When I first saw this thread I signed up for updates on the carepages site. I have 4 small children and can't imagine if one were in this situation. I pray without ceasing for good health for us all... Anyway... Here are the latest postings on Hannah's condition... June 28 and June 30 diary entries:
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57 June 28, 2007 at 08:53 PM EDT
WE’RE BETTER!
Hannah is well. Daddy is better. After another trip to the doctor and some steroids I (Tom) am up and at it again. Sarah and Caleb are also doing fine. Mommy is still tried but now that I am up and moving I should be able to give her some relief for some much over due rest. Baby, well, baby is “breech!†They have given us a number of options to try and get the baby turned around. If the baby is not head down by next Wednesday the doctors will attempt it themselves.
We are all readjusting and it will take some time I’m sure. Hannah doesn’t share well with others right now. I can only imagine what it will be like when Hannah has to share mommy with baby? Hannah snapped at Sarah the other night after asking all afternoon for daddy to go and get her from her grandparent’s apartment after she was well. Immediately afterwards she called to daddy and said she was tried and wanted to go to bed. When I asked Hannah if that was why she was so mean to Sarah, with a sad face she nodded her head yes. Let me remind you she is two and a half. Most adults can’t recognize, or are unwilling to admit, when they have wronged someone because they are tired. I asked her if she thought she should say she is sorry to Sarah. She shook her head yes. While fighting back the tears, she told Sarah, “Aaaah, I sorry, forgive Hannah?†How could Sarah say no? They hugged and Sarah helped me take Hannah and “tubie†(Hannah’s IV pole and bag up stairs for bed).
Hannah is a very perceptive little girl. She knows when she is tried and needs to go to bed, she knows when she is not behaving correctly and the reasons for her poor behavior, and now she can spell at the age of two and a half! Mommy, on returning from her doctor’s appointment, had stopped at the store and bought Hannah one of her favorite movies she liked to watch at hospital. Mommy wanted to surprise Hannah so she looked at me and said, “Tom the M-O-V-I-E is in the B-A-G.†Hannah turned to Daddy and said, “Daa-eee, the movie is in mommy’s bag!†WOW! We have witnesses! And to think one of the expected side effects of radiation is that most children experience an average 10 point I.Q. loss afterwards! Can you imagine how smart she would have been if she wouldn’t have had the radiation? (ha-ha!)
In the next carepage we hope to share about one of the great providences of God we have experienced during this tribulation. Until then, may God continue to bless you and yours.
Please Lord, Heal Hannah,
Tom and Mei Ling
June 30, 2007 at 12:14 AM EDT
IT DIDN’T LAST LONG!
We are back in the hospital tonight! We got the dreaded call this afternoon around 3:30 p.m. Two days after everyone was back at home and well. Fortunately, we were most of the way ready. The first thing we did once I (Tom) was up from my sickness was get everyone’s “pack-ups†ready. Sarah and Caleb are with our church family while Mei Ling, Hannah and I are at the hospital.
As most of you know, we go to the hospital clinic twice a week for blood draws and checkups to look for these kinds of things. Thursday’s clinical lab results indicated that Hannah has a virus in her blood. It is a serious virus! But the good news is, it's treatable. Just a few years ago they would lose between 30 to 50% of the kids that contracted this type of virus at this stage in their treatment. Presently, if detected early and treated they haven’t lost a child since. Thank God for modern medicine.
Hannah is fine otherwise. We are at the hospital in order to administer the first round of treatment to ensure there is no allergic reaction to the medication they’ve chosen. If there is, they will switch to another drug for treatment. Once the treatment plan is figured out – hopefully tomorrow or the next day - then we will go home, with yet another medicine to give Hannah nightly over the next 65 days. We are up to 14!
Please pray that Hannah will get through this latest skirmish unharmed. I have begun to read the Book of Job so I can converse with someone who I can relate to (ha-ha!).
Please Lord, Heal Hannah!
Tom and Mei Ling