My beautiful niece Gracie was recently diagnosed with Neuroblastoma (cancer). It is still early in the diagnosis and we are awaiting results to know more about the fight that Gracie will face. I've created this blog as an outlet for friends and family to stay informed about her journey and a way for friends and family to make anonymous contributions towards her care and the mounting expenses her family will face. Gracie is a fighter and the bravest 3 year old I know. Hundreds of people love you Gracie and are praying for you. "Be strong and of good courage for the Lord thy God is with thee" Joshua 1:9


Tuesday, October 12, 2010

Day +18

Gracie is doing great! She looks great and she is happy!
Saturday and Sunday my parents brought my other kids down to visit. Gracie loved it! (me too) we could only have two people at a time so we took turns. The kids had to be older than 5 to go in her room, so the two older ones could but, little Von could just look at her through the glass. She loved seeing her little "bubba" and he loved seeing her. There is a big playroom down the hall so the little one just had a blast playing in there while grandma and grandpa and myself took turns watching him. It was wonderful to see them even though I had just been home three days earlier.
Gracie improves more and more each day and gets stronger. She loves to do her crafts and it is a nice little walk over to the play area, so she gets her exercise a few times a day walking over and also walking to the bathroom for her bath and sometimes for the potty, :) depending on her mood)
The really exciting news today was that she made her own red and white blood cells and platelets!!! Her new cells are getting to work! We are thrilled.
Her mouth is almost back to normal and she hasn't puked much. Her feeds are up to 35 ml an hour now and they have cut back on the TPN. They said she can get out of here on Friday. Thursday she has to have a repeat on the EGD to do another balloon dilation of her esophagus from her stricture she had when she was admitted. He was able to balloon it a lot but not to where he wanted. Hopefully it hasn't closed back down too much.
We will then stay a week across the street at the Ronald McDonald house just so they can make sure she is still doing well before we go home. Also they said she can do her radiation in Tulsa so we are happy about that. That will be in another few weeks.
Yesterday I did my first dressing change on her central line. I will have to change it every week when we go home. I did pretty good job for my first try, cause I've seen it done so many times!! Lol I will also have to flush her lines with heparin very day to prevent clots. I'm turning into a regular nurse. Haha.
Thank you for your prayers and please continue to pray especially when we go home that she won't get sick. Her immune system will be fragile for some time.

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