Monday, Jan. 21, 2008

Well I'll try to make this post a bit less scary and informational than the last one. I made that post when I was upset over the children that had died and just mad. I usually keep things honest but upbeat here, and to be very honest, it's not always upbeat for us and Hannah. This weekend she seemed to go backwards in how she is feeling. She got up like usual on Saturday morning, then threw up. That scared me half to death. Why? Because that is what she did for months before they discovered the brain tumor. Lots of mornings, Hannah would wake up, throw up, then go on with her day. That was all I could think of as I stood behind her in the bathroom. Ironically, I was also thinking that I used to stand behind her holding her long hair back. Now she has no hair to hold back, she has cancer. Did you know that most kids with medulloblastoma that relapse do so within the first year off treatment? Little Julian that just died on Saturday had standard risk medulloblastoma, same as Hannah. His cancer recurred six months after he finished chemo, and he died 3 months later. That is what I think about every day. And that is what scares me every day, especially when she is throwing up in the morning.

I forgot, this post was supposed to be more upbeat and less scary. She didn't go to horseback riding on Saturday, since she really didn't feel that well. Her stomach hurt and she had nausea throughout the day. Sunday was better, but still nausea and stomach pain. She did feel well enough to talk us all into bowling. It was fun and I bowled so badly that Colby and Hannah both beat me (yes, legitimately.)

Today was more of the same. Her food intake today consisted of 4 strawberries and about 4 blueberries for breakfast, 3 chicken nuggets and about 5 fries for lunch and a small bit of chicken noodle soup with the chicken, noodles, carrots and of course her favorite, protein drink!! Tonight it only took 2 HOURS to drink the one 6 ounce drink. Colby drank hers in about 10 minutes, and Hannah sat there for nearly 2 HOURS. Really it's not that bad...unless you spill it. One piece of advice, never drink it while in the living room with two dogs and an off-white carpet. Picture the little dog jumping up, spilling the whole drink on the formerly white carpet with the mom (me) yelling and screaming while mopping it up with a bucket, brush and lots of towels. It smells horrible when it's seeping in the carpet, and it looks even worse the next day. It doesn't even look like I wiped it up at all! The carpet was due for a cleaning anyway (Thank you Tod) so let's see if it comes out. Dave and I are not hopeful.


I did want to share some photos from the weekend. Hannah is very excited that her hair is growing back. It seems to grow more each day. She said she wants it to come back the same color, just a little curlier. It really changes her look a lot! I don't have a good picture, but I will take one this week and post it. The hair seems to be coming in uniformly over her head, except to the area where the radiation boost was to the tumor bed (on the back of her head). It is coming in very little there, if at all. Here is Hannah with white hair and beard, the bubble girl!

xoxo Kim