Wonderful Weekend!

On Saturday Landon took Taylor snowmobiling. They had an absolutely fantastic time. The people that owned the farm made them a camp fire and let them cook hot dogs and smokies. They also had some hot chocolate, and saw farm animals.

After a wonderful day snowmobiling they headed home and Taylor went for a movie at the neighbours house. It has been awesome seeing her embracing things she loved doing before. The neighbours were always her special people, so its great she is wanting to broaden her social world again.

 

We are hoping to get another MRI to see what the radiation may have done for Taylor's tumour as its odd how well she is doing. I know that sounds weird, but she really has snapped into a lot more of herself, something that was not expected. Everyone, including the doctors are really happy, but had not foreseen her doing so well. I am not saying that her tumour is cured, more to see what is happening. I still am praying for a miracle, and hope everyone else is too.

Taylor has been Swimming

Things have been fairly quiet lately. Taylor has been feeling good. She has been a bit more adventurous, taking some pictures with the Snapchat filters, wanting to do more visiting, and yesterday when they went visiting Taylor who has been super nervous and clingy swam by herself! This is a really big deal as it shows her developing her confidence again. Taylor is laughing more, and talking more. We are all feeling like we are seeing our firecracker coming back out of her shell.

We are getting our hair pinked, mine is done, Mindy had hers done today and Landon and Taylor are doing theirs on Friday.

Taylor is getting so pumped, and even is toying with shaving hers. I told her she doesn't have to, as has Mindy and Landon. The kid has had enough changes and things taken from her, I don't want her to feel weird. She was so excited and happy about her school pinking and having the Hair Massacre come to her school. She was absolutely over the moon that she was in the promotion video:

Hair Massacre Promotion Video 2018

We are making some team sweatshirts with Taylor's Wish Warriors on it, and maybe a picture...I will show everyone once we are done. Taylor picked out the letter colours, a beautiful teal green sparkly paper...yup, total magpie! She is kind of like me with fashion, loud and proud. 

Is you would like to help us raise money for this worthy cause, please just hit the link: Taylor's Wish Warriors

Getting Ready to Pink!

Taylor seems to be getting over her virus. She has taken up painting and seems to be enjoying creating art. Her appetite seems to be coming back, which is good, as we were a bit concerned.

My original piece of art...notice the L

Also she helped make a cheer poster to cheer on her cousin Aaryanna

So Dr. Witol had a bit of a discovery in regards to taylor's continued withdrawl from doing things. She remembered Taylor saying that her brain didn't like to do the things she used to like to do. So she thought it would be good to relook at Taylor's MRI scans to see where the tumour was sitting. The pons is like the freeway for the brain that sends messages from the part of the brain that processes information, to the pleasure centres, and to the decision making areas, etc.  so the tumour is impacting the way her brain processes information; making her question whether doing things are worth the effort/energy expended doing things, but it also can impact whether she gets pleasure from doing activities  

Dr. Witol figures that we may be able to grease the wheels a bit more upfront (allow her to process new things and experiences) and coach her brain to re-learn things. Taylor will still likely have a pull to staying with her routines, however, it may help increase important things that they as a family want as priorities. This doesn't mean that she will go back to her old self, but that she may be more willing to try things that at this point she is shutting down on. Certainly was very positive discovery!

Right now we are gearing up for pinking. We need to start raising funds, and hope everyone will support us in this fundraiser. I am sending the link to our team: Taylor's Wish Warriors:

https://www.registrationlogic.com/secure/Fundraiser.aspx?G=2714

Once the pinking is done we will get some pictures to share.