January 23, 2006- Scan Results

First of all, we had good scan results today. Second of all, while we are happy with the results, we want you all to realize this is only one hurdle in a long, long race.

Chris, Leah and I got very little sleep last night. We enjoyed our new roommates but Jewel has many monitors that do a lot of beeping, and a father who snores like a buzz saw. He seemed oblivious to the beeping monitors and when he finally woke up to call a nurse, he was the first one back to sleep while we lay there listening to his snoring. Jewel's mom never appeared to wake up during the night. Perhaps she has gotten accustomed to the snoring and finds it soothing or something.

We went to the scan around 8:30 this morning. Leah did well with being sedated. I could tell when she was done, though, because we could hear her wailing out in the hall, and when I went back in her CT room she was already trying to climb off the gurney. She was all tangled up in her cords and insisted the IV be removed immediately. We went to recovery for a bit, but they were happy to send us back to the seventh floor since Leah was doing a lot of screaming. This seems to be how she deals with coming out of being sedated.

Dr. Loew rounded shortly after we got back to our room, but did not have anything to tell us at that point. Leah took a nap, we got her ready to go home and packed up. Finally around 1:30 we were saying goodby to James who was working on 2nd floor today and got called back to our floor to see the results. Dr. Loew was able to show us the images on the computer and compare them with the scans done in November. Now Leah's tumor is approximately 8 cm. x 8 cm. It used to be 11.5 cm x 12 cm. They called it a 33% reduction. The two spots in her lungs are nearly gone-they are literally just dots. Originally Leah's tumor crossed the midline of her body and took more than the right side of her abdomen. Now it clearly does not cross the midline and her other organs are getting a bit more room. We are very happy with these results and feel encouraged, but also see the larger picture. We are still only starting round 3 of chemotherapy. We have at least one more round to go before surgery, a serious surgery with many possible outcomes, and then more chemotherapy, and the possibility of more treatment after that. Things are moving in the right direction, but we have a long road ahead.

We know that God has heard many prayers for Leah already, and today we are saying prayers of thanks for her scan results. We want to ask you to please, please continue to pray for her in the days, weeks, and months ahead as we continue this battle.

Thursday we go back to Iowa City for another vincristine treatment. We will be giving her anti-nausea meds at home for the next day or two, but are looking forward to being here and having a somewhat normal life for a bit.