tucked in

Well we made it to Waterloo and Ellie got settled in to Covenant. This afternoon we got to go outside in their garden and walk around quite a bit. Ellie was so happy to be looking at the flowers. She is even more excited to help them plant flowers tomorrow afternoon. She was walking very well today. Not as wobbly as other days. She also ate some chocolate pudding when speech therapy came to visit her today and it went very well. She didn't cough nearly as much as in the past. I was happy to see this. Then when dinner got delivered to our room she ate some mashed potatoes and those went down very well also. I have hopes things go well with her eating and we can get that tube out sometime during her stay in Covenant. We enjoyed some quiet time tonight after daddy took Nathan home for the night and she went to bed a little after 8pm. Ellie is excited for visitors especially Ahmad. She really wants Ahmad to come visit. :) So if you are thinking of visiting can you please call one of us first on our cells, Alicia 290-8992 or Ryan 290-2546 to let us know you want to stop by. I will put on the blog her schedule of all her therapy so you know when best times to visit are. Thanks all! Sorry no pics today. I'll get you caught up on pics tomorrow hopefully.

I know some of you are wondering how the Oncology appointment turned out. Well we saw Dr. Bautti, head of the department and he does the pediatric oncology. He suggested radiation so that is what we will be doing. We have six weeks of radiation to do this summer. I believe starting mid-July. It will be M-F treatments and then she has the weekend to recover, then another M-F for six weeks. He has seen her type of tumor in other patients and he highly recommends radiation. Chemo doesn't work well for these types of tumors so we don't have to do that. Then after radiation there will be many MRIs for years to keep close eyes on the brain and spine. There shouldn't be major side affects to radiation, nausea, vomiting, fatigue, etc. We hope to stay at the Ronald McDonald house during the week and come home on weekends. We will switch weeks with her down there we think. One of us will stay with Nate and work up here.

He also suggests some genetic testing to see if Ellie has the mutated gene for brain tumors. If she does that explains a little of why she got this one and then it shows she's at risk for more. If she does have it we will all be tested to see if we have it and the doc recommends Javier and his family get tested also to see if they have it. We worry about the rest of our families and the extended family if it's genetic or familial.

So that's the last bit of news that was hard to swallow this week. We are exhausted and keep chuggin' away. Thanks for all your support. Call us if you want to stop by. I'll start taking sign ups this weekend for helping us keep an eye on Ellie at the hospital. I'll let yall know when. Thanks again. Good night, it's late...