Update on Avery

[Lark]

As you may remember, Avery is the daughter of a friend of mine and has just been found to have a really bad form of malignant brain tumor.

Avery went into the hospital two days ago to have her shunt installed and to start her first round of chemotherapy.  The first night was rough with her starting to throwup almost as soon as the first batch of chemo was in.  But yesterday was far worse.  Her blood pressure spiked and her brain began to swell from the chemotherapy and they had to go in to install another permanent shunt to drain the excess fluid from her brain.  Last night she had another blood pressure spike and a seizure and was taken back to the pediatric ICU to finish the rest of her chemo.  Her lovely curls are already falling out on her pillow.  She is on high doses of pain meds and meds for her nausea and her terror.

Of course no one is medicating her Dad who is nearly beside himself.  I can't begin to imagine what he is going through.

I did message him about reiki and herbal treatments, but haven't heard from him about those.  So I'm simply asking that if you can you keep this baby and her family in your thoughts and prayers.  And I'll try to keep you updated as things progress.

-Lark-

[Labrys]

Lighting the beeswax.  Poor child, and poor Dad...how fortunate I feel that my children never faced such health trials.

[Ara]

She and her family are in my prayers.  I can't imagine what they're going through.  We've had cancer in our family before, but never in the children.

[Rowan CedarWolf]

I am so sorry to see that she is not respondign to treatment as hoped. I will continue to keep her and her family in my prayers. I went through a fright with my youngest (he was a SIDS baby), but thankfully, he survived. I know the terror of being the parent of child that you can't kiss and make better. I wish there was somethng more I could do to help.

[Still Kate]

Of course. She will be in my thoughts and prayers as will her parents.
Blessings
Kate. xxxxx

[Birch]

Thank you for the update. I was wondering how she was doing. Will continue to keep Avery and her family in my prayers.

[Rowan CedarWolf]

Any new info on Avery? Please keep us updated! Thanks

[Brijrian]

I'll second Raven CedarWolf--how is Avery doing?

*Brijrian

[spirit]

Sometimes life is utterly galling. I send a gale of health  and hope. The worst imaginable vulnerability is sick children; it is the issue we all would rather hide from because it is so painful and seems so unneccessary.

I hope there has been some improvement, for both Avery and father. Much love and I hope you're coping also.

[Lark]

Let's see if I can't catch you all up on Avery's progress.

She finished her first course of chemo and the MRI's show that the tumor has not grown any larger and may have actually shrunk some.  So she is now undergoing her second round of chemo and she has also had a stem cell transplant.

The chemo has been a really heavy regimen and it has brought about some nasty side effects.  One of them is that she gets some swelling of the brain which causes spikes in her blood pressure than require large doses of medication to control, and it has also resulted in some seizure activity.  So far her hearing seems to be OK, which is a good thing, but the chemo has effected her muscle control so she is now wearing braces and is going to have to undergo physical and occupational therapy to learn to walk again.  The only good thing about this is that these side effects should be temporary and should resolve once chemo is finished.

So, some good news/some bad news.  We continue to pray and work for Avery's recovery and to give strength to her family to get through all of this.

-Lark-

[Rowan CedarWolf]

I will continue to keep Avery and her family in my prayers. I will also continue to send reiki for them.