I apologize for taking so long to write a good update on Audrey's progress. We just left the hospital today for what was a short second day to her 4th cycle of chemotherapy. Last week we had clinic and were planning to start the 4th cycle last Thursday, but Audrey's levels had once again barely missed the cutoff so we were pushed out until this week. Last week we did find out that Audrey will be receiving 8 total cycles instead of only 4. While I wanted to post this last week, we were meeting with Dr Park, the neuorblastoma specialist, Monday and I figured she would give us more useful information.

While we have been busy focusing on what her scans will show, we forgot that we were still waiting for a test to come back on the cancer's genetic makeup. This finally came back and showed that Audrey's cancer has "deletion of p1"- which in layman's terms means it has a slightly higher chance of recurrence. Dr Park assures us it is still only 10-15% chance of recurrence. Audrey still falls in the intermediate risk category and still has many things in her favor; Namely her young age, overall health and demeanor,  and the fact that it did not spread to her bone marrow or blood. She said Audrey's prognosis is still "excellent." Surgery still depends upon the size of her tumor once we repeat the scans at the end of the month. We will have a long few days the 25-27th but will fortunately be home for Thanksgiving. (Having to push out cycle 4 turned out to be a blessing after all!) 

Because Audrey doesn't bounce back as quickly as they would like, she now has to get an injection after each chemo cycle to help her bone marrow recover and get her counts back up sooner. It means another trip to the hospital but it is nice that she will spend less time in the high-risk-of-infection-zone. 

This 4th cycle is OK so far. Yesterday was our longer day of about 4 1/2 hours. Poor thing got sick last night as I believe we should have given her nausea med sooner but she has been good otherwise. Today was quick and we had the same nurse as yesterday, who we really like. Tomorrow will be quick too as well as Saturday. 

Last week we ran into the little girl we mentioned before is also undergoing treatment for Neuroblastoma and it sounds like they will be done at 4 cycles. We are very happy for their family and can't wait to be at the end of Audrey's treatment. We are still very much hopeful for a miracle when they repeat scans on Audrey in two weeks. We know we are lucky to have avoided any inpatient time during her treatment so far (apart from her initial inpatient stay) and we hope to keep it this way. Since the meds have a cumulative effect and we are well into cold/flu season, we will continue to be hermits over the next couple months to keep our girl as safe as possible. 

Thanks for continuing to pray and think of us! We will update again soon! 

Love

Shannon and Galen