Update - 10/21

Cam started her radiation treatment on Monday up here in Boston. The three of us came up on Sunday evening so that we could be here bright and early Monday morning.

The process could not have been smoother. Campbell was excited to get back and see Nurse Rachel and was happy to go back into the "Monkey Room" where she receives the treatment (it's decorated with monkeys - unfortunately, most decked out in various Boston sports teams apparel). Because it was the first day, we were both allowed to go back with her - which provided as much comfort to us as it did for her.

Once they took her back, they almost immediately gave her the propofol and she was out. About 45 minutes later she was awake again and we were able to go back and be with her. It is pretty amazing how effecient they are. She was actually sitting up and eating some cookies when we got back to the room on Monday and was HAPPY!

While she was having her treatment, we met with Dr MacDonald and Dr McBride to review her treatment and to see the "field" that they would be treating. It appears that her right inner ear will be able to be avoided completely and MOST of her left as well. In addition, both of the hormonal centers in her brain will be avoided as well. If we were optimistic that the side effects would be minimal before, now that we saw these pictures (superimposed onto the pictures from the CT scan) we are that much more encouraged. We are still expecting some hearing loss in her left ear, but the extent of it may be minimized.

After some lunch, Campbell decided that she was going to throw up for a while. This made us both very nervous. When this continued for over an hour, we called the nurse and she ordered some Zofran. They had not given her anything with the anasthesia so that they could get a baseline as to how she would react (that would have been nice to know ahead of time) but will going forward.

On Day 2, she gave her the Zofran so we were optimistic about her not throwing up, but she still did - though not as often or for as long. Because they had given her the full dose of Zofran while she was sedated, they couldn't give more but Benadryl is also an anti-nausea medication so we ran to Rite-Aid to get that for the next treatments. The hope is that we come up with the right "recipe" to keep her feeling good. Because she isn't feeling well, she is not eating lunch which may be compounding the problem as well.

We'll now see what Day 3 brings but hope that we all are getting into a routine with this. Thank goodness it has not yet been a fight to get Cam to go there and about eating. Once we have to start fighting with her about that, it is a whole new ballgame.

Thanks to so many of you for your words of encouragment for this new adventureand support with the other girls back home. We love you all very much and could not imagine doing this without you

With Love,

Greg, Robin, Caitlin, Caroline & Campbell