Friday, October 6, 2006
It has been an absolutely wonderful week. We turned a huge corner on Monday when Claire completed three 80z Chocolate Boost Energy drinks loaded with fat, protein, water and other important vitamins PLUS some Halloween OREOs. Her continued ability to eat/drink not only provides her with essential nutrition and Hercules strength, but almost guarantees her stay home throughout the week. Claire's first requested activity Tuesday morning was to go to Target, not the zoo, McDonalds or the park, but Target. And we have been back several times since - so Claire!!. She is extremely happy and cheerful and back to her normal routine, daily tricks and silly behavior, I found myself relaxed and having to remind myself how ill she really is. My guard started to drop yesterday as her energy level and independence was restored to a new high and I watched her sit on the kitchen floor eating OREOs with brother Ryan, Auntie Erin and Uncle Scott and have one full body laugh after another. By night time when I snuggled up to Claire as she slept, I was overwhelmed with such love and joy for her that the fear, anger and sadness of her cancer rose to a debilitating level and I fell hard. My birthday wish for her and us came true this week, she is truly experiencing and enjoying life like before, but with a limp in her left leg, less balance and overall coordination, and peripheral loss of her vision on her left side. All I could think of was what a miracle she has overcome to come back to us and how cruel cancer is that it will take her from us again. Her MRI on Tuesday was good. The heavy chemotherapy regiment so far has been successful in stopping the cancer from growing and allowed her brain to naturally heal from the signifiant trauma it faced two months ago. Her brain's recovery to date has been magical, but part of the evil tumor remains and it is difficult to assess if the area around the tumor is scar tissue, remaining brain swelling or additional tumor mass. Her neurological - oncology team are pleased with the results so far but the location and other factors of her tumor and situation are to her disadvantage. Claire will start her third and last round of chemotherapy next Tuesday prior to her second surgery, probably in mid November. Her future outcome and life prognosis will not be fully measurable until almost a month post surgery and depends largely on the surgeons abililty to remove all or a majority of the remaining tumor without any permanent or life consequences during the act. She is such a unique and special girl, as Chris comforted me last night he repeated over and over.....we can only hope and believe that she will be the rare exception to challenge and defeat her cancer and provide us even more beautiful family moments and days like yesterday.
We have adapted to our new way of life and stuggle as best we can but largely due to the support and love of others. A very dear friend of ours, Tim Reilly has lead and orchestrated a "I think I can" fund for Claire, for inquiries or information please feel free to reach him by email at Reillyt@Caltronics.net. We marvel at the continued encouragement and assistance we have received and sincerely thank you. Your positive energy and prayers are felt daily and keep us warm and strong.