Quick Update

I still need to post about Annabelle's wish declaration but my laptop is getting fixed right now so that will have to wait a few days. Sorry! Let me just say, though, that it was amazing!

Annabelle was finally able to start cycle 13 on the 16th of February. It took her 4 weeks to make platelet counts! It has been very frustrating for me to have her delayed so much. We really just want to be finished so we can go back to MT and live as a complete family again. It also worries me, though, because the cure rate has proven to be better with a more condensed treatment time. The standard protocol for Ewing's used to call for each cycle to start 3 weeks apart, but the latest protocol (which Annabelle is on) aims for each cycle to be 2 weeks apart. Of course that is the ideal and the attending last week, Dr Fluchel, told me that nobody makes it through Ewing's protocol without some delays and/or dose reduction. Annabelle has been the unfortunate one to have plenty of both! Of course we want to do what will bring the highest chances of a cure, so in an effort to reduce the length of her delays, they have now reduced her chemo to 50% of her normal dose. It's crazy for me to think that if it works and she keeps on schedule that we could be home in May! I'm trying not to get my hopes up, but I'm optimistic about it all.

Annabelle's feeding tube came out about 10 days ago, but she has been eating really well so we haven't put it back in. It is kind of crazy, actually! She has been ravenously hungry. The trick is getting her to eat more than 4 different things, but she has been doing better every day. I am very proud of her! When we checked in last Thursday she weighed 14.5 kilos (almost 32 lbs). That is the most she has ever weighed in her whole life! If she keeps this up she won't have to have a feeding tube again, ever. That would be awesome! I sure am getting much better sleep since I don't have to get up in the night to fill her food bag and roll her over every time she kinks the line and sets the alarm off. She is feeling REALLY good right now so we're just trying to keep her that way. She will have outpatient chemo this week and then she is scheduled for her next round next week.

The time has also come for Layla's surgery. She is SO excited to get to go to the hospital! That's what having a big sister with cancer will do for you. It will be a quick outpatient surgery so we should be home Friday afternoon. I am looking forward to having some time with just Layla. Too bad it's because she is having surgery!