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, short hikes, etc. as Aurelia’s strength returns we are trying to get her back on her regular bike, but the e-bike is hard to give up. 😂
The days are up and down. She is usually up with lots of energy, but there are plenty of days where she reads and watches tv as her energy levels are just depleted. We just go with it and move things around as needed and it’s actually made for a pretty calm summer.
We were so lucky to have many friends from the USA visit this summer. Many friends from Boulder were able to come have a visit in Girona and it really lifted Aurelia’s spirits.
We still have another 11-14 months of treatment remaining and it can be overwhelming. We can’t leave Europe during treatment because we don’t have medical coverage anywhere else. Aurelia really wants to do a cooking course in Paris, so we may do that during a school break this autumn.
We are super grateful to have made it this far in our journey with this disease as so many don’t. We do our best not to think too much about relapse. It’s always a possibility, but we focus on the present and being as healthy as we can to continue to fight. I won’t lie—it can feel exhausting, but it’s what we must do.
Aurelia will begin fourth grade in September as planned. She is thrilled to have passed third grade and move on with her friends. This was a big worry of hers (and mine) but we made it through and she is really excited for a new teacher for 4th-6th grades. (Their Montessori school combines grades 1-3 and 4-6, so she had the same teacher for several years). Her immune system will always be a concern, but we are doing our best to allow her to do school and sports whenever possible. She wants to return to her trail running club and join the track and field club as well, so we are moving forward with those activities. There will always be concerns, but she also needs to live her life and we are all excited for a full and bit more normal school year. ❤️
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