4/14 Madeline Update

Hi friends!  Our latest news is that Madeline is done with chemo and is now focusing on a full recovery.

The plan had been from the start of this recurrence to try and get two 5-day rounds in before and after her surgery.  We were able to get both in before and one 5-day round in after, but her blood counts have been too low for chemo the last three weeks.  These chemo drugs are harsh, and it’s possible to do more harm than good.   We discussed all of the options with our oncologists and decided to forgo any additional chemo and just focus on her recovery.  

What does that mean?  Well, the unfortunate thing about Osteosarcoma is that we don’t really know, and literally no one really knows...  We’ve said it before, but the fact that they are treating this disease the same way as they have for 30-40 years with varying success is disappointing, to say the least.  The slow recovery of Madeline’s blood counts means that her bone marrow is struggling to recover.  Too much chemo can permanently damage bone marrow, and that could lead to a lot of other serious problems including other really awful things like leukemia…. Right now it’s still looking healthy enough to recover, but additional chemo could change that.  At the same time, you want to do as much chemo as possible to ensure all the cancer cells are dead.  So you have to try and take all the data into consideration and make the best decision you can in a very difficult situation.  Here’s what it came down to:

• This tumor and the previous one were both in a local area
  
• Both of those tumors are permanently removed with clear margins (indicating the cancer is out of her body)
  
• Pre-surgery chemo was 95% effective on the most recent tumor (really good result)
  
• There has been no evidence of disease anywhere else in her body (another indicator that the surgery removed all the cancer)
  
• We were able to get in at least 1 five day round after the tumor had been removed (the idea is the surgery gets the cancer out, and the chemo after is to try and make sure no other cancer was hiding somewhere - one round is better than none)
  
• Blood counts indicate that while bone marrow is marginally healthy enough for chemo, it’s on the brink (cancer sucks, and to potentially cause more harm while trying to cure her makes you sick)
  
• Her surgery was two and a half months ago, and she’s still bleeding from a couple of areas.  Another indicator her blood is struggling to recover.
  
• She still doesn’t have feeling in her foot - some surgery related; some likely due to the chemo impact on her nervous system
  

After weighing all of that, we sat down with Madeline to discuss our options, and together we decided to stop chemo and focus on recovery and pray we made the right decision.  We wish there were a cut and dry answer or proven formula, but there’s no guarantee that doing 4 or even 8 rounds of chemo ensures it never comes back.  So we just pray we’ve done enough, and that these things are God’s way of telling us we’re done with this part and it’s time for Madeline to get on with her life.

That’s what we ask of all of you.  Just pray that we made the right decision and that Madeline is cured.  We pray that she will never have to deal with this disease again, and that she has the chance to live a long, healthy, happy, full life and that she’s able to avoid all of the other potential side effects that fighting cancer brings.  We pray that she’ll get some feeling back in her foot so that she can be as mobile as she wants to be.  She’s beat this once before and overcome drop-foot associated with the first surgery.  We know Madeline can do anything she puts her mind to, so she’ll come out of this even stronger.  We are amazed by her every day.  I can’t imagine dealing with this at age 12 or 15, and she’s done both while keeping up with school work.  She still has a lot of work left to do to get her knee and leg recovered, but knowing Madeline, she’s definitely got this!

Thanks to all of you for your kind words, prayers, dinners, gifts, etc.  None of the material things were necessary, but still very much appreciated.  The prayers are the most important thing, and we believe we could feel the love everyone has sent our way.