When we were in the Hospital we got a visit from Arielles main Oncologist Dr. Raphael. He wanted to discuss us nearing the middle of Arielles last phase of treatment; Immunotherapy. When we had gotten the 2nd opinion Dr. Gustafson had suggested doing either scans or another bone marrow aspiration to check if she still had cancer in her bone marrow. In case you didnt know Arielle had tested positive for cancer in her bone marrow at the end of her Bone Marrow Transplant and Radiation therapy. (It was a big shock because they had previously said she was cancer free. ) Dr. Raphael said that if We wished we could go ahead and do another Bone Marrow Aspirate ( It involves Arielle being put under anesthesia and then having needles poked in the bones in her back and Bone marrow being aspirated from them.) He said that since we are not finished with Immunotherapy, even if they found she still had cancer, there would be nothing that they would do differently, we would continue on with immunotherapy in hopes that when she was tested again at end of treatment she would be clear. Dr. Raphael felt that it is not necessary for Arielle or to go through this, it would cause us all the anxiety of finding out if there is cancer there or not and her having to go through the procedure. So I went ahead and made the decision to just wait till treatment is finished to find out if it is working. We need everyone to keep praying for Arielle so that we can hear the words we have been waiting for! Your Daughter is Cancer Free! This has been such a long emotional roller coaster for us. I want to be able to go back to a normal life once again. Im not even sure what that is anymore. We would certainly be grateful, but there is always going to be that fear that it could come back. We will still have to be traveling to the hospital every 3 months for scans and bone marrow aspirations to check for signs of the cancer returning. We just have to place our faith in God and pray and be grateful that Arielle has made it this far, and that she will be cancer free for the remainder of her life.
Posted on: Mon, 04 Aug 2014 00:34:46 +0000
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