I'm currently exhausted beyond belief, so apologies if there are parts of this that make zero sense. I woke up at 4am to take Ella to Gainesville for her second radiation treatment today since we had to be there at 7:30am. We only just got home at 7pm, too. I wanted to post something though because I know some were waiting for an update on our visit today.
So, here's the...
GOOD: Ella's tumor has already shrunk by 20%! We thought something was up because she has been acting more like herself over the past few days. She hasn't been struggling to breathe as often either. However, since she was on steroids for inflammation, we didn't know if it was the drugs or possible shrinkage that was responsible. Ella is feeling better and that's a major hurdle jumped right now. Hopefully it will continue to shrink after each radiation treatment.
WEIRD: We also got the results from the biopsy she had taken last Thursday. (The UF team sent a large portion of the biopsy to a lab for testing and kept some of it for their own examination.) It turns out Ella does not have histiocytic sarcoma after all. Hooray? We're not sure. This afternoon/evening the pathology department is doing a dye test on some of their tissue samples from the biopsy. They believe now that it is a round cell tumor and could be one of three different kinds. At this point, I'm taking it all with a grain of salt because whatever it is, it's weird. The dye test results will come back tonight and I should get a phone call about them tomorrow.
UNKNOWN: A lot is unknown right now until we figure out what the cancer is. Each of the three different possibilities has a different prognosis, treatment, etc. It's also unknown is knowing the type of cancer will matter since it is presenting in such a strange manner. It seems like anything could happen now, which is nerve wracking, to say the least. I just want to know! Unfortunately, science and medicine don't always work that way. I've seen two rainbows this week - maybe that means something good. Or maybe it means it's been raining a lot. Hm.
Hopefully tomorrow we'll receive some good news. The tumor shrinkage was great news, so maybe there will be a snowball effect here. I'm glad our baby girl is feeling a bit better. Right now, that's what matters most.
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