Radiation Starts Today

Radiation is starting today. Thank you, God. It will take probably 7 days to see the tumor begin to shrink, so we needed to get this started ASAP and we kept being told Monday. She will be transported to CARTI for her radiation treatment. She will have to be sedated to keep her in the proper position to target the correct area. We still don't know the frequency or duration of this treatment. They will, unfortunately, have to do the full intubation because of her reflux issues, but that will make the already large amount of swelling get worse and possibly restrict her airway enough that she will have to get some form of tracheotomy in order to bypass all of that. The chances are small, but they are still there.

Overall, yesterday was actually a pretty good day for Abby. She sat up on the couch for her own for 4-5 hours, which is a great improvement. Her beloved Miss Helen and Miss Lisa from daycare came to visit and brought her cards from all the kids. As soon as she saw Miss Helen, she got a big smile on her face, which is only the second smile we've seen since this all started. I'm sad that she was asleep when Miss Lisa came because that's her favorite teacher.

Sadly, Abby was in quite a bit of pain yesterday afternoon. The pain team (a group of anesthesiologists) met with us to discuss putting Abby on a PCA to help manage her pain. There is concern about the larger amounts of morphine she had been receiving every four hours through her IV because of the sedation qualities of morphine and that restricting her airway because of being so relaxed. They agreed to put her on a pain pump, but they started at a very low dose, which did not have good control. Therefore, she was in pain quite a bit of the afternoon while they tried to get that adjusted.

Late yesterday afternoon, a PICC line was also inserted into her arm. This eliminates the need for an IV, so she now has both hands free. It also allows blood to be drawn from there, so no more needle sticks for that. Great news! She will be able to receive her TPN through there in order to get some nutrition because she is now NPO until her swelling goes down enough to allow her to swallow and it has already been a week since she has eaten anything of value.

We also met with a neurosurgeon yesterday about the small possibility of needing brain surgery if the tumor pushes on her brain enough to cause swelling. We didn't discuss much because he is hopeful that she will not need this, but he wanted us to be aware of the possibilities.

On Monday, Abby will have a bone scan, bone marrow biopsy, and a spinal tap. Those are all to insure that the cancer has not spread to those areas. When rhabdomyosarcoma metastasizes, it tends to go to the bone marrow.

Please pray that Abby has no problems with these additional sedations, that she is able to protect her airway, and that the cancer has not spread.