Another MRI

Here I am playing catch up again. Avery has now had 11 chemo treatments and is doing better then ever. Her counts are up and she is feeling pretty good. Her counts being up always makes things much easier on all of us. Not being able to go outside during this warm weather would just suck. 

These past few weeks leading up to her MRI have been really awful for me. The first MRI was only stressful the day of because we knew Avery was responding to the treatment she was on. It was easy to know because we could visually see her tumor shrinking. It had been so large and you could see it on the outside of her head. So when it got smaller we knew she was responding. Now we can't see it and I was terrified of hearing bad news. I'd learned my lesson not being worried the first test Avery went in to get and got a big wake up call. 

Her MRI went surprisingly well. At clinic when they told me they were scheduling it I begged for them to make it earlier. Our last few tests were much later in the afternoon and it was almost unbearable not being able to feed Ave. So they made it for 6:30 AM. I was suuuper happy because I was able to just get Ave up and go right then. My sweet mom came even though it was so early and was a huge help. Everything went well and she even woke up really well which is usually the worst part. After we got home she wanted to right to sleep and when she woke up she was completely back to normal.

The next morning was a Friday so we headed up to get a skeletal survey. These haven't been the best in the past because they don't sedate her and have to hold her down while taking the x-rays. Usually Ave cries a lot but holds still. This time she was screaming and shaking and kicking her legs. It was completely awful. She recovered pretty fast though. Here is a video of her waiting to be checked in and she's reading an animal book and making all of the noises :)

When we went to get her chemo she cried for the first time while her port was accessed. To give you a visual... They come in with this big tray full of tools to access. Then they take off this tape that is holding on numbing cream over her port - this in itself is enough to put kids over the edge since it's like pulling off a large bandaid. Then they take a needle that is connected to a tube where they can draw blood and pump her chemo into - and push that directly into the skin. I've personally never been able to watch because I'm not good with needles, but I think it would be scary for anyone to have a needle coming straight at your chest. In the past she has been completely calm and just watches but I think the skeletal survey kind of threw us off our routine.

While at clinic we got the results of her MRI and skeletal survey saying that Avery's tumor is still shrinking and that the bones that were affected by the tumor are even healing. It was a huge relief for me!! :)

By the end of her clinic visit I was SO READY to just be DONE with tests and being at the hospital. It really made me so grateful that we could go home! There are other kids up there that have to be inpatient for their chemo and have to stay for really long periods of time... weeks even.

Since then we have had a lot of fun spending time at the zoo, park, and at grandma's house!

Can you tell she loves being outside??