Hannah Update 11.13.08

Hannah had a really good night last night and has had a good day today. Her throat is feeling much better, and she feels better overall, but her ANC (immunity) has dropped down to 24. This is the lowest it's ever been--it was 42 on the second day of her last hospitalization. To give you a frame of reference, her ANC has to be at least 500 for her to be "un-isolated", so this is really low. Her red blood counts were low, too, so they gave her three more units of blood and some additional platelets also today. Her blood cultures are negative so far, so that is good news, and it helps that she's feeling better. But....it looks like we may be here awhile. They've explained to us that the radiation just really zapped her bone marrow, and it's just taking it awhile to kick in and start producing new blood cells on its own. They tell us that this is normal, and not at all unusual after the type of radiation she had. It's been a little bit discouraging, because we had actually been starting to talk about Hannah starting back to school in the next week or so, but we know we must wait patiently for her body to heal. Please join us in praying specifically that her bone marrow will begin to produce healthy blood cells soon, not just so we can get out of the hospital or so she can start back to school, but so we can begin the chemotherapy as soon as possible while those tumors are still feeling the effects of the radiation!
Thank you so much for your prayers....we are so thankful that God is good, all the time!
Jill & Brad