I don’t know where to start and there are no words………
Over the weekend, we noticed a change to Julia’s breathing. She had a busy weekend with playdates with friends and time with family. It was ever so slight, but by Monday night it appeared that something had changed. Her heart beat seemed to be more rapid and her respiration increased.
We headed to the hospital very early this morning to get to get a line placed in Julia’s neck to allow for the stem cell harvest. It is ironic that we came here this morning, hoping that the harvest may lead to a possible cure. In a matter of hours, all that changed.
We had mentioned our concerns to the sedation team and after an exam; they decided to have her procedure completed with general anesthesia. Both sedation and GA, noticed that there was decreased breath sounds in Julia’s lung, but not feeling there was any risk, Julia had the line placed in her neck.
As planned, Julia was admitted to the oncology floor, and we mentioned the change to the Oncologist on duty. They decided to do a CT-scan just to check if anything had changed.
Our worst fears were realized. The tumor in Julia’s chest has suddenly started to grow. (She had been to clinic on Friday for blood counts and everything was fine). The change has been rapid and the tumor is now pushing against her heart and on her trachea. An ultrasound was taken to see if they could distinguish if there was any fluid that could be drained. This was inconclusive and a CT-scan with contrast was ordered for the morning.
We spoke with the Oncologist and there are no curative measures that can be taken. We need to make sure that Julia is comfortable. She is sleeping tonight with her faithful friend Kevin under her arm, and John and I by her side.
This will be my last post for a while. I need to spend all the time I can with Julia… hearing her voice, touching her skin and cherishing every smile.
Please keep Julia in your thoughts and prayers.