Somehow, through all this she has managed to gain 5 pounds which is amazing because she has had such an upset stomach it seemed nothing was staying in her body! What is also amazing is that the bubbly Aly we knew a year ago is starting to return. She was talking up a storm earlier in the day yesterday. Now the cough has taken over, so she isn't talking much, but there is a definite change. Her eye sight is also changing. Her "good eye" was at 20/40 and the eye she couldn't see out of was at 2/400 upon entering the hospital. Aly said now, she can see without her glasses with her good eye and she feels that she can see a little more with her bad eye. Still very limited, but better. I hope that is a good sign!
We also found out that Aly may be eligible for a wish granted by the Make a Wish Foundation, which would be a lovely thing to look forward to after all this is over. There is also a program called Monkey in My Chair (how appropriate for Aly, right?) We take a stuffed monkey to school and place it in Aly's chair when she is absent. That way the kids will more likely remember that Aly is missing. The monkey has a backpack so kids can stick notes in the backpack and Aly can also send notes to the class. Aly has named the monkey Buddy. She comes up with the greatest names! I think that will be fun for her class.
With everything moving so quickly after diagnosis, we really hadn't had a chance to ask specific questions, and now, hanging out at the hospital, we've found out more things. For those of you who are interested, Aly's tumor was about 2 cm x 2 cm, which in the scheme of things is rather small, so they feel it was caught early. It is located in what they call the midline region of the brain (I believe I mentioned by the pituitary gland). There is not a specific name for her type of brain cancer, just that it is a mixed germ cell tumor.
Happy Birthday Aly!
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