More Delays

This post is #145 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.

December 9, 2008

As much as we were enjoying the relative normalcy of both girls being back in school leading up to Christmas break, we were really beginning to feel the urgency of starting chemotherapy before too much time elapsed following radiation.  The initial plan had been to start her new chemo treatments at the beginning of November, and here we were approaching the middle of December and she had yet to have her first infusion.

It sounds a little strange to say we had high hopes of starting her treatments when we went to our appointment at Children's that Monday ... I mean, who wants their child to take chemotherapy?   But at the time, we believed Hannah's best chance of beating this cancer was through these infusions.  And surely, after all these delays, this would be the week she would finally be able to start.

You can detect a little of my disappointment in my email from ten years ago today ...

No chemotherapy again today .... instead we're getting a unit of platelets and two units of blood again. Her counts were higher than they've been (platelets were at 34,000 today ... they need to be at least 50,000 to start chemo) and the doctor said that they will probably give her more platelets later this week and will start at least one of the chemo drugs next Monday regardless. 

He explained that the radiation is still working in her body, which is holding down her blood production but should also be preventing any tumor growth. She has been having some mild headaches pretty much on a daily basis, and has had lots of morning nausea over the last few weeks, and he is going to start her back on a low dose of steroids to try to help with this. She is planning on going back to school again tomorrow and should be able to go most of the week, except for when we have to return to Children's for more platelets.

Thank you again for your prayers ... God continues to be with us every step of this journey. He truly is good, all the time!

Jill and Brad

2 Corinthians 4:17 - For our light affliction, which is but for a moment, is working for us a far more exceeding and eternal weight of glory...