Stomach Bug ... Or Chemo?

This post is #101 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.

September 22, 2008

It never fails.  Shortly after school starts back every fall, there's a bout of stomach virus that goes around.  With kids once again in close proximity to one another in crowded classrooms, the dreaded bug seems to spread like wildfire.  Few are spared its ugly effects.

In the fall of 2008, the stomach bug made its way to our home, and Hannah was its first victim.  At least we thought it was the stomach virus.  It was hard to tell, because it struck right in the middle of her chemo week, and it lingered on and on.  The Temodar drug she took always caused some nausea, but not like this.  She even commented about it on her Facebook page ... "Hannah wants to feel normal again ... this stomach virus will just not go away!"

Maybe it was just the cumulative effect of four months' worth of chemo.  Or maybe it really was a stomach bug.  If so, we figured it was just a matter of time until the rest of us were down for the count.

My email from ten years ago today ...

Hannah finished her fourth round of chemo this week, but it's been complicated by a bout with the stomach virus. Her first two days of chemo went pretty well, just some fatigue, and then things went bad. She woke up about 2:00 Friday morning really sick. She felt really bad all day Friday and Saturday, but seemed much better yesterday (Sunday). She went to school this morning, but then had to come home because she was really feeling sick again. We are not even going to get our weekly bloodwork today, because I think the drive to the doctor's office would be awfully hard on her. I've been in contact with Children's Hospital, and the nurse there told me they've seen several kids who have had the stomach virus for four days...which is how many days Hannah has been sick now. Thankfully, she was able to keep down her Temodar (and she's finished with that now) and has been able to eat and drink at least a little bit over the last few days. Our main concern at this point is dehydration, so please join us in praying that her stomach will settle, and that she'll be as good as new soon!

Thank you so much for your prayers...they continue to carry us day by day!

"Praise be to...the God of all comfort...who comforts us in all our troubles, so that we can comfort those in any trouble with the comfort we ourselves have received from God." I Cor. 1:3-4 NIV

God is good, all the time!

Jill and Brad