Friday, Dec. 28, 2007

We've had a pretty busy week, as I'm sure the rest of you have also. Colby and Hannah really enjoyed Christmas, especially with our secret santa, a scavenger hunt from santa on Christmas day, and having Grandma and Grandpa and Sydney here too. Hannah asked me when package #13 was coming (on Christmas Day), so I had to explain to her that it was the "12 days before Christmas." We never did find out the identity of our friendly secret santa, although we have a few ideas on whom it may be.

Hannah has not felt well this week. I guess I was hoping for some drastic and quick change after chemo, but I realize it is going to be a very long road still ahead until she feels better. She is complaining constantly of stomach pain/nausea. The doctor prescribed a new anti-nausea med this past Monday. He said it's not uncommon to see medicine begin to lose it's effectiveness after being on it for so long. Hannah has been on Zofran for 10 months, and it doesn't seem to work as well for her now. It wears off quicker and isn't as effective over all. After days of contacting the insurance company, we finally got a special approval for this new medicine. At first they only wanted to approve 6 pills a month (it's a daily pill). I guess Hannah is only supposed to feel sick 6 days out of the month. They did finally approve for what the doctor wrote for, which was 30 pills for months. However, I did find out that approval means she can get the medicine but they pay nothing towards it. So, why did we even need their approval? I wouldn't mind as much if it was a couple hundred dollars a refill, but it's a couple thousand. We're trying it for a month to see if it helps. If it does, then it will be worth it. Hopefully our new insurance will cover it, and that will begin in the next couple of months or so (if we can get approved for insurance, that is.)

So in the meantime, I try not to dwell to much on her eating. She is completely off the appetite stimulant, which is good, but I don't know if her dramatic decrease in eating is a result of the latest chemo or the removal of the appetite stimulant or both. I started tracking her calories today, and she ate just over 700 calories for the whole day. She needs much more than that, and even double that would be good for her. She lost nearly a pound and a half last week, so I don't want that trend to continue, but I also can't force her. I am trying all the tricks right now, I snuck in some heavy cream into her chocolate milk today, and did get her to drink a whole cup of that this morning. She just doesn't feel like eating, doesn't want to eat and has absolutely no interest in food. Even the old favorites are being rejected now.

We go back to clinic on Monday, so we can just hope that her counts have not decreased again, and her weight has not either.

I would like to say thank you to all of our friends and family that have been there and supported us this entire year. It will be a year this January that Hannah was diagnosed with brain cancer and all of our lives changed dramatically and permanently. We could not have made it with all of your love and support.

I'll post some new pictures in the next few days.

xoxo Kim