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Happy Birthday, Georgia Lee! We celebrated with a balloon release at Mt Bonnell, including 13 birthday wishes and one to grow on. It's a bit of a hike to get to that spot, and we thought about the fact that three years ago today, Georgia couldn't have made it but a few steps as she was incredibly weak, and we were just hours from learning she had leukemia. We are so thankful that she could make it to the top today, and we look forward to the heights she will reach in the years to come.

Best Wishes from Peachy Keen HQ!

Happy Everything!

Well, school's out for the holiday break, and we're just about ready for the many celebrations we've got coming over the next 10 days! Christmas, diagnosis and OT anniversaries, a wedding anniversary, a new year ... and a certain someone's 13th birthday!!! Oh my, an official teenager!

Georgia had a clinic appointment yesterday, just to check counts - which were perfect and NORMAL once again! - and she made great use of her wait time by practicing some algebra on the whiteboard wall in the exam room. Such a smart cookie!

We hope all of our Friends of Georgia are spending the holidays with the people they love, and we thank you for continuing to keep our amazing girl on your mind! Happy Everything, y'all!

The Beginning of The End for Childhood Cancer

A while back, we told you about a very exciting new immune therapy for adult leukemia patients, in which the patient's own T cells are modified and used to attack cancer cells. The big news today is that doctors at Children's Hospital of Philadelphia (CHOP), a premiere pediatric cancer facility, have successfully treated a child with this same therapy and thus opened the door to further trials and even more victories! Emma has now been in remission for seven months, after relapsing twice with ALL and exhausting all other treatment options. Hers is another amazing and inspiring story - one we hope is repeated over and over in the years to come.

If you'd like to be a part of such ground-breaking, lifesaving research, please consider an end-of-year gift to END childhood cancer! The 46 Mommas 2012 campaign has just 21 more days to go, and we're within $42,000 of our million dollar goal! Thank you all so much for your support this year - and every year. Your donations are helping to CONQUER childhood cancer!

We had such a great time Friday night at the clinic holiday party - thank you, Superhero Kids! It was so nice to see so many patient families and beloved staff members enjoying themselves, and the food from the amazing Becky and her crew at Bountiful was wonderful, as always. Not surprisingly, Georgia and Ivy's favorite part was the carriage ride up Congress Avenue. It was a perfect night!

 See the Capitol building behind them?

Happy December!

Although, it feels like May or June around here - muggy and warm! Not very Christmas-y, but it doesn't stop us from decking the halls and dreaming of a white Christmas. December always seems to fly by, especially since we have so many special things to celebrate - including a certain someone's 13th birthday! Already?

That said, the month didn't get off to the greatest start for Georgia as we spent the entire day on Saturday at the hospital. She hadn't been feeling well since Sunday, and by Friday evening, we decided we needed to get some blood work done. We had to go the ER at Dell because there were no beds available on 4N, but it was still better to be there than at an urgent care facility. The ER doctor was in constant communication with the doctor on call from the clinic, and we were able to have Georgia checked out from head to toe. Blood work, x-rays, and ultrasound were all normal (normal!), so the probable culprit behind her symptoms is a bad bug, and we're waiting on cultures to confirm that. The hardest part of the day was getting the IV started since Georgia was fairly dehydrated, and they had to poke her five times before her veins would cooperate. She never made a peep, but you know it hurt! As always, the nurses (the three it took to get the IV going) commented on what a "patient patient" Georgia is and how easy she makes it for them to do their job. What a trooper.

The good news is, she's feeling much better and will be back at school tomorrow. She's got her next clinic appointment in a couple of weeks, and I'm sure we'll rehash the whole episode with Dr. Neff, but for now, she's definitely on the mend. In fact, we're all looking forward to this weekend and the clinic holiday party at the Bob Bullock Texas State History Museum, courtesy of our friends at Superhero Kids!

Finally, the word on the street about Comedy GOLD is: Success! We had such a great time and are so appreciative of the wonderful performers and dedicated volunteers. We met our fundraising goal and, even better, made great contacts and inroads for future events, so we're really looking forward to doing it all again! Big thanks and much love to everyone who came out, and we'll see you next time!