Yet another challenge lies ahead...

We found out, during our clinic visit yesterday, that Aly's radiation treatment will not take place here in Minnesota.  We will have to travel and stay, wherever we decide to go, for 6 weeks.
I happened to ask about the radiation, as it is not too far away and we hadn't yet talked about our options.  There are different techniques and I had questions.  I wasn't aware I was about to open a can of worms I didn't know about yet!  A long stay away from home was never discussed at the beginning of Aly's treatment.
Children's Hospital now sends all brain tumor patients to hospitals that have what is called Proton Beam Therapy.  There are only a handful of hospitals in the U.S. that perform this treatment and unfortunately Mayo is not yet one of them.  They are in Boston, MA, Jacksonville, FL, Houston, TX, Oklahoma City, OK, Bloomington, IN, or Loma Linda, CA.  Our cancer doctor suggested Indiana, Massachusetts or Florida because Children's Hospital has the most experience with those 3.  She then said Boston would be difficult to get into because it is in a highly populated area.  So, now we have to decide where to reside for 6 weeks, who is going to stay with Aly and just an overall agenda!
The benefit of Proton Beam Therapy over regular radiation is there is less chance of long term side effects. With regular radiation, the radiation goes into the body, into the tumor and then exits and "scatters" which could cause harm to areas around the tumor.  With Proton Therapy, the radiation goes into the body, into the tumor and stays there.  It is also a more concentrated beam.  We, of course, are willing to do what is best for Aly.  It is just another unexpected bump in the road.  Aly has 9 weeks (3 sessions) of chemotherapy left and then there is a typical 3-4 week wait until radiation begins.  We are thinking it will be mid August - mid September that we will be traveling.  Just in time to miss the beginning of middle school!  Aly's not too happy about that.
Other than that, Aly is feeling pretty good.  Her blood counts were quite low yesterday, but not terrible.  They want to give her a blood transfusion on Friday morning just to give her a boost before chemo next week.  I'm still hoping she will be able to finish out the school year!