Grace is finished with radiation. Yay! We thought it was going to be 3 weeks of 5 days spread out throughout the chemo. However they decided 1 week of 7 days was enough. 

So on day 7 ( which was last Wednesday) she was able to bang the gong! 

. Chemo treatments are now on Fridays. Last Friday she weighed 69 lbs. her white and red blood counts were within the normal range. She was able to play the video game machine that they have. She loves playing chess on it. 

This past weekend, we were able to escape to the beach. It was beautiful and relaxing. Grace had fun playing in the sand. The doctors recommended she only go into the water up to her knees, and only if she had no open wounds, sores, bug bites, or anything that could get infected.  She had lots of sunblock on and wore a hat to shade her face, and a swim shirt to cover the radiation spot. 

    Grace has been struggling with eating, she doesn’t want to drink anything either. We bought and have been given cases of  strawberry pediasure (that’s her favorite).  I was having her drink 2 a day, one as a morning snack in between breakfast and lunch, and one as an afternoon snack in between lunch and dinner.  Now she is taking all day to drink one. She is not drinking enough water. I don’t want to nag her, so I thought I’d by ice pops , Italian icees, and things like that to get liquids in her. She doesn’t want them.  We have Strawberry flavored Liquid IV, to help with dehydration, and she will not drink that either. 

    On Tuesday, Grace was hunched over when she was walking, complaining of pain on her right side (opposite side of the tumor). She wasn’t keeping any food or liquids down. I took her back to the hospital, we got there at 4p.m. She weighed in at 66 pounds, a three pound difference from Friday. They did an ultrasound on her liver, intestines, pancreas, kidney and tried to check her appendix. They ended up doing a CT to get a better look at her appendix, but everything was fine. They hooked her up to an IV as soon as we got there, . They gave her zofran for the vomiting ( we gave her some at home but it wasn’t working) and morphine for the pain. She was feeling so much better. Her labs came back that her red and white counts are low, as well as her platelets. They gave her some crackers and gator aide and when she was able to hold it down, they said we could leave but I need to keep a close eye on her and if she starts throwing up, runs a fever, or is in pain to go right back.  So we left the hospital at 6 a.m the next morning so we could be home for Mia’s birthday.

Tomorrow is chemotherapy day. So We will see what her labs say about her blood counts. We are also suppose to make an appointment for a follow up on the blood clot. It’s been six weeks of blood thinner shots. She may have to do 12 weeks,  but they said maybe just 6 weeks depending on how her body reacts.  We are hoping it is just 6 weeks and hoping she hasn’t lost more weight.

We are so humbled by the outpouring of support. Thank you just doesn’t seem to encompass the gratitude I feel for all the thoughts and prayers. We feel so truly blessed for such wonderful friends and family. Thank you.