Well we have been home since Monday afternoon but Tuesday is the only day we actually had at home all day. Wednesday we took Audrey in for a hearing test as well as a clinic visit and labs. The hearing test was first for the day and Audrey did so well. There are a few different tests they do and they were actually able to get even more information then they expected- which is great for future comparisons. It sounds like we will repeat these tests fairly often so that if there are any changes to Audrey's hearing, they can adjust her medications accordingly. Her results were very good and we pray that none of the treatment affects that.

Next we went to clinic for labs and to meet with the oncologist. They keep a very close eye on her blood counts so that we know when she is in need of transfusion and also when we have to be even more careful of coming in contact with viruses/bacteria. They expect that her counts will be lowest about a week after chemo medications- so this weekend will be very telling for us of what we may expect in coming months. From what they drew she looks very anemic so we will be going back today (Friday) to check again and likely get a transfusion.

We met with a nutritionist again at our visit to review Audrey's diet and basically were told our threshold number for Audrey's weight. If she dips below this number we will likely have to have an NG tube (feeding tube) to keep her nourished with enough calories to support her though treatment. We are trying our best to avoid this but it is challenging when she cannot tell us if she feels nauseated and can't tell us what she feels like eating. Her diet has already been a big priority for us so it is great to have support and more guidance from her team. She has gotten sick a couple of times already but it is hard at this age to say whether it's from the meds or just ate too much/didn't agree with her.

From our time with the oncologist we found out that her cancer does have one unfavorable characteristic that means we may in fact be in for more than the 4 courses of chemotherapy. It is hard for them to say now as they don't know how she will respond to the treatment but they want to prepare us for this as a possibility. Our plan for now is for me to take leave as long as I can and once mine runs out, Galen will take his.

Yesterday we went back in to have her PET scan done. As I mentioned before, this scan is to serve as a starting point for future comparisons. Also, it should show if there is evidence of any other areas of concern that haven't previously been seen. We may not hear back on this scan until Tuesday when we see her doctors again. Unfortunately so many of their tests require Audrey to go under anesthesia because they require little to no movement. We absolutely hate that this is the case, but there aren't really any other options. So yesterday she was under for about half an hour while they ran the scan and then they brought her back to us while she was waking up. We have to keep her from eating hours before the tests and this is certainly not making it easier to keep her weight up.

Thank you again for supporting us and for following Audrey's progress. Please pray that Audrey stays strong over the weekend and that she keeps her appetite so we can keep feeding her as before. We will update again next week.