Back to School, End of Break, MRI, New Chemo

Makenzie has been in school now in 2nd grade for over 2 weeks and is doing well. She is making it all day and has only missed days for and MRI and a treatment. She likes her teacher, Mrs. Guevara. Makenzie has enjoyed her 4 week break from chemo. It has helped her feel quite a bit better. She is also off of the steroids so that should also help her feel better. Her appetite is not so out of control and she should start slimming back down and gaining strength. The results of her MRI last Friday were mixed... the swelling around the tumor has gone down, and there were some cysts in the tumor that are smaller. But there has been no shrinkage and there is an area of the tumor that has progressed ever so slightly, less than the tip of a pinky finger. But that was enough for the doctor to decide her current chemo regimen was not as effective as he would like and to change from carboplatin/vincristine to vinblastine. So she will get vinblastine weekly for a year, without breaks, unless future MRIs show that to not be effective. One good thing is that her appointment times will go from over 3 hours to about an hour since Vinblastine does not have to dripped in slowly through an IV. Please, continue to pray for Makenzie to be blessed with miracles, that she will be healed and she will feel as well as she can.