“Be glad in the Lord, you His righteous ones;And give thanks to His Holy name.” -Psalm 97:12

Praises!!!  Daisy experienced multiple answers to prayers today and is feeling so good about it!

The day started with Daisy experiencing the usual fear associated with her Chemo treatments. I gave her the “Be brave” talk and she said through her tears, “Daddy, being brave right now feels as hard as trying to fly when you’re not a bird!”

On the way to the appointment we prayed for bravery, no pain, and high blood counts so that she did not have to have a transfusion. Daisy was doing pretty well in the moments leading up to the dreaded needle being pressed into her chest and then when it went in for the first time ever, she did not feel it at all ! She was so stoked!!!

We talked about how that was an answer to prayer and we thanked the Lord.
After she received her two different medicines for the day she remained accessed while we waited to hear the lab results. The results came back and Daisy’s counts have gone way up… way up! You guys are awesome in prayer. Her levels are in the “normal” range! Not normal for a kid going through Chemo, but normal for any kid!!! Amazing! Wow!

Thank you for your prayers in that area. Daisy rejoiced and acknowledged that Jesus had answered huge prayers for her today.  When we were leaving she said through her big smile, “Daddy, this is my bravest day ever. I am going to remember this day and be brave again next week!”

What an amazing reversal from how she felt just a few hours before! Thank you for sharing in our amazing adventure with Jesus… we wouldn’t change a thing.

“It is good to give thanks to the Lord, And to sing praises to Thy name, O Most High; To declare Thy faithfulness in the morning, And Thy faithfulness by night, With the ten-stringed lute, and with harp; With resounding music upon the lyre. For Thou, O Lord, hast made me glad by what Thou hast done. I will sing for joy at the works of Thy hands.” -Psalm 92:1-4

Hey everyone, we continue to be humbled and immeasurably blessed by all the love and support you all have shown for Daisy and our whole family.  Thanks for praying for Daisy’s health over the last week.  Her fever improved and never got any worse!

Daisy has Chemo tomorrow (12/3) at 10 am. There is a concern that she has low red blood cell counts and will need a transfusion. We were supposed to take her in for a test and possible transfusion Monday, but we elected to skip that and wait until tomorrow.  They will access her through the port in the chest, draw blood and send it to the lab, administer the Chemo to her, and keep her accessed  for about an hour while we wait to get the results back about her blood levels. If they are low, we will have to walk across the street to the main hospital and be there several hours while she gets the transfusion. As you know, the process and experience of her being accessed through her chest is very scary and traumatic for her. There has been some progress in this area, but it is still difficult for her, and if she is going to be accessed for the better part of the day it is  going to be difficult. We appreciate your prayers in this area. Generally speaking, Daisy has felt very good this week emotionally and just a little sick physically.

Last night the Santa Barbara Teddy Bear Cancer Foundation held a little dinner and ginger bread house decorating time for kids going through cancer treatment  and their families. Our family went and had an awesome time and are so thankful for all they do. Here is a picture of Daisy and Isaiah and the houses Daisy decorated.  Isaiah’s quote “the parties for the kids with cancer are the best parties!”

Isaiah 43:1-3

Fear not, for I have redeemed you; 
I have summoned you by name; you are mine.

When you pass through the waters, 
I will be with you; 
and when you pass through the rivers, 
they will not sweep over you. 
When you walk through the fire, 
you will not be burned; 
the flames will not set you ablaze.

For I am the LORD, your God, 
the Holy One of Israel, your Savior…

Daisy woke up this morning sick. She is sneezing and has a runny nose and a fever. Usually not a big deal, but it is when you are going through Chemo for Stage 3 cancer.

Please pray for immediate healing.

Matthew 4:34-25

Jesus was going throughout all Galilee, teaching in their synagogues and proclaiming the gospel of the kingdom, and healing every kind of disease and every kind of sickness among the people.

The news about Him spread throughout all Syria; and they brought to Him all who were ill, those suffering with various diseases and pains, demoniacs, epileptics, paralytics; and He healed them.

Photo: self-portrait taken by Daisy

We got Daisy’s blood work back that they took at Chemo today. Her Hemoglobin is low… too low. They want to draw blood again first thing Monday morning, and if it is still this low, they are going to give her a blood transfusion that day. We really don’t want to do this… for so many reasons, not the least of which being that Daisy is going to be super bummed and distraught about going under the needle again Monday morning. Please pray that her Hemoglobin comes up and that she doesn’t need a transfusion.

We have so much to be thankful for this year! All of your love and support and prayers are one of the things we are most grateful for!!!

“Speak to one another in psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, singing and making melody with your heart to the Lord; always  giving thanks for all things in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ…” (Ephesians 5:19-20)

Daisy went swimming with her big brother today!

She has Chemo tomorrow. Please pray for bravery and for the treatment to accomplish all it should.

This is Daisy ready to go to school today. Please pray a covering over her health. Thank you!

Daisy has been doing very well this week. Her Chemo appointment was on Wednesday (usually Thursday), and will be again next week, and then back to Thursdays.

She has been making major strides in dealing with the fear associated with the appointments! Daisy Love has been feeling so chipper that we sent her to school on Thursday. You may remember we sent her there three weeks ago, but she was only there for two days because the flu hit the school hard so we had to pull her out.

This week we checked and no one was sick so we sent her back yesterday. Unfortunately she got worn out half way through and called us to pick her up. Worse, we found out that one of the girls in her class was out today with 103 temperature.

Obviously, she was contagious yesterday when Daisy was there, so we need to pray that the Lord keeps her from illness. She has not gotten any symptoms of Britt’s Swine Flu, praise the Lord!

Britt is still sick, going on two weeks, but getting better. We love you all and are still experiencing so much of the beauty of Jesus through this and we can honestly say that we know Him to be good more than ever before!

Psalm 40

¹ I waited patiently for the Lord to help me,
and he turned to me and heard my cry.
² He lifted me out of the pit of despair,
out of the mud and the mire.
He set my feet on solid ground
and steadied me as I walked along.
³ He has given me a new song to sing,
a hymn of praise to our God.
Many will see what he has done and be amazed.
They will put their trust in the Lord.

Thank you for your prayers! Daisy had no adverse affects to the medicine today!

We expected that, and that is good. The real breakthrough was that she did better with fear and pain than ever before. Daisy said that Jesus answered our prayers about these things directly today.

This is great news because she had felt as though God had not been answering our prayers about pain and fear for the last few appointments. We talked about prayer this morning and what it means to trust God and act on His promises and we prayed together a lot.

She had a major spiritual victory! Truly her heavenly Father carried her through the day and she knows it!

She is feeling well and is in great spirits.

Thank you for your partnership friends. We love you all.

11.11.09 - Here is a quick bullet update.  More details follow:

• Daisy was given the incorrect formulation of a certain Chemotherapy drug two weeks ago and had a severe and frightening reaction.
• She has Chemo again tomorrow and they are going to give her the same drug, but formulated correctly and are hoping she will not have the same reaction, but are going to pre-medicate her before just to be safe.
• Generally, Daisy has been feeling very well and her spirits are up.
• Her hair is getting pretty thin and today she said, “I am happy that I am going to be bald… no more knots, no more messy hair in the morning, and I won’t get a hot head in the hot sun!”
• Isaiah turned 9 today!
• Britt has swine flu.
• The whole family needs an extra prayer covering with Britt so sick… especially Kate, who is carrying such a heavy load.
• The risk for Daisy being exposed to the swine flu in the Merrick home while her immune system is weakened is obvious and needs prayer.

Some further details:

• Yes, horrifically, Daisy was given the wrong formulation of a chemotherapy agent. The doctors all said, “This never happens.” And of course they all felt terrible. There is an internal investigation going on to figure out how such a grave mistake could have occurred. For now, an additional third party will check all of Daisy’s treatments before they are administered to her.
• Obviously, litigation is quick to enter people’s minds. We were able to tell the doctors and nurses that we, as Christians, are not vindictive or vengeful people. We understand that people make mistakes and we are okay with that. Of course, it was a really big mistake, but which of us has not also made a really big mistake? And so how can we ourselves being imperfect, try to hold other people to the standard of perfection? We cannot. We know what it is like to be forgiven, having been forgiven of so much through Jesus Christ, so we must forgive in the same way. We were able to communicate this to our oncologist and tell him that we love and appreciate and value him and are so deeply thankful for all that he has done.
• The investigation will go on at the behest of the Cottage Hospital Pharmacy and associated parties to whom they are accountable. We do not want anyone to lose their job or reputation; we just want to use this experience to help create a safer system for future patients.

Technical Chemo Info:

• The medicine that Daisy was supposed to receive two weeks ago is called Doxorubicin. It is one of 3 agents she will be receiving during Chemo.
• What she received was an alternative formulation of that called Liposomal-Doxorubicin. It is a formulation that more aggressively attacks the cancer and is usually used in adults and administered over a period of 2-4 hours.
• Daisy got it in a manner that would have taken 6 minutes if it were not cut short by her reaction and the nurse’s stopping the flow through the access port in her chest.
• The pediatric pharmacist’s and the oncologist’s research leads them to believe that the reaction was due to the variant formulation and not the agent Doxorubicin itself. Therefore they feel confident that they can administer the treatment to her tomorrow without any adverse effects, but there is no guarantee.

Prayer Points:

• For Daisy to not react negatively to the Doxorubicin.
• For Daisy not to contract swine flu.
• For Daisy to be free from fear at her treatment tomorrow. (Fear has been a really huge problem for her at these treatments)
• For Kate to have extra strength and the Lord’s joy at this time.
• For Britt to get over the swine flu quickly.

The Merrick’s love you all and thank you so much!

The eyes of the Lord search the whole earth in order to strengthen those whose hearts are fully committed to him.

2 Chronicles 16:9