Julia has been on the mend since Sunday when she came home from the hospital. It is very hard to believe that she had two surgical procedures last week. She has been up and around, playing as usual.
She had her chemo treatment on Tuesday. This treatment was both VinCristine and Dactinomycin. The Dac really seems to knock Julia out and she spent most of the day Wednesday saying how tired she was feeling. Although she did not complain of nausea, her appetite was not there and she hasn’t had much to eat since the treatment. Because of the radiation set-up and simulation today, she was unable to eat or drink after 11 PM last night.
The good news came last night when Julia’s oncologist, Dr. Julia Stern, called to tell us that the pathology report was back from the lung biopsy. The spot on Julia’s lung was a lymph node with no cancer! Out of the 21 lymph nodes that were removed, only 4 presented cancer cells. Dr. Stern was just waiting for the full report of the pathology of the tumor to ensure that it showed favorable histology throughout.
We arrived at the hospital at 8:30 AM this morning for the radiation set-up/simulation. We met with Dr. Tochner, Chief of Pediatric Radiation Oncology at UP. They will not need to expand the field for radiation since the lymph nodes effected were in the original treatment plan (2 were at the kidney and 2 were at the entrance to her IVC). This is great news. Julia’s radiation treatment will be six consecutive visits (Monday-Friday and the following Monday).
They then accessed Julia’s port and gave her general anesthesia for the mapping (a series of CT scans to plan out the treatment). She will also have GA (general anesthesia) for each radiation treatments. This is best as she must lay completely still during the process and no one can be in the room with her.
We will be heading downtown early Monday morning to begin treatments and then to the “Hotel Sudak” for a week in the city.