This will be short because honestly I just want to go to bed and sleep. Feel like we haven't gotten a decent nights sleep in over a week. We did go to Riley today and met with the oncologist. He seemed to have a pretty positive outlook on things. We are going to go back to Riley next Tuesday (Nov. 6). She will have another surgery to put in a "port" which will be the line used for her chemo. That will be in the am. Then in the afternoon she will have her first dose of chemotherapy. Normally they would send us home after that. However, we will stay the night in Indy as she goes to see her neurosurgeon on Wednesday for a check up after the biopsy/shunt surgery she had last week. Hopefully will get her stitches out at that time. We are looking at 70 (yes, 70) weeks of chemotherapy. Good news (actually great news) is if everything goes well, most of the treatments can be done at Lutheran!! There is about a 75%-80% success rate with this type of tumor and this kind of treatment. If it doesn't work then there is radiation treatment, but that will be a bridge we don't hopefully have to cross. Obviously the best case scenerio would be if they would have been able to surgerically remove the tumor, but in Mikayla's case to where the tumor was located in the brain, the surgeon thought it would do her more harm than good to try and remove it. We really can't afford to leave it alone and observe it as although it is not cancer per say, it is still growing and causing harm. Therefore we are relying on the chemo to either stabalize the tumor, shrink it, and or cause it to remain dormant (hopefully for good)
What an amazing little girl we have. Today she has been running around and playing just like nothing has ever happened. To see her you would never believe she had brain surgery last week, unless you look closely and see her stitches in her head. Or unless she tells you and lifts up her shirt to show you her stitches on her belly which she will do without you even asking. :>)
All of the prayers you have said on her behalf have been answered. We really couldn't have asked for better news. Let's just hope now that she can tolerate the chemo with minimal side effects and that it will work to shink the tumor so that we don't have to even think about the radiation treatment. I am done for the night. If there are any corrections, I'm sure Chris will post an update. :>) - Sasha
2 comments:
Sasha, Chris and family
We continue to read your updates and continue to keep all in our prayers. We have every friend we know (an then some) praying that the treatments will work!
Each time I read your notes you talk about Mikayla being amazing - she is but how amazing you both are too. None of us can imagine what you are facing and have always known your love for each other will bring you through everything! Keep the faith - we love you!
Know we are here for anything you need!
Steve and Anita
Dr. Frazier,
Your family is in our thoughts and prayers everyday, if you need anything let me know i will do my best to help out
Jamie Lorenz (float receptionist)
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