Abby's Journey Archive

This past weekend we took advantage of the special at the Pointe South Mountain and took the whole family over there for Friday and Saturday nights. The kids had a blast at their waterpark. I'll see if I have some pictures from the weekend and I'll upload them later. We were also fortunate to have most of Amy's side of the family as well (her dad and mom, Rich, Laura, Gary, Taryn, Amber, Cheyenne, Roy, Shelly, Marcus, and Haley) and my dad, too.

We celebrated our Fall birthdays, watched the last days of the Olympics, and just played.

Before we went to the hotel Amy and I noticed Abby running a fluctuating but low-grade fever. She also seemed unusually tired, but snapped out of it while we were at the Pointe, though she did nap. Yesterday and today, however, she has slept a great deal more than is normal for her.

Dr. Sapozink (our radiation doctor) warned us that we might see this behavior, but we didn't think it would happen this long after she stopped radiation therapy. She has no other symptoms really. You might recall that this was one of the precursors to her first seizure--the two mornings prior to the seizure she slept unusually long. Now she is on Keppra, so we are worried that the tumors may have returned but the Keppra is suppressing the seizures (as it should).

Amy and I had picked today to fast until evening and pray for God's guidance surrounding if we should have another opinion, or proceed with the chemotherapy. So please pray with us--I am taking Abby to the oncologist this afternoon to see if we can figure out what is going on.

We received a fax with the third diagnosis from our oncologist. Dr. Coons from St. Josephs in Phoenix has diagnosed Abby's tumor as a primitive neuroectodermal tumor (PNET) with astrocytoma differentiation. He acknowledges that his separate diagnosis only adds to the confusion of Abby's case and that it is a complex case.

We plan to pray about what to do next and consult with our oncologists, Dr. Packer, and others. We may seek yet another opinion or try to get the different pathologists to possibly have a phone conference to achieve some sort of consensus. We may also proceed with the chemotherapy protocol and stem cell infusion which was the original plan. The treatment for the ATRT and for the PNET type of tumors are the same.

So, please continue to ask God to guide all those involved in Abby's case. Also, pray that we will come to a timely conclusion. She has an MRI scheduled for September 16 and her first chemo treatment will be about 2 weeks after that.

In the meantime, we're all enjoying being a normal family again free from the chicken pox!

We're thrilled to announce that Abby completed her radiation treatment today! We originally hoped to have the whole family attend her last day but the Chicken Pox were right on schedule and Josiah, Daniel and Elizabeth are now dealing with their own itchy spots. Josiah has the worst case so far. His fever stayed pretty high for about 3 days and he has probably 5 times as many pox as Abby had. Daniel has only about 15 pox so far and Elizabeth has about 6. They will probably wake up with a few more tomorrow.



Anyway, we all celebrated by watching Finding Nemo and drinking Jamba Juice. Abby was cozy in her bed at 9 PM and quite excited about not having to wake up early tomorrow.



She has an appointment with the oncologist tomorrow and we hope to have enough information to make a treatment plan. The tentative plan at this point is to have a 6 week break and then start chemotherapy. She has an MRI scheduled for September 16 to check on the effectiveness of the radiation treatment.












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We got clearance from Dr. Abella this morning to return to radiation. Abby's pox are all scabbed over and she is no longer contagious. She has 3 more radiation treatments so we'll be done Monday. So far none of the other children have shown any signs of the chicken pox...we're watching and waiting :)