CT Scan Results

     Aaron and I just got done talking with the Dr. Tran about Hazel's CT Scan results.  He told us that her tumor has shrunk a little more than 50%!!  This is fantastic news for us!  Sometimes neuroblastoma tumors do not initially respond so favorably to chemotherapy, so the fact that hers has shrunk considerably work so much in he favor.  We still meet with the surgeon, Dr. Bliss, on the 12th and will go ahead with her surgery on the 15th.  There is something that still concerns Dr Tran, however.  The tumor is still encasing some major blood vessels around the kidney, making for a much more complicated surgery than we were hoping for.  He thinks they may not be able to remove the entire tumor, but we won't really now anything for certain until we meet with our surgeon.  Dr. Tran assured us that Dr. Bliss is very capable and just recently preformed a surgery very similar to Hazel's case, with much success.  He also said that even if we have to leave a small piece of the tumor inside Hazel's body, that all of her aggressive subsequent treatment should take care of it.  But ultimately, I know that God has her in the palm of His hand and will work through every step of the way to bring us to where He wants us.
     Today, Hazel is exhausted. She spent so much of last night crying out in some sort of discomfort, but could not verbalize what was ailing her.  Then around 4:30 in the morning, she started pulling at her dressing, and peeled it halfway off!  So we had to wake her up and change her dressing and she finally got settle back down by 6:00.  I told her it was time to sleep, but she said she didn't want to!  I was so tired at this point, that I put a movie on for her so I could get a few hours of sleep.  By the time I woke up at 8:00, she was asleep and has not woken up!  We are still waiting for her blood cultures to come back to determine whether or not she has an infection, and because she has a runny nose, we are in isolation once again!  Hopefully, once her symptoms subside, we can venture outside the room, but until then, we have to get creative!  We are also waiting on the results of her blood counts.  If they have not moved at all, we may be here quite a while.  But if they are already trending up, then we hope to be home by the weekend.
     Thank you all so much for praying for the results of the CT scan.  I feel so relieved to know that all the drugs we have been pumping through Hazel's veins have been doing their job!  I truly have been feeling lifted by your prayers and God has given me so much hope and has been blessing me with His strength each and every day.