Moving forward

I think the initial shock has started to wear off, and we're settling in with figuring out how to move forward. We've had to make a few logistical changes to get things back under control. Since they don't really want children at the hospital these days, we now need one person to drive Anna to the hospital and someone else to stay with TJ. My mom's been down this week, and has helped out with transportation, etc... and Anna's dad and a family friend came out on Monday to help out with TJ.
 
She's had a couple appointments/procedures since the last update. On Monday, she went in for another round of chemo administered to her spine. This time it was ARA-C, rather than Methotrexate which she received last week. The ARA-C is one of the variations of chemo that generally causes hair loss and has some other side effects. The hair is holding on strong for now, but I think she's prepared to eventually lose it again. The procedure went pretty well - no major drama there. She thinks they used a little extra Anesthesia this time, which had her a little extra loopy after wards. Also, it brought on a bout of nausea after wards in the evening, but that passed after a few hours.
 
She had an appointment today with the Neurosurgeon to talk about possibly inserting the Ommaya Reservoir in her head to help deliver the Chemo to her central nervous system. This whole concept had her (and me) a little freaked out. The appointment went well, and the doctor gave her some info. His main point was to figure out exactly how many times they are likely to administer Chemo to the CNS. Once we know that answer, we'll be better prepared to determine if we should proceed with this, or if she should go without this and just administer via the spine. The fact that he wasn't aggressively pushing this concept definitely made her feel better about the procedure. Plus, it sounds like the doctor was pretty comforting in their discussion.
 
She goes back tomorrow to meet with the Oncologist again, and then another round of Chemo on Thursday. Busy week for appointments.
 
Thanks everyone for your thoughts, prayers, comments, etc... We really appreciate it and couldn't do it without the support from everyone! It's been a tough couple days, but we're definitely on the upswing.