Tuesday

The MRI of Paige's brain showed a "sugar coating" of AML cells all over the outside of her brain and spinal column. And there is also the AML version of a tumor (chloroma) on the back of her brain. They aren't surprised about that, since Paige's left eye has been not moving very well with the other one, and they suspected something was on the part of her brain that controls vision. She had a vision test today, and there seems to be no vision damage - her current sight limitations seem to be just from the difficulty of focusing properly with one eye doing it's own thing. She can see objects better across the room than she can up close.

The oncologist said that we have two cards left to play. First, triple-dose intrathecal (if you're a medical person, don't laugh at my spelling!) chemo, as in, three chemicals injected into her spinal column next Thursday. Usually they would only do one, but they don't want to dilly dally, and they want to be as agressive as is safely possible in this situation. The second one is radiation, but we haven't quite reached that stage yet. And they would use low doses, and try to be careful to cause as little damage to her brain etc as possible.

The gene testing did come back, and there is leukemia (undetectable by microscope) in her bone marrow. I believe that the chemo they are giving her (besides the spinal kind) is actually an adult dose, something they haven't done at that hospital before. She could get seizures from the chemo, so please pray that she won't!

So we brought her home today, till Thursday, when she has her next spinal column biopsy/chemo. She was delighted to see "Check-us" the kitty, as she calls her.

I really feel peaceful, and I am thankful for all of you who are praying.