Radiation Week I

Kate was clearly carried on the wings of your prayers through week one of radiation therapy (RT)! She did well and we were able to get back each day in time for her art class at school and then her homebound teachers after school.
Praise that Kate had no nausea or vomiting until today (Saturday). We will trust today's vomiting will be an isolated event!

Friday we did counts prior to Kate's RT. Her hemoglobin had dropped a bit, and although she was not symptomatic, Kate's doctor felt it best that Kate get a transfusion of RBC's prior to the long Memorial Day Weekend to avoid dropping to where she would feel bad. Kate was very disappointed as the two hours plus needed to transfuse nixed her lunch plans with friends. She spirits picked up when other friends called and they planned supper out at Subway.

Tonight Kate invited a bunch of friends over for a bonfire with hot dogs, her famous potato salad and s'mores of course! Being with her friends and hanging out is such wonderful sense of normalcy for Kate. How thankful we are that after a week of radiation Kate is able to have a fun time with friends.

Please pray that as the radiation accumulates in Kate's body that symptoms such as nausea will remain minimal and that while transfusions may be needed, that her counts will not drop drastically.

Praise that with the help of her wonderful teachers and Kate's determination and self discipline that Kate will complete her junior year on schedule. She completed several finals this week and has a few more things to finish up next week.

We have been thrilled and so grateful for the out pouring of God's grace in Kate's life this week. We marvel that week one of radiation went so smoothly and truly with minimal to no side effects.

Thank you for running this final lap of treatment with us. We are confident as we pass the baton of prayer to you that your prayers will carry Kate victoriously to the finish line of treatment.

Awed by grace,
Elaine

Radiation Day 1

Kate's first day of radiation therapy (RT) was long, tedious and draining. She was face down, with her head held in place by the mask that was bolted to the table for about an hour. The first day involved taking extensive films and doing the RT. The time seemed to crawl as I sat waiting in the waiting room. I can only imagine how time must have seemed to stand still for Kate as she laid in that uncomfortable position for so long. She came out looking very weary and admitted she came close to tears on the table, thinking she wished she didn't have to go through this again. She asked if we could please do something fun on the way home:) A little bit of shopping and some lunch helped ease the weariness and restore her spirit. By afternoon Kate was her positive, determined self again. We are thankful and rejoicing that day 1 held none of the trying side effects!! Thank you for praying us through this day. It was so obvious that we were carried by your prayers and grace through a very challenging morning. Kate is schedule for her RT Monday - Friday at 10:00 am. Treatments (without the addition of films) should be about 15 minutes. We are grateful for your continued prayer coverage for Kate over the next three weeks of treatment. Please ask that the side effects of dropped counts, nausea and the many other potential serious and long term side effects that go with RT will be minimal and that the results will be great and Kate's health will be restored and this cancer will be defeated once and for all!

Moment by moment in His grace,

Elaine

Kate and Company

Kate -You are A Symphony of Beauty

Grace, favor, sweetness, and charm.

Kate you are truly a reflection

of

God's beauty.

The sun has one kind of glory,while the moon and the stars each have another kind. And even the stars differ from each other in their beauty and brightness.

I Corinthians 15:41

Reprieve or Delay ?

Monday morning was spent at radiation oncology doing the CT planning for Kate's upcoming radiation therapy (RT). This time also involved making a hard mesh-like mask that is used during the treatment. Kate lays face down and the mask is put over the back of her head and bolted to the table. The purpose of the mask is two-fold: it prevents movement of Kate's head and it is strategically marked with stickers that help with alignment for radiation treatment.
The planning complete we returned home, anticipating beginning RT Wednesday of this week. However, Monday afternoon we received a phone call tell us they needed to repeat the CT planning scan, as Kate's spine is so long that they didn't get enough overlap for the measurements necessary for her treatment. We returned Wednesday morning and repeated the CT planning again. They told it would probably be Monday now, until we could begin. So, I guess it's all in how you look at it... a reprieve or delay. We prefer to see it as a reprieve from the daily drives to Pittsburgh and more than that a few more days of feeling good and enjoying normalcy. We know that God's timing is perfect and know that his timing also includes delays. Thank you for continuing to wait on the Lord with us and for carrying us daily in your prayers.

Continuing by grace,
Elaine

More on waiting.....Many of you have been asking about the posting of the prom pictures...computer technicalities have been an issue. We will post them as soon as feasibly possible.

A Night to Remember

The prom proved to be an absolutley wonderful time for Kate! Thank you for praying for this special event in Kate's life. She was radiant with excitement and health wise felt good. She had enough energy and stamina to last until about 3:00 am. Although the after prom lasted until 5:00 am, we were thrilled that Kate held up as long as she did. God is so loving and gracious in giving Kate the health and strength to enjoy a wonderful evening. Isn't it amazing that God cares about the things that are so important to a teen age girl's heart?!! We are grateful for so many special friends who played a part in making Kate's junior prom a dream come true. Your kindness and generosity to Kate have touched our hearts and our lives and will be a forever special memory!

DIAMONDS are FOREVER - RHS Prom 2007

Prom Tonight , Radiation Next Week

PROM
Prom is tonight!! Kate is excited and I think the momentum and excitement will carry her through the day and much of the night. She has gained strength since her virus, but is still weak and a bit wobbly. We are still doing IV fluids at night. Yesterday's counts showed a drop in hemoglobin, but Kate is not symptomatic and said she doesn't feel like she needs a transfusion before tonight. I don't know that she will last through the entire after prom until 5:00 am, but she will give it her best. She reads her own body well and will know when it's time to call it a night. She was thrilled to pick up her dress - and says she feels beautiful in it! It is so good to see her just so happy and excited about every aspect of the prom experience. The girls had their nails done together yesterday and Kate felt good enough to help out at the school with some prom decorating last night.
~Please pray for Kate to feel well and strong and be able to enjoy this special night to the fullest.
~Please pray for the safety of all those students at the prom.


RADIATION
On Monday of this week we received a call from Kate's neuro-oncologist scheduling us for a consult with her radiation oncologist on Tuesday. In our conversation with the radiation oncologist, he, like the neuro oncologist said all on tumor board agreed that radiation is the next step. He told us that now is the time to do it, while the scans are clear and looking good. That way if there is a bad cell lurking somewhere that can't be seen on a scan, we are being proactive in attacking it. Radiation therapy is not a means of cure, but a measure taken to improve the chances of tumors not returning to the spine and brain. There are no guarantees with brain tumors, you just do everything possible to block the chances of growth of bad cells. We will go on Monday morning for a CT planning session in the radiation/oncology department. Kate's doctor must calculate how much radiation her brain and spine can receive based on what she had in 2004 and again in 2006. We are tentatively scheduled to begin radiation on Wednesday. Kate's doctor is estimating that her course of RT will take roughly three weeks of daily treatments. Treatments are short, in and out, but it will mean daily one hour drives to the hospital. He is hoping that she will not be as sick as she was in 2004, because it will be lower doses and she will not be battling many post surgical issues that she was at that time. Hearing loss is an issue with radiation, but he feels that may not be an immediate issue, but seen later in life.

~Please pray for maximum results and minimal side effects from RT. Kate will no doubt be fatigued and her counts will drop, requiring transfusions, but we are asking for minimal nausea.
~Please pray for protection of Kate's already compromised hearing.

Again thank you for standing with us in the tough times and rejoicing with us in the special times of joy and celebration.

Surrounded by grace,
Elaine

MRI, Radiation and Hospital stay X2

Since our last blog update we have journeyed with joy as we eased back to some feelings of normalcy in our lives. I went back to subbing, Kate was gaining some strength and returned to school for one class a day and was able to resume a little more active social schedule with friends and family. However in the midst of enjoying smoother days, some waves rolled in and rocked the peacefulness of our days. The last two weeks has been particularly rough.

HOSPITAL STAYS X 2
The weekend of April 20th, Kate packed her bags and was excited about enjoying a weekend away with new friends. Her weekend away had barely begun when the nausea and vomiting hit full force. She was unable to even keep sips of liquid down for long. That Saturday brought a fever, which was an immediate cause to be seen in the ER. Because of Kate's stem cell procedures, standard protocol is to begin IV antibiotics until a cause can be determined for the symptoms. Thus, Kate had to be admitted to the hospital. She received IV fluids and IV antibiotics. We were thankful when blood cultures remained negative for bacteria and that the cause for her symptoms was determined to be viral. We are so grateful for wonderful and very dear friends who visited while Kate was in the hospital to encourage and support us through this time. We were released from the hospital on Tuesday afternoon and as always were thankful to get home to recuperate. We learned on Wednesday, however, that a stool culture revealed rota virus and also tested positive for C-dif bacteria. Both of these are very common to post stem cell rescue patients. The virus has to run it's course and the c-diff is treated with flagyl (which many of our friends who have lived oversea are quite familiar with). The rest of the week was long with lots of nausea, vomiting and diarrhea. Kate had no appetite and worked hard to get some liquids down in an effort to avoid dehydration. It's was hard to see her feel so badly and feel helpless to do anything to make her feel better.

Monday we had a clinic visit at Children's to discuss radiation. I called and asked if we could come early, as I knew Kate was in need of IV fluids. We spent most of our time focusing on how to get Kate turned around from the virus. Her oncologist decided we should admit her and get her rehydrated. While in the hospital her blood pressure dropped real low, so they kept her still another day to observe that. The doctors did a blood culture to make sure there was no lurking infection somewhere that would cause the drop in blood pressure. We were thankful once again that the blood culture was negative. Kate always runs a low blood pressure and we've concluded it probably dropped even lower because of the low volume of fluids in her body. We were discharged from the hospital late Wednesday afternoon. Kate is on 12 hours of IV fluids through the night until we get past the virus. The good news is that another test yesterday showed the C-diff bacteria is gone, so today we finish the flagyl and are left fighting only the virus. One nurse told me in and of themselves the rota virus and c-diff can make you really sick and the fact that Kate had them together made it very understandable that she was so sick. One doctor told me a healthy child would take 7-10 days to recover from rota virus. Because Kate's immune system is weak at best from all the chemo, she will take significantly longer to rebound.

MRI REPORT
You may remember that Kate had an MRI of the pelvic plexus after developing some leg pain days after the clean MRI scan of the brain and spine. We had done one of these MRI's last fall as well, when the pain in her leg just didn't match the location of the tumors on her spine. While the doctors did not anticipate finding anything, it certainly gave us peace of mind when that scan came back clear!

PLANS FOR RADIATION
The doctors at tumor board have determined they do want to do more radiation of Kate's brain and spine. Kate told them it would have to be after the prom:) We first have to get Kate over this virus and strong again. Although Kate's MRI was clear, medullos are very aggressive and respond better to radiation than chemo. They feel it is important to follow up the chemo/stem cell rescues with radiation to help reduce the chances for the tumors returning. The radiation oncologist will have to calculate how much radiation Kate can have based on her previous 6 weeks of treatments after her surgery in 2004, and then the 9 treatments she received fall of 2006 when she was rediagnosed. It will likely be about 2 weeks worth of radiation this time.

SPECIAL VISIT FROM FRIENDS
The bright spot in this weary two weeks was a visit from two of our very dear heart friends Gail and Jennifer. These two precious ladies worked along side of us when we lived in China. These girls are two of the sweetest, sensitive,compassionate and servant-hearted women I have ever met. Despite the time and distance that separate us, we are thankful that God created a special bond between us that lets us pick up where we last left off. How blessed Kate, Maggie and I were by the time we shared together.

TRACK SUCCESS
Maggie's track team recently participated in an invitational meet with six other schools. Maggie earned a medal for placing second in the 200 meter dash and another medal when her relay team placed second in the 400 meter relay. Our friends Jennifer and Gail were cheering Maggie on from the stands with me. While we were thrilled when she placed second in the 200 meter dash, Maggie, who is extremely competitive, was disappointed with her performance. The difference between Maggie's time and the girl who placed first was only a plus + sign. Maggie is definitely her own worst critic, but I guess it's that competitive nature that keeps her pushing the edge.

PRAISES:
~As Thursday closes, we are excited that Kate has kept down her nibbles at each meal today and she has not vomited. It seems she is finally turning the bend on a very long two week road.
~Praise for friends and family. The last two weeks were challenging but a huge blessing in this time was reconnecting with dear friends from earlier chapters in our lives. As always my parents are there for us, taking care of not only Maggie but lively Gracie too. They run interference so graciously for me, when unexpectedly we have to be in the hospital, by keeping up with Maggie's schedule of activities.
~Praise for Maggie's good health that allows her to run races and dance, her enthusiasm for life and the joy with which she sang at her spring concert tonight.

REQUESTS:
~Please ask that God would strengthen and renew Kate each day. The prom is next weekend, May 11th. Kate has been anticipating this for months now. Please ask that she will be feeling like new by Friday.
~Please pray in advance for radiation.

God's grace and your prayers always carry us, but were felt even more so through these past two weeks. Thank you for continuing to walk on this journey of amazing grace with us.

Carried by grace,
Elaine