Home after treatment #5

We are home after a three day stay in the hospital for another chemo treatment. Anna continues to do fantastic. She is such a strong little girl. She has made friends with everyone in the hospital from her doctors and nurses to the cafeteria workers and cleaning crews. She loves them all. I think her favorite thing in the entire hospital is the guy who drives the machine every night to buff the floors. She gets so excited and beams from ear to ear when she hears him coming. It is such a blessing to see her get so much joy out of things even when her little body is dealing with so much.

I am waiting to hear from her doctors about what our next step is going to be. They are leaning towards surgery, but have some things to discuss before a final decisions is made. I will update with a new post as soon as I have news. Thanks for all the continued prayers and support. It means so much to have so many lifting Anna's name to the Lord. Our prayers are being answered!

A change in plans

The last post I left explained a plan for surgery followed by radiation. That has now changed somewhat. They have cancelled the plans for surgery next week and scheduled us for another round of chemo. Surgery is still a very likely possibility. The doctors just think that another round of chemo is the best step right now. They want to make sure that when and if they decide to perform surgery that they can go in and remove the rest of the tumor that is remaining. They do not want to go in just to remove a portion of it. The current plan now is to have another round of chemo (three day round) and meet with all of her doctors together to decide the next step. Please keep us, as well as Anna's team of doctors, in your prayers. Pray that they have the knowledge and wisdom they need to determine the best treatment for her. I will keep you posted with any new updates.

MRI Results

We got great news from Anna's MRI. Her tumor has shrunk to the size of a walnut. We are thrilled. The doctors are scheduling her for surgery the week of 1/16. We don't have an exact day yet. There will be two different doctors performing the resection and they have to coordinate their schedules. It will most likely be Wed. or Thurs. of that week. She will get back on her every three weeks chemo schedule after recovering from surgery. They expect it will be about two weeks after surgery that she will be strong enough to continue. And soon after that they will begin radiation therapy. The current plan is to start radiation therapy the beginning of March. All of this depends on the surgery and how she recovers, but that is what is expected. We will keep you posted. Please keep us in your thoughts and prayers!

Happy New Year! We are home again!

We returned last night (New Year's Eve) from Anna's fourth treatment. She continues to amaze and surprise us all (especially her doctors). They are amazed that she hasn't gotten sick or needed a blood transfusion. She is tired after this treatment, but that is to be expected. She is happy to be home. She is playing and enjoying all the things she got at Christmas. We couldn't ask for her treatment to be going any better. We return for an outpatient MRI January 6th. Please remember that date and say a special prayer. We will not get results from that until the following Monday. I will post some news as soon as we know the next step. Her team of doctors will meet to discuss possible surgery and/or radiation. Continue to pray for wisdom for each of her doctors as well as agreement among them on the best next step. We have been encouraged so far as to how she is responding, but this MRI will show exactly what each treatment has accomplished. It is a big milestone in this entire process.

We thankyou all for the prayers and support you have sent our way. Please know that you too are in our continued thoughts and prayers. We are so blessed to have so many outreaching friends and family to lean on at this time. You all mean so much and have made such a tremendous difference during this trying time. We could not possibly thankyou enough. Just continue to pray for us when the Lord places us on your heart. We have seen the difference prayer can make. We wish you all continued blessings throughout the New Year!