Scan Results are In - All Clear - WooHoo

Today was our clinic appointment to go over scans. Everything is looking good! We can live and enjoy life for another 3 months. WooHoo! We talked with the oncologist about a variety of topics.

Rebekah has not been able to have any immunizations since she was diagnosed with cancer and her sister was not able to have any immunizations that were "live". That has meant that neither girl is up to date on her immunizations. We needed to find out what both of them could have. Rebekah can start to have more immunizations as long as they are not "live" - we will need to wait until 1 year past treatment for that. Sarah can have any immunizations at this point.

Our treatment protocol calls for a Neuropsychological evaluation at two years post treatment. Rebekah's developmental specialist suggested that we have it next spring (which would be one year post treatment) so that it would be before she went into kindergarten. So we talked with the oncologist about that. Only to find out that the specialist at Emanuel that both the oncologist and the developmental specialist would recommend is leaving her practice and moving back east before the end of the year and is booked solid for that entire time. So we'll need to find someone else. There is a doctor at OHSU that would be a possibility (we've heard him talk a couple of times) and our developmental specialist may have another idea. So we'll need to work on that.

The oncologist also wanted to make sure that we were working with an ENT, as well as an eye doctor. At this point, we're looking at having annual exams with them and other appointments as needs arise.

We also discussed Rebekah's eating and whether she was still using her G-Tube or if we were ready to have it removed. His goal would be to have it removed by a year or 15 months post treatment if possible (February or May 2007). We will see. As much as I would love to be rid of it now, we still need it. I'm actually seeing some weight gain (maybe a pound) in the last month and a half or so. Despite that, she is at the 50th percentile for weight so I guess I shouldn't complain.

All in all, it was a good meeting and we were relieved with the good scans.

We also found out today that Rebekah's cousin Michael's tests came back with no particular concerns. While that is good news, they are still in a "wait and see" mode which we know can be incredibly frustrating.

A while back Mommy bought some Dora socks and Dora underwear for both girls to be used as "rewards" for potty training. For a while, I've been telling the girls that if they keep their pullups dry all day long then they can pick a pair of Dora socks or Dora underwear. Yesterday, one of the girls kept her pullup dry all day long (even through nap time) until the very last change before bed. Oh was she close. Today, the same girl kept hers dry with the exception of bowel movements and the other one kept hers dry until our trip home from the hospital late this afternoon. Did I need to by the boxes of pullups that I purchased at Costco today? If not (and we can hope not), they can always be returned. I'll let you guess which of the girls did what.

We moved speech therapy to before school on Tuesdays (starting today) because Rebekah wasn't cooperating very well when it was after school. She did much better today and did a great job of staying at task with it. So it looks promising.

Gage started his chemo last week. Please pray with his family that the Leukemia go into remission quickly, that a donor will be found quickly, for healing for Gage and peace and comfort for his parents as they make decisions and stay strong for Gage.