October 28, 2021

God calls us to praise Him through hardship and through triumph. By His grace we have a bit of both right now. So we are praising Him through the cheers and the tears.

Tuesday, Lucy had a PET scan to check on her tumors. And all the tumors are gone! So she has no cancer in her bone marrow, no cancer in her spinal fluid and no tumors. The doctor said she is basically in remission!!!

Unfortunately, we still have to do the full course of chemo, 4 more rounds, to make sure the cancer doesn't come back.

Last Friday, Lucy's platelets we're down to 27 and her other counts were very low as well. The doctor expected that we would have to delay chemo in order to wait for her counts to come back up. But yesterday her platelets were up to 197! And her white blood cells went up as well. So yesterday we were admitted to the hospital for round 3 of chemo.

There are a few good things about this round: no lumbar punctures, no steroids, and hopefully a shorter stay. The main chemo drug this round is a new one with some rough side effects, so we are praying those don't effect her much. The drug involves a low dose administered over 12 hours, and then a high dose administered over 3 hours. Plus a different chemo drug for 2 hours. Every day for 4 days. It's hard not to be concerned for her little body with all these chemicals being pumped through it.

Her moods have still been a problem, though it is usually only bad when medicine is involved. Waking up from the anesthesia Tuesday was really hard, the worst reaction we've seen. And yesterday she had a hard time after they gave her Benadryl. Please pray for some answer to be found soon. She is really struggling.

I was so proud of her yesterday when we first got to the hospital because she had such a good attitude at the beginning. She was so brave for her port access and didn't fight it at all. Then her port access was extremely painful and the pain lasted for an hour. It isn't supposed to be painful. The nurses didn't know what was wrong and did nothing for her. It was heartbreaking to see my sweet brave girl face so much pain. Thankfully today so far has been really good.

We are so incredibly thankful for God's faithfulness through this. And for the love being poured out on us from all of you amazing people. I won't presume to know how God's will works, but it really feels that he has answered all of your faithful prayer abundantly. Lucy's body is responding perfectly to these treatments. And there have been so many moments where He has given needed extra grace. So thank you again!!!

Prayer needs:

- For strength and comfort for Lucy as she fights through this battle

- For the chemo to continue having a maximum effect with minimal side effects

- For strength and wisdom for all of us helping her through this

- For the doctors to know what to do about her head/mood problems, if there is something they can do

- For both JD and I to get what sleep we can

- For God to protect Lucy from fear and bitterness and to help her have faith in Him

Something fun:

One of the nurses gave Lucy permission to use a syringe to squirt water at any adults that come in. So she has been really enjoying getting everyone wet.