying to fly. I think that you still had memories of being an angel and still thought that you could fly. Also those binkies. Mom kept trying to ween you off of them so she would cut a little off of them each day. One day all you had was this little nub. I laughed so hard! You were still holding on to that tinsy piece of a binkie. Even then you were very dedicated and relentless in getting what you wanted.
I love you Indie. With all my heart and soul.
Dad

Of course there are many many more that I could share... I could go on for a lifetime. If you could take a minute and share your special memories about or with her she would love it!

Still in the Hospital.

Today she is getting a CT scan as well as bone scan to try to figure out why she has the pain with her arms and neck. They took her off of the morphine due to nausea and some other problems. They started her on Dilaudid 4oo mc every ten minutes or when she presses the pain management button. She has been a little out of it and has been in and out of sleep with some minor hallucinations and just saying odd things.
It would be so GOOD to have her home for Christmas. Friends and loved ones please pray that they will find this problem so that she may return home for Christmas to share with her family. We miss her terribly as well as Heidi. It's odd that when we separate for a day or two it is no big deal but when it is for reasons such as this you feel as if someone has stolen half or more of you.
The Dunlaps.

Update

Well Indie is doing better. Shes had 5-10 mg if morphine every 2-4 hours, and that has got her pain under control. The pain in her arm muscles is either from an infection or most likely a rare side effect from chemo. Her blood culture that they took yesterday and today to test for an infection in her central line. I didn't know it was for specifically that, it's amazing what you can learn by asking specific questions. Anyway, the blood culture is tested at 24, 48 and 72 hours for "bugs". So far nothing has developed yet. Although she still does have some type of infection in her body that normally she could fight off, that is why she has a fever. Wow, just when you thought laymans terms couldn't get any lamer! It sounds like I am explaining it to 1st graders, that's cause medically that's the grade I am in. Thank you for your prayers, please don't stop. Along with my 3 times a day prayers that is how we are getting through this. I know Heavenly Father loves us all. He will bless your lives if he hasn't already. Thank you, thank you, thank you. Love, Heidi

Back To Primary Childrens.

Indie has been feeling very bad physically. Her arms and neck are hurting. This has been going on for a few days. It has been hard for her to deal with this. She's fever/ nutropenic (sp?) which means her infection fighting blood cells are really low and so she will stay for a few nights.

News paper articles

There should be an article in the Deseret News and the Salt Tribune on friday or saturday on the fundraiser/headshaving assembly! Maybe news interviews from the students that shaved their heads on the news. We'll keep you posted when we find out exactly when and where.

Head Shaving Assembly

Visit link at http://real.ksl.com/video/slc/sid_video/718809.ram to see footage.

Indie's just getting the hang of it. She was worried this
would start a "rap"sheet on her.

My fifteen minutes of fame.

What a crowd!

To protect, to serve, to cheer up others and to help change lives.


Our bald family. Ivy, Mom, Indie, Dad, Grampaw, Avery,
Steve, Gracie and aunt Camille


How many times will he get to do this?

"That's when they made me their cheif. Ahem...I mean this has been amazing"!

This is the only time you have this haircut.

"90 days in jail if you mess this up, I mean ....do a good job".

There is no love like your family.

3 hair clippers- 28 dollars

Garbage bags to keep the hair off- 1.25

School, community, law enforcement and friends with 24 bald heads and three girls with short hair, all for a great cause-priceless

WOW! What a day. The assembly was a blast and a huge success! Remember the goal to raise 500 dollars, well the generous hearts of cook elementary students met and greatly exceeded that goal. The total was $2020.00, we were all blown away! Indie will be opening a savings account for most of it and do a little Christmas shopping with the rest. She also has something special planned to thank all the kids at Cook, who have really rallied around her since her diagnosis. On to the shaving part, Officer Penrod was a really good sport about getting his head shaved in front all those students, after all it was his idea! There were also eighteen 6th graders and Aunt Camille who had their heads shaved on the spot too and one girl that had her long braid cut off to donate. Indies 5th grade teacher Mrs. Harding had 10 inches cut off her hair to donate to locks of love as well. To top off the nervousness we were experiencing before all of this even started today Channel 5 news was there! They interviewed Indie and Jason. and showed it on the five o'clock news, maybe again at 10. It was a big day, never to be forgotten. THANK YOU SO MUCH TO EVERYONE!

I love you Indie

My sister is nice I love her so so so much. Before she was sick we played football and basketball
and other things like gameboys, checkers. We fight sometimes but we really love each other a lot and we have lots of fun together. I miss he sooo much. I want her to get better so our family can be together again. All of us. Ivy misses my mom andI miss everyone. I have been getting to spend alot of time with my dad.

Little tree with lots of love...

Tracy, Pat and Aunt Faye brought this amazing little tree to grandma and grampaw Stevens' to give to Indie. It is chuck full of miniature ornaments, lights and lots of love, it really brightens Indies room and her spirits! Thanks again you guys!

Home Sweet Home

Well were home now and it feels great. The hospital is great and all, but there really is no place like home. Avery, Gracie and Ivy cleaned the house up really good and made a cute welcome home sign that I read out loud when I walked in the door...It said, "We Love You, Mom and Indie" and cute little Ivy said, "we all love each other". Indie is nice and glowing after a total of 5 pints of blood. If you don't already, please donate! Primary Childrens Hospital uses ARUP blood.
*Check out the new guest book to the right!*

Thursday, December 7th

Indie is doing much better today after receiving 3 pints of blood through the night. She can't go home until her fever has gone down and stayed down for 24 hrs. We are warned that this will be common for this round of chemo. Right after we got to her room (4401, 4th floor ;) ) yesterday the nurses asked if she wanted to meet some Jazz players. She said "nah" (she was feeling so crappy and seemed very nervous) but the nurses and I talked her into it. They (#11 Dee Brown & #55 Rafael Araujo) were very sweet too her. They signed a miniature basketball and took a picture with her. Wow ,the nurses here are really cool, very sweet and willing to sit and talk and answer questions. Allison and I had a nice visit about families with Indies overnight nurse Natalie. We talked about how fun it is to be part of a big family. Her nurse today is Kathy , she is from Boston and has a really thick accent. Indie and I keep asking her questions so we can hear her talk. You gotta have fun any way you can right?!

Setback.

Indie went into Primary Children's on Wednesday morning and was admitted to the Immuno compromised area due to her fever and low white cell count.

It Works!

Indie's nurse came and put the anti-clotting medicine in her line for 15 minutes, now it is working beautifuly! Thanks for your prayers! :) :) :)

buncha bald boys

A new issue.

Indie's central line is having troubles again. It won't draw blood back and she can't get the chemo without it working. That is why she had to have a second line placed. If you could have her in your prayers and thoughts, she does not want to go back for a third line. I know this may sound specific yet we would appreciate it.
Thank you very much.
The Dunlaps

It's your turn.

Remember all of those people who said that they would shave their heads in support of Indie when she shaved her head? IT's YOUR TURN. Send us the pictures and we'll post them as proof!

Friday 12/01/06

Today went well. We went to the clinic and had the chemo given. Then to the RTU rapid treatment unit, to get the intrathecal chemo, spinal tap. She got her flu shot happily while she was out during this procedure. Aunt Allison came to Primary Children's Hospital to meet us. And took her and us to lunch. She is an amazing person. Indie adopted two new friends today the first was a red dragon that she named "Mystic", and the second one was a very special gift from a very special relative. Her great Aunt Leah Cooper gave her a pink bunny and a wonderful card. While she has received many cards that have been heartwarming and special, this one touched us because of it's simple sweet message. The words were carefully written by hand with a beautiful message of love. Thank you.

Today at the hospital was kind of different. This is the day when they usually address emergency or emergent care only. We had to go due to scheduling problems. There is an amazing feeling at the hospital. You have a sense of wonderful hope yet there is an under current of the reality of children with serious illnesses. There are many special staff, all of them very geared toward helping children, (If only all people in the medical profession were this sweet).
Indie didn't want to talk to them, so I ran interference and answered their questions. After a little G4 TV she laughed a lot and became the old Indie for the rest of the day. The nurses love her because they say she brings a lot of smiles and humor to the clinic. I imagine that the nurses, Doctors and support staff will all feel like family after 2 years.

Indie is also going to shave the D.A.R.E. officers head as a part of the Cook Elementary school's amazing fundraiser for her on December 11th. A great deal of family members have expressed their desire to attend this. This should be one of the coolest events in her life thus far, although she is nervous about it. Officer Penrod has been a great friend to Indie and to our family, showing concern and compassion.

Thanks for all of the support at Cook Elementary and to those who have assisted in this show of support for Indie!