What does this mean?  Well, she is officially in remission, which seems such a weird term since she still has years of treament left.  But, the fact that she got there so quickly puts her in the “rapid responder” category which positively affects her course of treament and her prognosis.  Basically, this news, plus the test results from last week that classified her as low risk mean Tanner is in the very best position you can be in if you have ALL.  In the midst of all this awfulness, we feel extremely blessed for a moment.

So, no bone marrow biopsy next week… yeah!  Just IV chemo, which is oddly uneventful, but deadly to Tanner.  As I have said before, when she is kicking cancer’s butt, she feels like crap.  So, after waking up in a great mood today with awesome energy and improved walking, she deteriorated to just plain old sick by the end of the day, once yesterday’s chemo treatments kicked in.  She never did anything today but color once or twice.  Even after I turned off the TV, she laid on the couch for 4 hours with no entertainment other than watching Jake play.  Sad.

Speaking of Jake, he had tubes put in his ears and was home by 8:30 am (Did I mention that today was a VERY long day?).  He did well.  Cried a lot, and was pretty whiny and awful today, but otherwise okay.  My mom came with me to the surgery and John stayed home with Tanner.  My Mom and John’s Mom have been Godsends.  Seriously, there is no way we could do this without them.

Again, thank you to everyone I haven’t thanked in person or by email for the cards, presents, meals, favors, etc.  You know who you are and you know if I could, I would send a proper thank you note, but the kids’ needs right now are all consuming and I just can’t do it all.  I surrender.

Okay, and let me give one last futile attempt at steming the flow of presents coming Tanner’s way.  It is not that we do not appreciate them, but we have a whole room of them now, and she’s just too sick to appreciate them.  Many are not even opened yet because I just keep hoping she’ll feel well enough to get at ’em, but when she does feel good, she just wants to be a kid and play with her brother, sprinkle water from a watering can onto the patio, blow bubbles in the yard, etc.  Don’t get me wrong, I’ll be bringing all those crafts you’ve given us out over the next 7 months, I’m sure, and we’ll use them.  But, rather than send us anything else, make a donation to the leukemia association and help keep someone else from ever having to go through this.  Seriously.

What amazing friends and family we have.  We are humbled by the outpouring of support for our family.

Love,
Beth