Saw Dr. Beck this morning to remove the packing and see how the healing is going. Dr. Beck was very pleased with what she saw (it looks a bit grotesque in there if you ask me, but it could be worse, right?!). She came in and gave Shayla a big hug as soon as she entered. "We got it!" . That's all that needed to be said.
Now the daily care is on Shayla's shoulders...
Shayla needs to rinse her sinuses at least 2 times a day now while the defect site heals as well as the skin graft site. She got a specialized kit just for that purpose from Dr. Beck with specific instructions for frequency and how to use it. We will still see Dr. Beck every other week as the site heals to check progress, but the hard part is over!
Dr. Stauts' office was the next stop. He looked at the site, saw the obterator made from Shayla's mouth mold (no, not the fungus, silly, the form made over a week ago!) and will begin to modify it to fit her mouth needs better. He seemed a bit (pleasantly) surprised that he needs to remove so much of the device, but that just means good news for Shayla: her defect is not near as large as Dr. Stauts anticipated. We would have waited and had him work on it today while we were there, but the packing removal made Shayla ill so we postponed any further abuse in her sore mouth until next week. Hopefully she will feel well enough after chemo to get it done on Monday. She is already wishing she had stayed and gotten it done today. It is hard for her to swallow liquid, and her voice is very nasally and sometimes hard to understand/hear. We will all have to be patient with this time: She with our inability to sometimes understand her, and we need to be patient and try hard to look at her when she is speaking to minimize the frustration for her and for us. Thankfully, the obterator should alleviate much of those two problems, so this is a temporary trial.
We now look to Thursday (tomorrow, although technically at 12:47 am it is Thursday already!) and another important hurdle: the HALF-WAY MARK for chemo! We are so lucky this is a 3-day session, to ease back into the routine since the surgery pre-empted her "regularly scheduled program". Now we pray that the remaining chemo will continue to be tolerable for Shayla. The 3-days are still physically more difficult than the 5, but hopefully it won't be as bad as this past week and a half has been for her. She has been more sick (vomiting, headache, nausea, etc.) post-tumor removal than with all of her chemo sessions combined! It would be nice to know if the worst is over.
We heave a huge sigh of relief still, knowing (and having the written pathology report in our hands) there is no sign of the cancer in any of the tissue removed. Isn't that amazing? The tumor mass removed was huge (2.5X4.5 inches, about), yet it was all dead--NO CANCER! The French Family will never doubt God hears and answers prayers! Again, we know His will could have been different than what we prayed for, but we humbly and tearfully offer our gratitude for His grace to Shayla and our family.
There is a wonderful hymn we get to sing at church that sums up the past week:
When upon life's billows you are tempest tossed,
When you are discouraged thinking all is lost,
Count your many blessings, name them one by one,
And it will surprise you what the Lord has done.
Count your blessings name them one by one.
Count your blessings see what God hath done.
Count your blessings, name them one by one.
Count your many blessings see what God hath done.
Are you ever burdened with a load of care?
Does the cross seem heavy you are called to bear?
Count your many blessings, every doubt will fly,
And you will be singing as the days go by.
So amid the conflict whether great or small,
Do not be discouraged God is over all.
Count your many blessings; angels will attend,
Help and comfort give you to your journey's end.
We have been tossed, and burdened with a load, but there have been so many angels among us, right here in our own family, neighborhood, church family, and in many states across our country, that we would be foolish to say 'we were lucky'. Luck has nothing to do with the miracles we have received! We have been BLESSED by Heavenly Father. So SMILE! And THANK YOU ANGELS for giving us the help and comfort we need to the end of this journey through the tumor valley called Ewing's Sarcoma!
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