This however does not mean that she is cured, if they stopped chemo now, then about 99% of the time the cancer would return. What makes us so excited is that these results mean that Elizabeth will not be elevated from the High Risk to the Very High Risk treatment plan.
We will celebrate each milestone with Elizabeth, so today we had a really nice time at the 'Animal Zoo' to celebrate Elizabeth's remission. We got to see foxes, otters, a wolf, penguins, and monkeys. We really enjoyed the fresh air, sunshine, and unseasonably warm weather. It has been especially great to see Elizabeth regaining strength and wanting to play more lately.
Next week Elizabeth is scheduled to get a port (a small injection site placed beneath her skin in her chest that goes to her heart) to replace her PICC (peripherally inserted central catheter) line. Elizabeth has affectionately called her PICC line her "tails" because the double lumen PICC has two tubes that come out of her arm near the inside of her elbow and hang down to her hand. She is very adaptive and resilient, coming to enjoy us "cleaning her tails" (flushing her PICC lines with heparin twice a day and changing the orange caps). She won't miss the weekly dressing changes for her PICC line though :)
Depending on Elizabeth's ANC levels, in the next week or two we will start the second phase of chemotherapy.
We are very grateful to all of our family and friends for their thoughts and prayers, as well as their acts of love, generosity, and kindness. Thank you for help lightening our burdens as we go though this chapter in our lives and start a new one with the next phase of chemo.
Happy Thanksgiving from the Baldus Family.
Congradulations on your conquering the first major milestone. I pray and have faith that you will have continued success. Elizabeth is so beautiful.
ReplyDeleteMay God bless you and keep you.
David Anderson