Can't believe it is almost two months since Audrey's diagnosis. Time has went by so quickly. This week we had several appointments and we were able to get more information on what the next couple of months will look like.

Monday we saw Audrey's pediatrician. She was very impressed with Audrey's growth over the past month or so-- our baby is almost 20 pounds! Must be all the butter and cheese we add to everything ;) We discussed Audrey's development and side effects thus far. It was a pretty quick appointment.

Tuesday I got a call from the surgical coordinator to schedule a visit with the surgeon who completed Audrey's first surgery and who is to complete any subsequent surgeries. I told the coordinator that I didn't think the dates were right as they had her surgery scheduled for 10 days after her 4th cycle. Since he couldn't really speak to it (just going off of what he is told) I just let him schedule our consults and thought maybe we really would be preparing for a Nov 15th surgery.

Wednesday were labs and clinic as well as the visit with the surgeon. Audrey's levels had already dipped pretty low whereas before it was taking more like two weeks post-chemo for her levels to drop. Nothing too alarming and no need for transfusions but she is on fever watch again. In her clinic visit I mentioned the surgery date and it seems the communication between oncology and the surgical center was a bit off. Weeks ago the November date was put up as a tentative surgery date and this hadn't been changed. The docs promised immediate follow up with surgery but we still went to meet with the surgeon anyway. Dr Ledbetter (the surgeon) is pretty great. He explained that Audrey's treatment is still somewhat up in the air until we get some sort of progress on what the chemo has done to her tumor. He said at this point we still can't say what Audrey's surgery will look like, if she will need more than one, or if she will need it at all. He walked us through her CT images from when she was first diagnosed (not sure why this wasn't done before) and showed us the affected areas. He also explained what surgery would look like if he had to operate on the tumor as it presented on her initial scans. (Absolutely terrifying!) Because Audrey's tumor is located in a very tricky spot, surgery would be extremely invasive and would leave her with an enormous scar. If this is what we must do, we at least know she would be in very good hands.

Thursday we had another echocardiogram and a visit with Audrey's cardiologist. Her heart still looks beautiful and there will be no changes to her heart meds as of right now. If it weren't for Audrey's cancer we would have been the point where we would only have to see the cardiologist every 6 months but not with everything going on now. We will continue to see them often for the next several months. The one chemo med that they are most worried could damage her heart will be given again for cycle 4, so we will be repeating the echo in a few weeks.

This morning we returned to check Audrey's labs to make sure she didn't need any transfusions. While there we were able to talk to one of her doctors about the next steps. She explained that after the surgery scheduling confusion they discussed with Dr Park (Neuroblastoma specialist) and it should go as follows: After cycle 4 they will repeat Audrey's scans. If her tumor has been reduced by 50% or more she should not need surgery or the additional 4 cycles. If it has not been reduced by 50% they will proceed with the additional cycles of chemo. Then they would repeat scans after cycle 8 and determine then if she needs surgery. This is much better than we had even hoped. It will be an absolute miracle if Audrey can get by with just the four cycles, but at the least we want to avoid surgery. We should know over the next couple of weeks when her scans will be- please pray that the tumor is gone when they scan again.

We will continue to update over the next couple of weeks. So far next week is looking like it will be a quiet one but we will be going in Wednesday for clinic. I also requested that we finally meet Dr Park so that should happen the week after cycle 4.

Thanks for continuing to follow Audrey's fight!