Abby Update - Tough Times

From Brent

I did a photo "before/after" over on my other blog with some tips on how to put some "wow" into your images. Check it out here...

From From Michelle

By the time this week is over, Abby will have endured 4 long days filled with medical appointments/tests/procedures. She has had to deal with monster headaches for 2 days longer than normal, so that we would get accurate information from an ultrasound they scheduled tomorrow (Thursday). Even a really well behaved 4 year old can be hard to comfort when the pain is intense and unrelenting. Brent and I are very patient with Abby but her siblings don't really understand how badly she is hurting.

The plan is to do a spinal tap, in ER, after the ultrasound, so they can remove the excess fluid. This sometimes makes her feel better immediately, but if they take off too much fluid, it will give her a spinal headache for a day, while her body replenishes the spinal fluid.

We have never done a spinal tap in ER. Because of scheduling problems in her cancer clinic it's the only choice. I'm nervous about how they will sedate her and the germs she will be exposed to in the ER. I know for a fact that they do not always sedate patients for spinals in the ER. I won't let them do it without sedation but I also don't want her to have the headaches any longer than necessary. So I am praying that God works out the details.

We are praying the tests give us a clear and accurate picture of what is going on with Abby, so that we can decide how to help her.

The plan for now is to do spinal taps every 3-4 days to remove the excess fluid. Each spinal tap is a day of discomfort and drug-induced apathy for Abby… day of clinics for us. It will be a very long (and for Abby painful) year if we can’t come up with a better plan than that.

This week we will spend four days at the hospital/clinics running tests and having procedures done. Abby misses her friends at school, our other children miss normal family life, and Brent is working all night, so that he can go with us to the doctor or care for the other children during the day. We may need to consider going to some specialists in Ohio but that is a whole other set of financial and scheduling complexities.

Would you please pray:

• The tests tomorrow would give us a clear picture of what damage is occurring (if any), so that we can decide what to do to help Abby.
• For Abby’s comfort during the spinal taps and protection from injury and infection from them.
• Clear direction about what we need to do to help Abby.
• Strength for our family.
• That we would find the energy/time to make this Christmas wonderful for our children.
• For the remaining cancer cells to be destroyed and for Abby to be protected from permanent damage from Pseudotumor Cerebri and for her to be completely healed.

Abby's prayer requests:

• That she is able to go to her class Christmas party on Friday.
• That she feels well enough to "help" the OU cheerleaders at their pep rally on Monday. (Thank you Kay. You are the best.)

Lumbar puncture in the morning...
Christmas party in the afternoon.
A day in the life of Abby.