Abby's Journey Archive

We were due at Phoenix Children's at 8:30 this morning for Abby's MRI prep. We arrived on time but they were running behind significantly. Abby proved she is becoming a real pro at having her port accessed--she complained only a little bit as Dr. Loomis (one of our favorite anesthesiologists) inserted the needle. She also pushed the first 4 ml of Propofol and off she went to dreamland.

The MRI took about 45 minutes, and we went for lunch and to A & P's office to check her blood counts in preparation for tomorrow's chemo.

However, Dr. Abella surprised us by expressing some concern about the mild cold Abby had caught. He felt it would be wiser to have her recover from it over the weekend and start her treatment next Thursday, rather than run the risk that chemo-induced neutropenia would cause the cold to develop into something much worse.

I can see God's hand in this--as Amy wrote earlier she has been fighting a nasty infection herself, and as I am writing this we are in *her* doctor's office for a followup appointment. We were not looking forward to trying to manage Abby's chemo if Amy could not be at the hospital.

Dr. Abella took a quick look at Abby's MRI and thinks it looks promising--though there a couple of areas of enhancement, they could be from radiation. We await the official radiologist's report tomorrow and may go for a PET scan to ensure the enhancement is not active tumor.

Thank you all for praying, especially for Deb and Irene from my office for organizing the round-the-clock prayer vigil that went on yesterday and today. What an honor that 63 people from over 10 states, some of whom we don't even know would take a half-hour out of their day (and night!) to pray for us.

Well, this was the week for the Oldham family to visit the doctors. Elizabeth woke up Sunday morning with a very sad disposition which we later discovered was due to some sort of pain in her right leg. She had just mastered walking on Saturday and was EVERYWHERE. We realized she hadn't stood up once yet on Sunday and when we tried to encourage it she couldn't put any pressure on her right foot without crying. So, after a visit to the chiropractor, pediatrition and an x-ray we discovered she had sprained or twisted her ankle. She stood up again today on her own so I'm sure she'll soon be back to her walking before too long.

As for me, my cold will not give up. In fact I felt my ears close up on Tuesday and took that as a signal to get over to my doctor. She confirmed my suspicions that I had developed an ear infection and gave me some antibiotics. They seem to be helping a little but my ears are still closed up. I had a similar infection about 10 years ago when I was teaching and they finally had to give me some steroids to reduce the swelling. Please pray that this will work its way out soon and that I will be up for what's in store for us this weekend. I would feel terrible to not be able to help out at the hospital.

We're scheduled for the MRI at 10 am tomorrow. Dr. Shafron isn't available to go over the results with us so they will be giving us a disc and our oncologist can call the radiologist and get the report later in the day. If you don't get an update from us tomorrow with the results you can assume that for some reason we couldn't get them. If we know something, we'll post it.

Then, Friday we wait for a call from the hospital to tell us when a bed is ready for Abby and her chemo will begin. We feel comfortable following the protocol designed for the neural tumors (which matches the ATRT diagnosis and the PNET with Astrocytoma Differentiation diagnosis). So that is the one we will go with.

Thank you for praying with us. We know you all are covering us and that will help us endure all the waiting and trials to come. God Bless!