Hannah’s Journey

I’m sorry I haven’t updated in a while. I was in Chicago with Colin and Austin, and enjoyed the opportunity to see my parents, sister and family, and brother and family. It was a nice, relaxing visit. I had gotten a “new” used car a few days before we left and it got such excellent gas mileage! Our van has gone to the van heaven in the sky. The transmittion went out, it needed a muffler and the air conditioner stopped working. With the amount of mileage on it, it did not pay to fix it, so we had to trade it in. We are no longer a minivan family. I’m not sure yet if that is good or bad. I do know that for the first time in a long time, Bill and I feel like we’re driving cars that are not going to have to go in for service every other week.

I also haven’t updated in a while because it is sometmes difficult to put into words the emotional aspect of this horrible disease our daughter is fighting. While I was in Chicago, Bill took Hannah in for her 3 month post-surgery scans. Unfortunately, we did not get the news we had been hoping for. The cancer has returned to her left lung, even though she has been on chemo. The tumor has already grown to about an inch and a half. This is a very aggressive cancer, and fortunately, very few children are diagnosed with this form of cancer. On the flip side, not a lot of money goes into research to fight it. Hannah has been approved to go into another clinical trial in which antibodies, synthetically produced, will be introduced into her body. The job of these antibodies will be to go in and kill off the cancer cells. This trial has been tried on adults, some with osteo, and there has been some success. Hannah will be only the fourth child to enter the trial, and the first at Sloan. She will get her first IV injection on September 11, and will get treatment every 2 weeks. The tumor will not be removed yet, since the only way to know if the treatment is working is to see if it begins to kill off the tumor. The treatment cannot start sooner since she will need to be off chemo for 4 weeks prior. We pray that the tumor does not grow too much more in this time. We will know if the treatment is working about 4 weeks after it is started.

This once again has been a very difficult, emotional time for our family. Hannah remains very upbeat and drags us all up there with her. There will not be a lot to update for a few weeks as we wait anxiously for treatment to begin. Please continue to pray for Hannah and our family.

Hannah, we love you so much and are very proud of you.