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I'm sorry for our silence. I've had a hard time trying to connect to blogger.

The week at NIH was a tough one. Although the surgery went well, there were other issues that developed with Aimee's bladder and her blood pressure. We ended up staying until Saturday.

We're home now, but there's still lingering problems. Aimee's been retaining a lot of fluid recently which makes things extremely uncomfortable for her. We'll probably check in at the hospital some time this week just to see if there's anything they can do to help.

Thanks for your prayers.

(still working on uploading pictures.)

surgery today

Aimee goes in this morning to get a stent put in her kidney. Scans showed that it was enlarged and not really working. Hopefully, this will fix her up. The doctors say that there is some chance that the kidney won't recover-- since they have no idea how long it hasn't been working-- so say some prayers for her.

11:15am-- The procedure went fine, and Aimee is back in her room doing well.

Off Again

NIH called and wants us back soon. Tomorrow soon. So we fly out again in the afternoon and hope to get Aimee's surgery at the beginning of the week. (Did I mention I really _hate_ flying? Oh well-- Aimee's fine with it and she keeps me calm.) I'll keep you updated. We also have some Halloween pictures, including one of Aimee as Avatar the Last Airbender-- I'll get those up soon too.

Cautiously Optimistic

Yesterday, the doctors said they think there is a slight decrease in the size of Aimee's tumors-- possibly 10%. Wouldn't it be great if something were finally working? We'll go back in early December to check her progress again. Hopefully more shrinking!

But ... with the good comes the bad. The doctors also said that Aimee has something called hydronephrosis, which is a blocking and inflammation of her right kidney. They think it's probably caused by the surrounding tumors pushing up against it. She'll have to go in for surgery to have a stent put in so that the kidney can operate properly. It should be a simple procedure, and it may even relieve the back pain she has been feeling the past couple of months. We'll know more next week, but we'll probably head back to NIH in the middle of the week to have the procedure done.

In the meantime, we'll be halloweening. Hope to have some pictures posted this weekend.

Pumpkin Carving

We carved pumpkins last night with Beth, Al and Miriam. Xavier helped too, but I couldn't get a picture of him with his eyes open. I'll try to take a picture of the end product soon.





Thank you everyone for your prayers. We head back tomorrow to see if this treatment worked. We probably won't find out until late on the 30th, and I'll try to post something by the 31st.

Also, Father Chateau -- I wanted to let you know that we have been thinking of you and St. Clements. I'm sorry we weren't able to see you before we left. Thank you for your prayers and the mass being offered for Aimee. Xavier and Tilly miss you, and we hope that we can find a way back to Somerville to visit soon.

At Home

Hi Everyone. We're at home, happily enjoying time with the kids. Sleeping, resting, healing. Next trip to DC is planned for the 29th for a checkup. Hope everyone is well.

- Aimee

Day 16

Busy, busy day. There's so many last minute things that needed to be done. We were running around everywhere trying to tie up all the loose ends before they could discharge Aimee. And then her hair finally started falling out today too. So she went ahead and had it shaved. And I do say-- she looks rather hot bald! :) (But NIH also provided a voucher for a wig, so we also went hair shopping too.) But everything's all set now, and we're heading home first thing tomorrow morning.


Thank you, everyone, for tuning in everyday-- listening, caring, praying. It made things a lot easier on both of us to know that we had so much support throughout.

Let's just pray this is the one that finally works. We'll find out how effective it is when she returns around October 29th.