June 29, 2019
Day 5 of 5 of chemo, round 8 of 12. 2nd to last day of the month means she's now been in the hospital 8 full months.
We took her to the ER the day before Halloween with a persistent stiff neck. It wasn't noticeable to start, since it was so gradual (though it's obvious in pictures, now that we know what to look for), but by the time we took her shopping for her costume on Oct 30th we couldn't deny something was going on. We figured it was, at worst, a break; but she wasn't in pain, and she never fell... so we really assumed she just had a pulled muscle. The entire time we were shopping for her costume she just stared straight up to the ceiling of the store - she didn't put her head down to look at anything, while Gabriel, sitting next to her in the double stroller for the first time, couldn't keep his hands off all the colorful stuff. We had caught her staring at the roof of the car in the rear view mirror many times, and we would just comment how silly she was being. Anyway, we called her doctor and they suggested urgent care, just to check for a break. I walked in urgent care and they took one look at her stiff neck and said go to the ER - I guess it's a sign of meningitis. So we went to Chester County hospital, where no matter how many shots of sleepy medicine they gave her, they couldn't get her to lay still for the CT scan; so they sent her to CHOP. We've been there since.
She didn't have a great day yesterday, so we went down with Gabriel for a surprise visit first thing. She was VERY happy! Gabriel was 60% contained, which is awesome for a tornado. A unicorn balloon had been delivered to the room yesterday - Julia wasn't interested in it then, but brother started to play with it... and it became the best thing ever =) So there were lots of shared giggles. Then they threw some toys back and forth, and when Julia wanted her iPad for cartoons, Gabriel heard familiar songs and wanted up. He wanted to lay ON her, which she didn't care for (I assume he was pressing on all her ports and stuff), but Julia wanted him NEXT to her, and she gave lots of hugs and head pets. If he tried to move away, she'd pull him back by his ear. She did not want cuddles to stop <3
She also smacked the iPad with her LEFT hand. We all clapped for her and got excited, and asked if she could hit the iPad with her left hand again, and she did! There was pretty much no control but she clearly understood the instruction and was able to move her whole arm in a general direction, so that's great!
Video in comments of when we walked in, since I know people like to see her happy reaction when Reed gets back to her after being gone for a day (seeing mommy and brother are bonuses). She's getting really good at her one-handed claps (when she hits her chest) <3 And she even tried to sit up when she finally saw Gabriel - she only made it an inch or so off the bed, but clear as day she tried the movement. Probably just instinctively wants to play! Great PT =)
YouTube: https://youtu.be/z_nXlW7yae4 . .
. ******** ~~ Julia Adams ~~ ******** ********** Official Links *********** (These are here because of scammers) ********************************
Julia's *only* pages: Website: juliaadamscancerfund.org Facebook: Julia's Fight Against Rare Cancer - Fund GoFundMe: gofundme.com/juliasfightagainstcancer
Julia's *only* fundraisers: T-shirts: https://bit.ly/2MQc0lF | https://tinyurl.com/y55lh988 Children's Book: https://amzn.to/2CTTN2S Jewelry: https://etsy.me/2E1mR8i
Tumbler: https://tinyurl.com/yy6oamph
Car Magnet: https://tinyurl.com/y4nxr3lr
Where I buy Julia's CBD Oil (CBD BioCare 3500mg bottle): www.naturallywellforlife.com || Coupon code: danaboyd
Chordoma Foundation: www.chordoma.org
If you're new and want to know what's going on, my first post about Julia was on October 31st. You can find them all on my Facebook page or Julia's website <3
