This is an email we received from Cory this morning. Prayers are being answered.
Janna received another platelet transfusion yesterday. What should be a
3 hour total process turned into 10 hour process. Apparently there are
lots of people who needed blood yesterday so Janna had to wait in line,
although her oncologist was not too happy about it.
We also learned a bit more about her future yesterday. The Oncologist
(Dr. Khalid El-Shami - awesome doctor, by the way - if you ever have
cancer, he's the guy to see :) ),
said that should the pet scan and MRI show that the tumor is in
complete remission (which is what induction chemo is meant to do to
tumors), she may not need a bone marrow transplant.
But if there is any sign of it, he would highly recommend a bone
marrow transplant as that gives her the best chances of surviving. She is doing remarkably well, so we're hopeful that the transplant will
not be necessary. She will also undergo ten treatments of radiation
therapy in either April or May, but he said this was relatively simple
with little to no side effects.
The good news is that IF the tumor is in remission, she will only need
two more rounds of chemo, at the beginning of April and May. These are
still not "normal" rounds, since she is getting 5 treatments in 5 days
each month. This is a change from what we were originally told when we
started down this road - we thought she may need chemo treatments until
August.
Dr. El-Shami said yesterday that Janna's situation is very unique. He
wants to write her up for journal articles - there's not too many cases,
if any, like her. I believe she told her last Friday that her cancer
diagnosis is very strange - he said it would be like telling someone
that they have stomach cancer but it's in their liver.
Just this morning Janna said she couldn't feel the tumor anymore. As I
look back on pictures of her just before she went in for her induction
chemo, you can definitely tell something was there. It restricted her
ability to smile. I'll share the picture with everyone later.
Thanks again for all your prayers and efforts to serve our family - it is all very much appreciated!
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