Last Radiation Treatment - EVER!

As of this afternoon around 5:10pm, Janna is forever finished with her radiation treatments!  All she has left is one chemo treatment tomorrow, then the transplant will take place this Friday.  Every day gets us a little closer to putting this all behind us.

The radiation treatments were pretty tough.  They have started to sap her energy and keeping food down isn't easy.  But, the docs chose this treatment because of her type of AML.  We noticed that everyone's treatment seems to be a little different and we asked why some AML patients get mainly chemo and others get radiation.  The doc explained that because of the tumor that Janna had, and because of where it was (outside of the bone and near her optical nerve), they chose to give her radiation since it can penetrate every bone in her body, including bones and areas in the central nervous system.  Apparently some chemo treatments can never enter the nervous system, and if the tumor was close to the nervous system, they don't want to take any chances.  They want to make sure they get all of it, and radiation is the only way to ensure that.  These doses of radiation would be fatal without a transplant, which is scary to think about, but it has to be done.

Stole this from Janna's sister Ali - Janna, Clara and Gabriel, at the hospital today visiting together in the lobby.

She is doing relatively well, all things considered.  She is tired, often nauseous, but is walking regularly and riding her stationary bike in her room.  She is also not yet hooked up to an IV, which is unusual, but welcome since she doesn't want to be tied down.  She can be off of the IV for now because she drinks a LOT of water every day, so staying hydrated has been easy for her to do so far.  When she receives her chemo treatment tomorrow (Tuesday), she'll have to be hooked up, since it does a number on the kidneys.  Speaking of her chemo treatment - tomorrow is the LAST day she'll ever have to receive chemo (at least that's the plan), so we're planning on celebrating somehow.

Thanks again for all the prayers and well wishes - they are much appreciated!