praying for a miracle

Well, we are all set to start the last round of chemo.  I'm trying to think of something special to do to celebrate this being the last round.  If anyone has any suggestions let me know!  We also wanted to celebrate the fact that Aly said she was hungry today!  I can't remember the last time I heard that!  She had cereal and raspberries for breakfast.  A whole apple with carmel dip, popcorn and a little bit of ham for lunch and buttered spaghetti noodles with garlic toast for dinner!  I'm giddy about that!  Of course the roller coaster will be going down the big hill tomorrow and it will be back to not eating and vomiting again!  Gotta celebrate accomplishments while we can!

We met with the neurosurgeon today.  He was a nice, quiet, humble man.  He told us he could tell just in the short time he spoke with Aly that she is very mature for her age and very smart.  I like him already if he could tell that in the few minutes he spent with her.  It is, of course, true.  However, I don't like that he was pretty confident that the surgery will be necessary.  He was looking at the MRI results they did before the last session of chemo.  He feels what remains of the tumor is a different texture (he called it fatty) and typically doesn't respond as well to chemo.  I'm hoping he is wrong there.  When we first found out about this tumor the doctor said it seemed to be a mix of cells, some more liquid.  How they tell by just looking at the scans I don't know, but I do know I'm going to be praying extra hard for the tumor to be nonexistent after this last round of chemo.  The surgery sounds scary and because of the location has a lot of risks involved.  Not to mention it would increase treatment time as he said Aly would need 2-4 weeks recovery time before the radiation process would begin.  I just want Aly to be able to move on with her life and get back to normal activities!  Please pray for a miracle.  Please keep Aly in your thoughts and prayers this weekend.  Five days to go!