7 Sticks

Yep! It took 7 sticks to start an IV on Sydney. She was an incredible trooper even given the horrible situation. The good news is that we had the absolute best in the business trying every time. She was just that difficult to hit yesterday morning. Almost as quickly as they hit every vein it would blow. It goes without saying that we elected to keep the IV for 2 days while we wait for the MIBG injection. She will have to go to school with an IV in her arm but we think it is well worth the risk to keep her from having to through that little episode again.

I guess everyone is probably wondering about the results. Well, we still don't have them which is surprising and a little scary. It tells me that there must be some discussion going on. I have no idea what the MRI will come to show. However, I can tell you that the bone scan was certainly worse. Quite frankly, that was pretty much expected. We were expecting it to come back a little bit more pronounced due to the biopsy that she had about a month ago. The good news that came out of it was that we did not see any other spots lighting up on her bones. We were, obviously, very pleased for that. That was the purpose of the scan. The question then becomes "how much worse was it?" and unfortunately I just have no frame of reference to compare. It was worse. I don't know if this was an appropriate amount of activity to see related to the biopsy or if was more than expected. Unfortunately, I fear the latter. The spot of the biopsy was certainly more vivid but I am also pretty sure that the surrounding area of uptake was both larger and more pronounced. Unfortunately, I don't have the scans in front of me to compare so I have to go off of memory. Regardless, I am pretty sure that I am on the money.

The other concern that I can not seem to get from my mind is the fact that we put her into another position to take another shot of her arms. I don't know why. At first, I was led to believe that they were trying to get another angle that was comparable to a previous scan but that did not turn out to be the case. I fear that he saw a spot that I did not and he was actually trying to get another picture of it or more clarity. That is the worst fear.

For as bad as all of this sounds it is all just speculation. It is just the crazy stuff that goes through your mind when you are in the midst of this journey. Hopefully this morning will bring some clarity and some peace.

With hope and prayers,
Mark