Whew... AFP 1.8 today.

Yeah! 1.8 is the lowest AFP ever. I never posted last month's AFP... on April 23, 09 it was 3.2.
Today her AFP is just 1.8. NICE!

WHEW... that's all I have to say.

Whew! Yesterday was Ashley's quarterly CT and man... it was a breeze until we got our results. That new nodule that showed up in Jan had now grown from 2mm to 4mm. The doc's said they weren't worried, but we needed to wait the 24 hours for her AFP blood work to come back. Well... I just got the numbers and he AFP is 2.4. I cried tears of joy. CANCER SUCKS! I can't begin to tell you how hard living in the moment is when you have a loved one going through a medical crisis. The emotions that run through your body are indescribable. Sometimes all you can do is focus on the negative but then you get distracted and sucked into a TV show or some other responsibility. I'm learning to accept getting sucked into things... this is probably what my mind needs. For now... all danger is averted. We're in the clear for another month until our next blood work appointment. WHEW!!! Happy Easter to all of you. And give your loved ones a BIG HUG today and then throw in an extra squeeze just because you want to. - April

AFP 2.3

When they did Ashleys CT last week, they also did an AFP. (it was a mistake as they're only suppose to do them 1x a month). But I don't mind, especially when the number is 2.3 YAHOO!

CT Clear.

As expected Ashley's CT was clear. There was a new nodule on her lung however they said it was just "compression". I guess when your sedated your lungs can make little marks on the CT image and they aren't anything. She now has 2 of these. One was new but the other has been there since her diagnosis back in May. It has not changed in size so no worries said the doc's. Still... I get so nervous for CT's. It takes an army to prepare for them. Fasting, no breastfeeding, forcing her to drink this contrast solution, keeping her occupied while we wait for the contrast solution to reach her intestines... its really hard. Ashley managed to fall asleep in my arms 5 minutes before the Anasthesiolgist came to get her. This made it really easy to put her on the CT machine and she didn't wake up when I laid her down. The doc held the gas to her face for about 5 minutes and then... she was "out". The scan took 5 minutes and then she woke up 30 minutes later. She's my hero. She's such a champ. She barely even gets scared of the doc's anymore. And if she does... she's okay in just a few seconds. I like to think she gets that personality trait from me... I too can easily just brush things off and move on to the next thing. Its a great trait.
Next visit will be in 1 month. I'll post more then if not before.
April

CT scheduled for Friday 1/30/09

Ashley has her quarterly CT this Friday. Hopefully it will be just fine. Her AFP 2 weeks ago was normal so this should be a clean scan. But we always get nervous before any medical visit. Also, we'll find out what the Oncologist thinks about her iron levels. We've been giving her oral iron supplements for about 2 months now. I guess the chemo she had can cause your iron levels to be pretty low.

Keep you fingers crossed that her chest cold and coughing are gone by this Thursday so she can have her CT on Fri. I don't want to schedule it again. Its hard to keep rescheduling. CT's are hard for us because she has to fast... and because she's still breastfeeding... fasting is REALLY difficult when the food supply is right in front of her everytime I pick her up. We're taking she and Whitney to the dentist tomorrow (tues) for their first visit. Hopefully Ashley's teeth are okay. We're concerned about their coloring and think it might be time to ween her. But the coloring may be due to the chemo. We'll find out tomorrow.

April

AFP 3.0 YEAH!

We had a CT scan scheduled for Fri., but Ashley developed a chest cold earlier in the week. We decided to cancel the CT because with Anastheisa a chest cold can develop into pneumonia. We went ahead and had her finger poked for her AFP blood test. This was the worst visit Ashley ever had. She is talking now so she kept saying "Ow" the entire finger poke time. Even when it wasn't being poked she kept saying "Ow". She was crying like crazy which was great because it helped her clear her chest congestion.

So her AFP is 3.0. We're all happy at the Nakata's houshold this weekend. We've rescheduled the CT for 1/30/09.

April

Happy Birthday to you!

We are so happy that we got to see Ashley turn 2 years old. Back on May 9, 2008... we didn't know what the future would bring. One of the first questions we had for our oncologist was "Are we going to get to go to Hawaii for christmas?" Her reply "Christmas is a long ways away." Not only did we get to go to Hawaii but be got to see Ashley turn 2 years old. We're very lucky. Not many people travel down the road of starring the end of life in the face but we did and we're very fortunate to come out on the happy side of that vision. We appreciate everything so much more. Happy New Year to everyone. We believe 2009 will be an amazing year and we're very happy to say goodbye to a historic year for our country but a very emotional year for our family.

April