Abby's Journey Archive

Abby got discharged at about 11:00 AM today and we came home. She has recovered nicely from the procedure--Dr. Sapozink said he had not anticipated any acute side-effects, though we may see some symptoms 6 to 18 months from now. That's just how radiation therapy affects people. He also told us that the areas irradiated did not appear to have changed substantially from the previous MRI.

We also have some more details regarding her next phase of treatment. We have a week off; next Monday she will go to Banner Desert to have a phoresis catheter put in, and also to start her chemotherapy, which will primarily consist of 4 days of cytoxan and topotican. The cytoxan will be delivered at higher doses than before. Then, unlike before, we will wait through the weekend and go to Tucson the following Monday to get her stem cells infused. This is because the topotican has to be out of her system completely before she can get her cells back.

We've also heard back on the pathology from Lucy Roarke at Children's Hospital of Philadelphia. She is sticking by her diagnosis of an anaplastic astrocytoma. You might recall that this is a very different tumor from a PNET, and the first time we had her look at it she said the same thing. We're going to get another opinion from a well-respected pathologist at St. Joseph's here in Phoenix. Either way, it doesn't change our treatment plan, according to Dr. Graham. It still would be nice to get some kind of consensus on the pathology.

So we have a week of peace, to some extent. Please pray she will tolerate the new chemotherapy at least as well as she did last time around. And pray for Abby's brothers and sister--they are figuring out that we are really starting this all over again.