Day 1 Round 3

Gracie waiting for her chemotherapy drugs tonight.

Gracie waiting for her procedure with her dad.

Gracie in the hotel last night after she had been playing around during supper and in the hotel room.

Last night was perhaps one of the longest nights of my life. I was so worried that I could hardly sleep. At 0130 I finally gave up and pulled out my scriptures and started reading. At 0330 I tried to sleep again. This time I dozed off and on until 0530. Then we woke up and got ready. We arrived at Texas Children's at 7am. Gracie was taken into the OR at 0940. She was in for over an hour. At that time we were called into the consult time to talk with Dr. P. Her left eye has improved significantly. So much so that the one tumor is almost nonexistant and the other is about half gone. Unfortunately there is very little change in her right eye. (The right eye is the one that is class D) The vitreous seeding may have calcified a little, but that's about all that's changed. The tumor right next to the optic nerve has not shrunk at all, neither have any of the other large ones that are attached to the retina. This was a very hard thing to hear as the possibility of saving the eye has significantly decreased because of the lack of progress seen. Remember we were only given a 50% chance to begin with. I asked if we should continue with the treatments, or if the prognosis was pretty much set in stone now so there was no point. Dr. P. strongly suggests that we stay the course and complete all 3 carboplatin injections. Although she was very straightforward with us about the decreased chances of saving that eye, which we appreciated. At least this way there won't be any what-ifs.

The good news is that the swelling and pain is significantly better than last time. She's only had to have two doses of morphine and the swelling is probably only a quarter of what it was before. Gracie has been sleeping most of the day since coming out of anesthesia. She's not really interested in eating or drinking, but she wasn't last round either. She's kind of finicky with what parent she wants with her when she's awake. Sometimes she wakes up and asks for James, and then other times it has to be me. One time she woke up and James was laying beside her. She said "Daddy, you're making me sad" When James asked why she said "Because I want mommy to sleep with me". She's done the same type of thing with the opposite request for daddy. It's nice to have things be so much more comfortable for her. We got a bed on the cancer unit just after 4:30 pm and we are all much more comfortable. Prior to that we were in a recovery room. There Gracie had a bed but the rest of us had hard chairs and we were all together in a large room with other recovery patients.

OK- prior to this Stephanie was writing and now we have switched off so this is James.

Gracie is just about to receive the chemotherapy drugs. It is 8PM and she is still sleeping. She has only woke up for brief moments since her procedure this morning. I think that the morphine has helped with the pain as well as kept her asleep. We are very happy with how well Gracie is doing following the injections this round. We hope and pray that the injections will be effective is shrinking the tumors on the retina as well as the visceral seeds. However, we know that Gracie will be fine, even if her right eye must be removed.

Thank you all for your prayers and concern. We continue to be amazed by the strength that our family and friends have provided us.