Preliminary plan for radiation

I don't want to over post but I thought I would just update what we learned yesterday. We had a meeting with the Dr. Hunter, the radiologist. He would like to do 5 days of just local radiation on the spot where the leukemic cluster is. He feels five days at the lower dose would be better then just one big dose. He also wants to wait before anything is finalized until he hears back from St. Jude. (He wants to be positive that the course he has outlined it the best for our little Nicole). He drew an outline around the cluster and took pictures. Then his team will review everything and get back with us. The plan is start the first week of May. Remember, this is just preliminary nothing is set in stone.

We also visited her oncologist Dr. Raetz. She is pleased with the progress Nicole is making. Nicole ANC is still at zero, which means she has no immunity. Dr. Raetz is concerned about her cough, especially where there is no ANC to fight it . We were able to get her some cough medicine so both she, James and I can sleep:) We will go back to clinic on Thursday. She will get platelet transfusion on that day.

The weekend with Nicole home been one filled with coughing, throwing up, diarrhea, lots of laundry and lots of love. It's been good to have her home and to be able to enjoy this time before Nicole and I live at primaries for her transplant. We will also need to stay close to PCMC for the first 100 days after transplant. It will be a minimum of 4 months but probably closer to 5 months (with the prep work before transplant) before we are able to come back to Hyrum. After we are home in Hyrum the bone marrow doctors will keep a super close eye her for the first year. Will have lots of trips back and forth to PCMC.

I will be honest here I know this is a subject that no one wants to mention but Nicole may not survive. I know we always talk about having faith or praying for a miracle.  We do have a peaceful feeling that everything will be alright. But alright means I do not know.  I do know that whatever lays ahead of us is the Lord will. He is in the details of our lives and He perfectly aware of what our family challenges are.

Orson F. Whitney once said: “No pain that we suffer, no trial that we experience is wasted. It ministers to our education, to the development of such qualities as patience, faith, fortitude and humility. All that we suffer and all that we endure, especially when we endure it patiently, builds up our characters, purifies our hearts, expands our souls, and makes us more tender and charitable, more worthy to be called the children of God . . . and it is through sorrow and suffering, toil and tribulation, that we gain the education that we come here to acquire” (quoted in Spencer W. Kimball, Faith Precedes the Miracle, 98).

I know this be true. I have learned more about our Savior and Our Heavenly Father is the past two and half years through our journey with cancer then I think I could have learned any other way.

Nicole and her dad watching "Let it Go" while we wait for her lab results.