Further testing

Aly went to the hospital today to have a CT scan done of her whole body.  They wanted to see if it would help give them answers.  It gave some answers but not others.  The CT scan of her body, other than her head, was clear of tumors, which means the cancer has not spread anywhere else.  Her blood markers are at a normal level and as I think I mentioned last time, the spinal fluid is also clear of cancer cells.  So, this new tumor and "hot spots" are not making sense.  Typically with the type of tumor Aly has (the original one) any spreading that they see is through the spine.  They just aren't sure why they are seeing this new tumor that grew but yet the original tumor remained the same size, plus the fact that the blood markers are normal whereas they were elevated upon the original diagnosis.  The major problem is the fact that the tumors are in the brain.  If they were anywhere else they could remove them rather easily and do a biopsy to see for sure what we are dealing with.  We will be meeting with the neurosurgeon on Thursday and hopeful gain more insight and possibly come up with a plan of action.
This girl is a medical mystery.  If you see her and talk with her you wouldn't know anything was wrong other than her missing hair.  On that note, her hair and eyelashes are already starting to grow.  She is so happy about that!  She's been so much like the Aly we used to know before this journey began.  She is very chatty, silly and happy.  We took her to the Waterpark of America on Saturday.  We wanted a total break from all this medical stuff if only for one day.  It was just our family, Kevin, me, Tom and Aly.  Aly had more energy than the rest of us.  She couldn't get enough.  Why is it as you get older, you get more dizzy on rides?  I went down one tube slide and my tube spun around so I ended up going down the whole slide backwards!  That about made me sick.  It was, however, a very enjoyable day.  A lot of laughs and smiles.  Something that we all needed!  We stopped for a nice dinner as well.  Aly didn't each much.  She still is not eating a lot, but she is at least eating more food and we are not having to rely on the formula for her main calories.