Summary

I'm so grateful to my wife for her inspiring and informational posts this week. But for those of you who are rushed and can't read through all of it, or are just joining us and want the edited version here it is:

History: On Friday, June 15th Anya (3.5 years old) was diagnosed with Acute Lymphoblastic Leukemia (ALL), the most common form of childhood luekemia. ALL is a cancer that starts in the bone marrow where blood cells are produced and spreads rapidly throughout the body. Thankfully the doctors believe that they caught Anya at an early stage because her white blood cell count was low (below 50,000) and because she was only symptomatic for two weeks. They have since learned that the leukemia has not spread to her spinal chord, vis a vis her brain, and this is extremely good news. Chemo and steroid treatment started Monday, June 18th.

Prognosis: The doctors are very optimistic about Anya's chances for longterm survival and health. Treatment will be in several stages that become gradually less intense. We are currently in the first stage, called Induction, a 4-6 week process of intense chemo and steroid treatment aimed at destroying literally millions of leukemia cells. This process hurts the body in a variety of ways so in addition to chemo and steroids Anya recieves a number of medicines to offset the various side effects of the cancer treatment. At the end of the Induction phase (late July) the doctors will know even more about Anya's chances, although right now they give her about 75-80% chance to be "cured". With ALL a patient is considered "cured" if the leukemia can be placed and held in remission (below 5% of white blood cells being cancerous) by the end of the intensive phases of treatment (6-9 months). Treatment will last from 3-5 years, at which point, if Anya is doing well and the leukemia is still in remission there is only a tiny chance that she would ever relapse again. Rather, we could expect her to live out a relatively normal and healthly life and lifespan.

Current situation: Our family has relocated to Toledo Ohio where we will live with Anna's parents during the 9 months of intensive treatment. Although Anya will be sent home within the next two weeks we can expect to be in the hospital 1-2 days per week for the next 6 weeks, and at least one day a week for the 6-9 months following that. This is if the treatment goes well and Anya avoids infection, etc. At the end of 9 months we hope to relocate to Kansas City and resume our ministry there . At that point Anya will need to go to the hospital for at least a few days each month.
After being transferred to ICU on Friday night Anya has improved steadily the past few days. Today Anya is being transferred out of ICU to the regular Pediatric Wing. The improvements have been across the board. She went from having to wear an oxygen mask to now breathing on her own. Her stomach, swollen from an enlarged spleen and liver, has shrunk several centimeters and no longer appears stretched to the limit. Her blood counts are all holding steady or improving and all of the tests that the doctors have run have been negative, which in the medical world means good (go figure!). She is sleeping better, eating very well (partly due to an increased appetite from the steroids), and interacting with us quite a bit more. She is in constant discomfort and frequent pain that we manage with Tylenol and morphine as needed. She is being extremely brave and a good little patient despite the constant prodding, procedures, etc. I am very proud of her. The last few days she has even initiated some silly games and conversations with me.

This got much longer than I hoped, but I can't sign off without saying one more thing. THANK YOU to all those who have surrounded us with love, concern, and prayers! We have been amazed at the outpouring of support we have recieved. Each day I recieve emails and calls, often from people I do not even know, offering their prayers and help. We love you all and cannot express how much your love has meant to us.

Israel