Make a Wish

  Many of you know about the foundation for kids with serious illnesses called Make a Wish. It grants wishes to these children...anything from a puppy to well, Disney World trips. Andrew loves Mickey Mouse so we have been talking to him about where Mickey lives and asking him if he would like to visit Disney World one day. When Andrew turns 2 1/2 in April, he can apply for a "wish" and the whole family can benefit. This has been his mother's crazy thinking since he was diagnosed. We mise well get something sweet out of this horrible situation. I was talking to my friend the other day telling her that although a trip for our family to Disney World would be amazing, I would give it all up to have Andrew's tumor go away. The trip would be fun, but to never have to do another chemo or see him get a shot or wonder what his life will be like with cancer again would be my true wish.
 Well, I got off the phone with this friend yesterday afternoon. We had just spent some time talking about things happening in our planned lives that catch us off guard. We have our weeks planned and our babysitters planned and all those details, and poof.....all gone when the phone rings and someone has changed your plans. We were sharing how hard change is for us and how it just doesn't seem fair how quickly your life can be altered. I hung up with her and the phone rang almost immediately. It was a nurse from UVA saying "I am calling to make sure you have all the details for the MRI scheduled for Tuesday for Andrew." I was dumbfounded. "No, ma'am. I think you have that info wrong. We are not supposed to check back into the hospital until Thursday and it is for round 3 of Andrew's chemo. The doctors have told us we will not have a scan until after round 4." The nurse was confused but told me she would contact our doctor and get back with me probably on Monday. Of course this threw my world up in the air. An MRI? Tuesday? My parents are not coming back into town until Wednesday. What will be do with the kids? What does this mean? Why didn't anyone call? Rick calmed me down when he got home and just reassured me that we will figure this out and make other plans for next week if we need to.
 Being the Type A that I am, there was no way I was waiting until Monday to figure this out. I called the on call oncologist and had her paged. She ended up calling me back while I was in Target with Madi and Luke on the toy aisle (that was a challenge in itself). Basically what she told me is that UVA had received information from COG (children's oncology group) saying that the diagnosis has changed a little. Instead of Andrew's tumor being a Stage 3, group 3, it is now a Stage 3, group 2. This has to do with cell types or counts or something more specific with the tumor. Anyway, she told me this was great news. This bumps him up again into an even more favorable category and the success rate is even more promising. The doctors want to do an MRI on Tuesday at some point because.....are you ready?????  There is a chance, being the type of tumor that it is, that the 2 rounds of chemo he has already had could have shrunk it by more than 50% and WE COULD BE DONE!!!!!! Do you hear me??? We may not have any more chemo or surgery in Andrew's future. We may. This isn't a guarantee but it is a miracle. I had spent a lot of the last two weeks doing some research on this tumor and trying to convince the nurses and a doctor that we might need an MRI after 2 rounds of chemo. Even our wonderful oncologist research friend agreed with the doctors thinking that 4 rounds would probably be the most effective and no scan would be needed now. So with no manipulation or other arguments, the Lord has seen fit to grant my heart its wish to just scan Andrew's chest just in case. We may still be looking at 2 more rounds of chemo and/or surgery but MAYBE NOT.
 God has shown his mercy to our family. We have received news that this tumor is even less dangerous than we thought. We may not need as much treatment and we have hope that it will be cured!! Please take time to thank our great God in Heaven with us. You have been faithful to pray and we fully believe that this is a specific answer to our prayers. He has heard us and given us grace and hope again. I may have not received the call from the Make a Wish foundation to get to go to Disney World, but like I said earlier, I would trade it all to be done with cancer in my little boy!! Please pray boldly for us and our scan on Tuesday!