Well, what a Friday we had...let me begin. We were at the hospital at 9:30 for the MRI at 11:45. They bumped us up b/c the child before Madelyn had to cancel b/c of a cold. I was absolutely dreading all day and afternoon w/Madelyn not being able to drink or eat. We were originally scheduled for 2:30, but the called me at 7am to ask if we wanted to be moved up and I said "absolutely". We had the dr. listen to Madelyn b/c she has been a little stuffy, but they said she sounded great. She went in about 11:00 for her MRI. While she was in Rick and I went to the clinic to see if there would be someone to read the scans and give us the results on Friday. Rick has to fly out on Sunday for California for work and won't be back until Thursday and we just wanted to know the results before he went, b/c God forbid the news was bad, I didn't want to get it alone and he would have had to fly back early if we were to start treatment again. They told us that there were a lot of patients on the Oncology floor and only 1 doctor so we wouldn't get the results until Monday....bummer!
Anyway, she came out of the scan and was awake before they could even get her back to the Peds. Sedation room that we were waiting for her in. There was only one nurse rolling her gurney back and she woke up in the elevator and was trying to climb out of the gurney. Luckily, one of the nurses from the Oncology clinic recognized her and stopped to help get her back in the gurney until the got her back to the room. She came too pretty quickly, drank about 2 glasses of apple juice and we left. Rick went to work and Madelyn and I stopped by Stein Mart before going home. Madelyn hadn't had anything to eat all day, so she was eating Teddy Grahams and drinking her water and was fine.
We got home and she had a couple bites of lunch, but not much. She just wanted to play. So we were playing w/her toys and went into her room to color. We were coloring when I realized her hands and lips were purple and she was shivering and was freezing cold. I put a sweatshirt on her and grabbed her comforter and decided to sit on the couch with her until she warmed up. I called the Peds. Sedation number just to ck w/them to see if this was normal. I thought maybe it was the sedation medicine still getting out of her system. This was at 3:30. We sat on the couch and she fell asleep immediately. She slept for about 2 hours. I decided that was long enough so I tried waking her up to give her some juice or something. She didn't want to wake up very easily. She was very groggy and just not herself. I called Rick to tell him. We decided to watch her and and thought maybe it was from having such a long day. After hanging up from him I felt her head and it was burning up. I took her temperature in her ear, in one ear it was 103.7 and in the other it was 104.2. I put her in the car, called Rick and told him to meet us at the ER.
We got to the ER about 6pm. While on the way there, I called our Oncologist and told him what was going on and he said to take her to the ER. He called ahead and told them we were on the way. We got there and didnt' even wait 2 mins before they called us back. 2 doctors came in to talk to us. We really liked the Resident, he was very calm and concerned. Which is what we needed b/c we were both a nervous wreck. We told him that we were just here this morning for an MRI and he said " I know I read the scans"...and paused. At this time a wave of emotion came over me. There were the 2 docs and a nurse in the room w/us, Madelyn was burning up, and it felt all too familiar from almost 1 year ago to the day when we got the worst news of our lives, that she had Cancer. They knew something that we didn't and in my mind, I don't know if it was b/c I was sick about finding out the results of the scans, but I just clumped it all together and assumed that one thing had something to do with the other. It turns out that it didn't. They doctor looked at her right ear and said it was very infected. This surprised us, b/c Madelyn hasn't been fussy or even pulled at that ear one time. I told them that this past week her right eye has had some yellow icky stuff coming out of it too and her right nostril has had some nasty, green/brown boogies too. He put all of that together and decided that it was H-Flu, which is a bacterial infection. We are on 10 days of antibiotics and after Tylenol, her fever was gone and we were home by 9:30 last night.
We sweet talked the Resident Dr. and he let Rick look at her scans and the findings of the Radiologist...MADELYN'S SCANS ARE CLEAR! Even better, the dead leisions that were in her liver are gone and her liver is completely clean. They tissue of her primary is still in her chest, but has not changed and the Radiologist said NO EVIDENCE OF NEUROBLASTOMA!!! HOOORAY! We are so thrilled. I also forgot to post her VMA/HVA levels. They are actually down and that is great. VMA-12.6 (down from 15.1 a month ago) HVA-16.9 (down from 23.9 a month ago)
What a wonderful Christmas present. We are so grateful for Madelyn's health. Please contiue to pray for Madelyn's health and every child who is fighting this terrible disease. We want to wish you all a very Merry Christmas and a very happy New Year. We will be kissing 2007 goodbye and welcoming a very happy, HEALTY new year!
Love,
The Bell's
