1st Week of Radiation

Hi Everyone!
I completed my first week of radiation treatments this past week and then I got to come home for the weekend. This picture is of my brothers and me, waiting in line for the water slide at Global Wildlife Center Family Day.

Please continue to pray for me.
Right now the doctors have not said how many treatments I will have to have -- initially they said four weeks, but now my radiologist says that I might get six weeks of treatments. The side effects of the radiation treatments can be pretty severe, so I hope you all will continue to pray for me. Some of them include soreness, and problems with urinating and with bowel movements while I am receiving the treatments. The doctors said this will start in about a week. Longer term issues I could face include damage to my vaginal area, uterus and ovaries. This means that I will not be able to conceive children when I get older. Even more importantly, I may not enter puberty on my own, and may encounter other female problems when I am older. Please pray for me that I will not have these kinds of problems. Also pray that the doctors get every spot that needs to be radiated, and only those spots.

As I said earlier, I got to come home for the weekend -- it was good to be home with mom and dad and my brothers. Saturday we got to go to family day at Global Wildlife Center. I saw kangaroo and giraffes there! I got to slide down the water slide and hula hoop while paw-paw and his band played music for everyone there. We ate hamburgers and hot dogs, and had a sno-ball. It was a lot of fun.

Today I went back to New Orleans to start my next week of radiation treatments. I also started back on my chemo treatments today, which means I probably won't get to go out in public again for a while. I will be at Children's Hospital today and tomorrow while I get my "chemo-cocktail". Then mommy and I will stay at Hope Lodge the rest of the week while I get my daily radiation treatments. Friday I will get to go home again if all goes well!

Love and kisses to you all!
Amelya