Another good day

We are just returning from another consult with the folks at Lucille Packard. Today we met with Dr. Donaldson, the Radiation Oncologist. As has been the case with all of the physicians who are treating Gabriella, she was a kind, intelligent, candid and caring person. She reviewed the results of the PET scan with us. More good news! Nothing showed up that we haven't seen in other scans. Every one of these scans adds a great deal of anxiety and worry that they will find something that the last one did not. It appears that the Rabdomyosarcoma is still there.(bummer) and the lymph node on the right side of her abdomen is involved, which we knew. The location and type of rabdo tumor puts her in a low risk category. That alone would be a fairly straight forward protocol but the inclusion of the lymph node adds a bit of complexity. For this reason she will be going through 42 weeks instead of 22 weeks of chemotherapy. She will also at 12 weeks, begin 5 1/2 weeks of daily radiation treatments. This will be to completely remove the cancer cells from the affected area. It's going to be a long haul but the party at the end of it will make it all worth while.

I continue to be astounded by the kindness and generosity of our friends and family. The trip we made to the aquarium yesterday was unreal. I called the aquarium Friday afternoon and spoke to the director of tours. I told her the situation, the woman on the other end was very nice and said normally they need more time to organize something especially on a weekend but she would do her best. We got to the tour counter yesterday morning and they were ready for us. We ended up having more people than I had initially thought and they rounded up a second tour guide to take half of the group. They took us on back stage views of the sea turtles (on the roof) and jellyfish. When the tour was over, they had an incredible gift bag for Gabriella with a giant sea turtle and other stuffed animals and books. It was so kind and generous I could not have asked for more. After a full day of playing with her friends, Gabriella came home to some wonderfully generous gifts that were left on the doorstep.

This has already been one of the most trying times of our lives. Bill wrote about courage in a note to Kris, I used to think that I knew what courage was about. Let me tell you, I had no idea. This song lyric keeps running through my head. "I'm not a coward, I've just never been tested, I'd like to think if I was I would pass." Well, here comes the test. God I hope I pass.

Team G

Adam