President ... And Vice President

This post is #94 in a year-long series ... Through this series of posts I plan to share our family's experiences during our 17-year-old daughter's year-long battle with brain cancer, which began in February of 2008. My desire is to process through the events of that year from the perspective that a decade of time has brought ... for myself, really. But if you'd like to follow along, you're welcome to join me.

August 18, 2008

I wish I had a "first day of school" picture for this, the beginning of Hannah's junior year and Bethany's eighth-grade year.  But at this point in her cancer treatments, Hannah really did not like having her picture taken.  Her hair was still thin from the radiation rays and she was a little self-conscious about that.  I respected that and did not take one.  In fact, we have only a handful of photographs of her from that entire year of her battle.

In Hannah's small high school, class elections were held on the first day of the school year.  She came home that day a little bit bummed ... not because she didn't win her election, but because she didn't win two elections!  She was voted student council president ... but was "just" the vice president of the junior class.  Other than that minor disappointment, she was very pleased with her schedule, her classes, and her teachers.  We really couldn't predict the impact her treatments might have on her day-to-day schedule, but she was ready to tackle whatever lay ahead.  School year 2008-2009 was underway!

My email from the first day of school 2008 ...

After a great first day of school, we went to our doctor’s office at Hot Springs and got Hannah’s blood work done. Her platelets were at 102, which is well above the magic number of 75. So…she will be starting her chemo drug tomorrow night, and will take it for five consecutive days. That way, she’ll only have to be in school for three days while taking it, and the last two days will be over the weekend. She’s been feeling so good lately, it’s hard to make her start back on the Temodar, but it will get her that much closer to finishing these treatments. Please pray that she will not feel too bad while taking it, and that it won’t interfere with school too much. This week should give us a good idea of how the school year is going to go.

Your prayers for our family have meant so much to us over the last few months….God has truly used all of you to bless our family! He is good, all the time!

Jill and Brad