June Appointment

What a morning! Anya's monthly appointment was scheduled for this morning at 8:30am. She received her antibiotic and chemo through her port and had a spinal tap to get chemo in her nervous system. Despite the fact that she wasn't allowed to have any food or fluids since last night, things went very smoothly until the spinal tap.

Before the spinal tap the nurse administered "sleepy medicine" which is supposed to be a pain killer, sleep inducer, and temporary memory eraser - all in one! Things were going well at first, Anya started to get sleepy and lay down but as the procedure started she was roused a bit more, and obviously was experiencing pain.

When the doctor first stuck in the needle (similar to an epidural needle, if you are familiar with those) Anya tensed up a bit. This made it more difficult for him to find the proper placement which made the procedure take more time and cause more discomfort. She started crying, and tears welled in her eyes, and fell down her cheeks.

There are few things that hurt a mother more than seeing their child suffer...it broke my heart. Those are the times when everything in you wants to start crying, but of course the best way to support your baby is to stay strong, and give loving gentle support.

Thankfully that was all over in about 10 minutes, and she was able to rest. She wasn't ever able to fall asleep, to "sleep off" the effects of the medication, but she did enjoy a couple episodes of "Sponge Bob" and her favorite treat - chicken noodle soup. So glad we only have one more of these type of months before treatment is over!

May Happenings

Anya's May appointment was a couple weeks ago, and things went very smoothly. Immediately after her appointment, the kids and I drove up to visit my family to celebrate both of my brothers' college graduations. Adam graduated from UT with a degree in Computer Science, and Alan graduated from Case Western with a degree in Computer Science and Psychology. I am so proud of both of them for all of their hard work!!






And this weekend, Israel and I are celebrating seven years of marriage! What a full seven years it has been!




On Saturday, Israel surprised me with an overnight trip to St. Louis. We had a great time going up in St. Louis Arch and to a couple other local attractions! And today, we celebrated Memorial Day and our anniversary with the kids with a visit to Union Station here in KC which included time in the Kids Science Center and a 3-D movie. What a great weekend!

Passover

Here is a picture taken of our family last Wednesday after our annual Passover Meal. In place of a traditional Easter celebration, we celebrate the Lord's death and resurrection on Passover each year. It is a very special time for us to remember the bitterness of sin and our gratitude to Jesus for His deliverance as the Passover Lamb. Thank you Lord for your sacrifice!

April Steroids

The good news is that we've mostly recovered since the time of my last post! And the other good news is that Anya is done with her April steroids. She was feeling exceptionally well on the Saturday she took them, so we were able to attend church as a family and have guests over Saturday night. By Sunday morning she was feeling pretty rotten, but thankfully that is all just a memory. One more month done, only five more to go! Whoo-hoo!

As I write, the rest of the family is vegging in front of the TV because everyone is sick. Esther & Isaiah seem to be on the upswing, but Anya and Israel are both miserable.

In brief:

• The specialist didn't find any fluid in Anya's lungs
• Anya has developed infection in her eyes so she has been prescribed antibiotic eye drops
• Anya continues to take Tylenol and prescription cough medicine for her other symptoms
• Anya continues to have a fever so she has not been released to continue her chemo

Anya seems to be feeling the worst she has felt for at least several months. She just lies around crying, sleeping, or even at times babbling nonsense. We're hoping she starts feeling better quickly!

Clinic Initial Results

Fortunately, Anya was able to return home after her appointment this morning. Her lab work showed that her ANC has dropped since her last visit a week ago, but it is still in the safe range - praise the Lord! And the radiologist inspected her xrays, and said that it looks like there is no fluid in her lungs - yeah!

There is still a chance that Anya would have to return to the hospital sometime in the next few days if one of the following happens:

1. If the doctor who is also going to review Anya's xrays finds something that the radiologist missed.
2. If the doctors find that something is growing in the cultures they took this morning anytime within the next 72 hours.

Obviously we are glad that Anya didn't have to stay in the hospital, but we are still praying that she would get well quickly. She is pretty sad and miserable, the poor thing.

Esther also visited the doctor this morning, and was prescribed an antibiotic for her eyes because she has some type of infection in them. The doctor thinks that it is just whatever virus that is causing the rest of her symptoms but wants to treat it just in case because she is so uncomfortable.

Life is never boring with three kids, is it?!

Visit to the Clinic

For a few days, Anya has had a little cough but yesterday afternoon she developed a fever, sore throat, heavy chest, and body aches. Esther, Isaiah, and I have also been feeling under the weather but because Anya is on chemo which can decrease her ability to fight infection, she has to make a trip to the clinic this morning for blood work and a chest x-ray. They are hoping to find that her white blood cell count is high enough to fight the virus and that there is no fluid in her lungs.

I'm not really sure what will happen if they do find fluid in her lungs, but she is worried that if they do, she will have to have more breathing treatments. When Anya was originally admitted to the hospital, she was very sick and simply terrified of everything that was happening to her. There were many things that were painful and extremely uncomfortable, but for some reason she has attached a lot of the memories of pain and discomfort to the breathing treatments. Whenever we talk about her first time in the hospital, she mentions how terrible those treatments were even though in and of themselves they aren't that terrible. But because she remembers them being so awful, we are praying that there would not be fluid in her lungs and that she wouldn't need breathing treatments.