Home Again, Home Again, Jiggitty Jig

Sierra was released from the hospital on Tuesday, just 5 short days after having brain surgery. She never ceases to amaze me, I am constantly blown away by her warrior spirit. She has been doing so well since surgery. As soon as she was allowed to eat again after having her breathing tube removed, her attitude did 180 turn. She had been so frustrated from being on steroids and being starving, but once she was able to eat her beloved KFC drumsticks her mood changed immensely. We spent 3 days on the oncology floor, playing Wii, having lots of visitor and doing crafts. She was so happy to be back in familiar territory, and although I hate for her to have to go through more rough treatment, I am glad we will be back with the doctors and nurses that have taken such amazing care of us and have become a second family to us. Next week we will find out the plan for Sierra's new course of treatment, which will include chemo again and radiation to the tumor site in her head. Radiation will be a new experience for Sierra, so i hope it goes smoothly. Thank you to everyone for all of the love and prayers over the last year and especially in the last 2 weeks. I know we are strengthened by them, and that Sierra is doing so well because she has so much love and support from so many people. Pics to come soon.

Home Away From Home

Sierra was moved to the oncology floor yesterday just before noon. She was so happy to be out of ICU and has been feeling great. She is ready to be home, which could happen as early as tomorrow. I am amazed at how quickly she has recovered from a brain surgery, she has surpassed all of my expectations. Hopefully this coming week we will have a lot of answers on what her treatment plans are going to be in the months to come.

Update

I knew I would fail at keeping this blog upated. Facebook is just so much easier. Sierra has done amazing sinceh her surgery, she was kept under sedation and intubated for about 24hrs after surgery, but would wake up for small amounts of time and try to communicate with us. She couldn't talk because of the tube in her throat, but she would mouth things to me or use hand signals and I did a lot of yes and no question asking. She had an MRI of her head yesterday and the doctor says he got the whole tumor out and that there was minimal swelling, all great signs. We should move out of the ICU today, and have a few recovery days on the oncology floor before being released. Thank you so much to everyone that has been praying for our family, Sierra specifically. We know we have so much love and support around us

Brain Surgery

Sierra is in surgery now, she is doing really well. Now we just wait. Thank you for all of the prayers.

Bad News

Though I hate to write it, Sierra has relapsed in her brain. She had a seizure on Monday night which alerted us to the tumor  in her left occipital lobe, at the back of her head. Thankfully she has no other spots anywhere else. She will have surgery tomorrow at noon to remove the spot, which is about 2cm and right near the surface of her skull. Afterward she will remain sedated for 24 hrs so they fan do a folow up MRI, she wil be in ICU for a few days and then on the oncology floor for a few days after that. Right now she is feeling OK, she is anxious for the surgery to be over because she doesnt like being in the ICU and she is grouchy from being on steroids to keep the swelling down on her brain. Please send lots of prayers her way tomorow, and I will try my best to be a good blogger and update  as I can.

Bell Ringing

 

Sierra rang the bell today to signify the end of her treatment.It was such a wonderful experience. We were blessed to have many of our family and friends attend and show support to Sierra. Throughout this whole experience we have been blessed to have the most loving and generous people surrounding us all, offering support through meals, or childcare, and especially through prayers. All of you have helped to buoy us up and encouraged us to be able to meet all of these challenges and conquer them. THANK YOU!

 

https://www.facebook.com/video/video.php?v=4014684689773&saved

Finished

Sierra has been doing amazing in the last few weeks since her surgery. She was hospitalized for a week, a few days longer than the doctors had predicted, but exactly what we had planned for. I feel like we were so blessed with Sierra's lung surgery experience and I know it was because of all of the prayers being said for her. She had an epidural that worked perfectly for the first few days, allowing her to get over the hump of the worst pain from surgery. She had no complications and never required oxygen after coming off anesthesia(though she wore the cute penguin oxygen mask just for fun). Sierra used oral pain medications for the first few days after coming home from the hospital, but by day 10 post-op she hasn't needed anything at all. She went back to school on day 12 post-op and has been so happy to begin getting back to a normal routine. Sierra will have her 3 month follow up scans at some point in February, until then she only has to go into the clinic once a month to have her port flushed, and once she has her scans, and they come back clean, we can schedule to have her port removed. We will travel to Portland again in January to work with the prosthetist and physical therapist to get her on her finished leg. She hasn't been doing a whole lot of work with her prosthesis lately, but now that we have no other medical stuff to worry about we are back to focusing on exercising and practicing walking. She has moments where she works very hard, and then has moments where she just wants to be able to walk again, I can't imagine how she feels as an 8 year old who wants to do so much, but feels so limited. She doesn't let things hold her back as much as possible, and is very adaptable about most things, but I do see her get frustrated from time to time that she can't do the things she wants, or that she always has to ask for help. Hopefully over the next few months, she will be back to walking and will be able to be more independent. Tomorrow is a very big day for her as well, as she will be ringing the bell at the Children's Hospital. This is a special rite of passage for all of the sweet kiddos that go through treatment and she has looked forward to it since all of this started. I will be taking lots of pictures, and video, and will post them tomorrow.

 For now we are looking forward to the holidays together as a family, and are feeling so blessed to have Sierra here with us.

Family picture from our trip to see Christmas lights at the Coeur d'Alene hotel

Love this girl and her sweet smile