October 7, 2021

Aurelia has started her next phase of treatment and we have been at the hospital since Tuesday. On that morning she was put under general anesthesia so they could do a chemo treatment to her spine—a very common treatment for kids with leukemia. She did really well and was able to receive her other chemo treatment later that afternoon.


. 

On Wednesday she had chemotherapy again and was quite tired, so she napped and then we tried to finish a few school assignments. Her body just wanted rest, so after some school work we spent the afternoon watching real estate shows (her favorite). 



The therapy she is having is very strong and last night we had to do urine samples every couple of hours to be sure her body is excreting everything properly. Neither one of us slept well, but she is feeling less fatigued this morning and is on a video call with her teacher at school.

The doctors are really pleased with her progress and everyone is very curious about her hair. When she began treatment her hair was falling out, so we cut it a bit shorter, assuming we would have to shave it at some point. Her hair became very thin and she was wearing head scarves and hats to hide the bald spots. However, things began to change a few weeks ago. The thickness of her hair returned and it began to grow. Nobody knows how or why and the doctors and nurses here have never seen a child at this point in treatment who still has hair. Aurelia says it’s because she is strong and thought only if not losing her hair. Now, we aren’t sure what will happen moving forward, but for now she is thrilled.

Aurelia has been riding her new ebike non-stop. She loves that thing and it will be hard to get her to go back to a regular bike, hahaha. She loves turning the assistance on and dropping us on the hills. 

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

July 13, 2021

Image
I arrived at the hospital a few hours ago (aurelia is having her snack and watching master chef) and we have great news from the oncology team. When Aurelia was first diagnosed her sample cells were 92% cancer and now that number is 1%. There is a long road of treatment ahead (approximately two years), but these numbers give everyone a huge boost and so much hope. Aurelia is not the least bit surprised as “she knew she was killing the cancer.” So there you have it. Aurelia is working really hard with the physio to start walking again. She does several sessions a day and we are trying to get her inflamed nerves back to where they need to be so she can start walking. Now that her blood is healing itself, we hope her bones and nerves will follow. A few people have asked me about sending cards or postcards. Aurelia loves getting postcards! The best place to send them is to Federal, our restaurant in Girona.  Aurelia Sutherland Federal Café Girona C/Forca, 9 Girona 17004 Spain 
Read more

November 4, 2022

Image
 Aurelia continues to fight and win! This long phase is called maintenance and her medical team tries to keep her counts within a certain range and the chemotherapy is adjusted according to her blood counts. Too low is too much chemotherapy and too high is not enough, so they look for a certain range in every visit. The last month Aurelia’s bloods have been incredibly good…but this also means they give her more chemotherapy to bring the counts back into the range. I know it sounds odd, but this is the protocol that has proved successful for decades so we continue our fight. I know it’s hard for Aurelia to hear that we have to increase chemotherapy because her counts are so good, but I present it in a way so she knows she is stronger than the disease and a step ahead of it. Sometimes it works and other times she rolls her eyes at me. 😊 We continue to notice gains with her stability and strength. She gets frustrated, but she keeps going with her physiotherapy and running and riding....
Read more

August 19, 2022

Image
 Today is a big day: Aurelia’s final lumbar puncture! For the past year Aurelia has had monthly intrathecal chemotherapy. This is when she is out under general anesthesia and chemotherapy is injected into the fluid around her spinal column. As you can imagine, it’s not her favorite treatment, so she is thrilled that today is the last spinal! We were able to go on our road trip to France, which was amazing since we haven’t traveled much between COVID and cancer. It was a lot of energy, but Aurelia did her best. We ended our trip a day early as she wasn’t feeling that well and we didn’t want to push things too much. It was easier to leave the race and just drive home so she could rest, so that’s what we did. Aurelia was thrilled to wear all of the special jerseys given to her the past year. She had a different jersey for each day we were there. ❤️ We have been trying to have as normal of a summer as possible between hospital appointments and chemotherapy. Beach days, bike rides, shor...
Read more