Ready for Battle

This post is #142 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 1, 2008

Even as we enjoyed our family time over the Thanksgiving holiday, we found ourselves looking ahead to Monday when Hannah would finally get to start her new chemotherapy treatments.   The reprieve from treatments had been wonderful, and we were so glad Hannah was finally feeling more like herself, but we were really beginning to feel the urgency to get back to fighting this cancer.  Every day that passed without treatment felt like an opportunity for the cancer to gain a deeper foothold in her brain and spine.

So we headed to Arkansas Children's Hospital on Monday morning with an overnight bag in case we needed to stay ... our shoulders back, ready to return to battle.

The news we received when we got her bloodwork results back was disappointing to us ... but not to Hannah.  If she didn't have to get chemo, and she was no longer in isolation, she could go to school!  We couldn't help but be happy for her, even as our disquiet with all the delays grew.

My email from ten years ago today ...

Well ... no chemotherapy today. Hannah's red blood counts and platelets are still very low, so she's going to get two more units of blood and a unit of platelets instead. Her platelets have to be between 50,000-75,000 before they will start chemo, and they are at 7,000 today. Her red counts are not as low as they were last week, but she could tell by the way she was feeling that they were starting to get low again. We will have bloodwork done again on Wednesday or Thursday this week to see where we stand. 

The good news is that her ANC (immunity level) is now up to 1,296....and she is hoping to go to school tomorrow! This is a huge step, because she hasn't been to school since September! Getting blood today should really boost her energy level, and she is really looking forward to starting back.

Please be in prayer that her blood cell and platelet production will begin to kick in, and that she will have the stamina to get back into the swing of school. Thank you for your continued prayers for our family....God is good, all the time!

Jill and Brad