We wait....

Hi,
I just wanted to let you all know that I have started up my blog again to post Charlottes latest information. I thought instead of plugging up your inboxes with picutres I will post them there. The way the blog is set up is that the first email that I sent out is the last post you will read. So the most current one is on the opening page. There are some before and after MRI picutres, I hope that they dont make anyone queezy. (Two here, more on the previous post.)

You can see on the first picutre how the tumour has pushed the centerline of her brain off to the side and suished closed the brain fluid (the black space on the left) there SHOULD be two of those spaces.... Below is the MRI taken about four hours after surgery. The black is all her brain fluid, already that cavity has opened up!

Today was a long day of waiting for us, but a really nice day of seeing Charlottes recovery too.

Today was the "BIG meeting" all the doctors from surgery, oncology and more were going sit down to take a look at the results of the tumour and formulate a plan of action. After sitting on the edge of our seats and jumping every time a group passed our door all morning we were told that they would not meet until 4:00 and someone should stop by after that. We relaxed a bit... at least until 4:30. Then again we watched the door out of the corner of our eyes... finally around 6:30 we asked our nurse if she could find anything out, even just a time someone might be by. I guess the plan was to talk to us during their morning rounds tomorrow! AAARRRRGHHHH. So again we will wait. I cant say that its really anybody's fault, it was just frustrating. That was combined with the fact that we were told we might get to go home today but since Charlottes not eating or drinking much they need us to wait until she back on a full diet. Every time we turned around we waited to see if she would take a bite!

This morning, finally, her appetite has returned. She ate fairly good at all three meals. She gets really excited when the kitchen lady brings in the tray, but by the time her fork gets loaded up her interest has waned a bit. Hospital food been fairly good, they really cater to little ones, things like kraft dinner, french fries, pizza and Cheese strings. Rob and I have been eating quite well too, lots of family and friends bringing us meals and snacks. By suppertime she picked away at her food from 5 until 8:00 we just kept offering her more and more. Not that she even ate as much as she would have at a regular meal at home but we were happy that the food held her interest that long and she was at least nibbling on it.

She was quite perky today and gave smiles to everyone. We spent a few minutes outside on the play centre with the physiotherapists... of course this was the only time she did not cooperate all day. Shes not quite walking on her own yet, her legs are pretty wobbly, but using our hands for balance she will walk across the room. Physio is happy with how her right arm is doing, we are doing lots of exercises to extend it. She tends to keep it tucked in by her body and not use it. But we know that she CAN use it so now its just a matter of convincing her to actually use it. It is sort of like watching a 6 month old baby trying to use her hands... except that Charlotte knows how it should be acting and gets mad at it. (A red-head temper thing I think!) But REALLY we had a really good day, played lots with all sorts of exciting new toys from the playroom here. She was so cheery with all the nurses and checkups they gave her, she is even getting better at taking all her medicines. (Shes down to tylenol, graval, another one to calm her tummy, and an anti seizure one.)

Please pray for our official diagnosis tomorrow, that the doctors were all surprised and its not as agressive as they initally thought. That way the chemo needed will not be as agressive either. And for Charlottes eating, the sooner she gets on track the more days we will have at home before chemo treatments start. It will be so nice for Charlotte to be home with Yolanda. We cant wait to have our family back together again, even if its just for a few days.

Love Allison and Rob

MRI Scans

These first two are the images with measurements on them, these give you a rough idea of what Charlotte was dealing with... no wonder she was having trouble! I cant imagine how she was functioning as well as we was. You can see in the second picutre how the tumour pushed the centerline of her brain sideways. The white and the light grey crescent (at the top of the orange marker line) are cyst fluid.

Below are two similar picutres post surgery. The second picutre was taken from a little higher in her skull than the presurgery one so the tumour was a little smaller at this point.

And heres our little girl after all that... playing with her Daddy! This picutre was taken on Saturday the 17th, just 4 days after her surgery.