An Amazing Time and Some Sobering News

     This last week and a half our family has been sweetly savoring everything.  I have never appreciated the small moments you get as a parent with young children and the quality time with my husband as much as I do now.  And Hazel has been feeling so well that it has been so wonderful to just enjoy our time as a quasi normal family!  One of the amazing moments we were able to share was taking a trip to Disneyland!  This was our little Hazelnut's first time and she just LOVED it!  All of the children seemed to have a magical weekend.  Here are a few pictures, and then after I will discuss the sobering news we also received:

     The time at home has been peppered with so many appointments at the hospital to prepare for Hazel's stem cell transplant, the most important one being our meeting with Dr. Tran our oncologist where we discussed all of the results from Hazel's tests and the procedures involved with the transplant.  We first went over the results from the MIBG and CT scans.  As we already were aware, there is still a small portion of her original tumor that could not be removed during surgery, and the idea was that it would already be dead tissue going into transplant after receiving that last round of Chemo in Phase I.  However, the MIBG scan indicated that the small portion left in her little body is, in fact, live cancer cells.  Needless to say, we are disappointed in this news, but the doctor assured us that although this is not favorable, about 50% of Neuroblastoma cases head into transplant with live cancer cells and it is not something they haven't dealt with before.  This news makes all of her upcoming treatment all the more critical and now we may have to consider even more treatment (i.e: MIBG therapy).  We also discussed the possibility of a second surgery, and should be hearing back from the doctor on that in the next few days.  I am unsure about what this news means for Hazel's chances because we did not discuss that, but I can only assume that it just makes the next year more difficult and arduous for all of us.  

     We then discussed the reality of what we are about to go through with the stem cell transplant, and this entailed quite a lot of information; so I will write another post detailing all of that for you.  In the meantime, please pray that God will use the rest of Hazel's treatment to eradicate ALL of the remaining tumor, and that when all is said and done, we do not have to face the reality of relapse and can be finished with cancer!!