November 4, 2022

 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.
Kids with cancer aren’t really meant to dig in the sand (possible bacteria infection) but since her counts were so high we let her enjoy the beach last weekend when we were there with friends for the weekend.
Her color has changed a lot as well and her eyebrows and eyelashes are coming back. It seems like such a small thing, but it makes a huge difference for her.
Aurelia is now riding my old Canyon mountain bike, but she is after us to get her a gravel bike. 🤦🏻‍♀️
Aurelia ran the Cursa Contra Cancer Dones with Kathryn a few weeks ago. I came down with COVID after an ultra race and was quarantined in my room for 12 days. Thankfully Aurelia was okay, but we were quite nervous for the first few days. 
Halloween isn’t a thing here in Spain, but Aurelia dressed up and carved a pumpkin. 

The fight continues. Aurelia is in school and feeling good most of the time. She occasionally calls me from the nurse’s office feeling fatigued and wanting to go home, but for the most part she is doing well. She did try to use the cancer card a few times with her teacher to get out of some work, but we shut that one down as quickly as possible. 😬 We hope she can make it through the cold and flu season without having to go to the hospital, so we are doing our best to stick to outdoor activities with friends and wash everything in sight on a regular basis. ❤️

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