I can't believe it is March. Where in the world has the time gone???
There is alot to update everyone on so please be patient if I start to ramble :)

Since I am obiously not very good at keeping the blog updated I need to back track a bit. Last update I mentioned that the Dr's planned on having Shelb be done with her chemo protocal between the end of Feb to the first part of March and follow up with radiation. Keeping in mind that overall she has tolerated the chemo treatments very well with little complicaton, Shelbie's Doctors decided to take her case to the Tumor Board again so the "what's next"plan could be discussed with several other doctors and so they could get several more opinions. The tumor board discussed her case on Feb 13th.

On Feb 25, Gracee (Shelbie's 4 yr old sister) had to have surgery to fix an ambilical hernia and to "make her a new belly button" as her puts it. One of Shelbie's Dr's came to visit Gracee while she was in the hospital but even though we pressed him for info on what the Tumor board decided he would not budge. He made us wait until the next day for our clinic appt.

On Feb 26th, Shelbie, Mom and Daddy Justin went to the appt. Mindy (one of the nurses) came in and axcessed Shelbie's port and took blood for labs just like always. Shelbie was not in the greatest mood because she had been on a 2 week break between chemo cycles and never looked forward to starting a new 10 week cycle. Every week during weeks 1-4 she went to the hospital to have two kinds of chemo administered thru her port. Week 5 and 6 she got a chemo break, week 7-8 she did chemo pills at home daily and weeks 9 and 10 she got another chemo break just to start the same cycle over again. This is how things have been for the past 16 months and a routine that we have gotten used to. This visit was different. Two of her doctors came it to talk with us and then they broke the news to Shelbie. Are ya ready for this.......NO MORE CHEMO.......for now atleast. They said she could be done with her chemo protocal! Instead of doing radiation right away, they are going to hold off a little bit longer. The Doctors said she has to come up to the hospital every month to be checked out and for blood counts to make sure everything is ok. She will need to have an MRI on her brain, T-spine, L-spine and C-spine every 12 weeks to monitor the tumor and see if the chemo has prevented it from growing. The Doctors agreed that as soon as they see any change in the tumor she will start radiation and a new chemo protocal. YEA!!!!!!I don't know what we will do with all the extra time we are gonna have LOL :)

Despite the good news, Shelbie has still struggled with severe headaches. They have gotten to the point that oxycodone and imitrex are not helping. She had another seizure that was noticable (her brain has seizures even though being on meds to control them and sometimes we don't even know she is having one)so we called and spoke with Dr. Filloux her neurologist. Even though she is scheduled for a MRI on the 25th of this month, he insisted she have one sooner. He prescribed her hydroxizine and compazine to help get her to sleep hoping that would help her get on top of the headaches awaiting her MRI on March 13th. The MRI showed that there was no visible signs of tumor change...we are very relieved as this was her first MRI since being off chemo..... After the MRI she had an exam with
DR. Filloux. He said she has increased pressure behind her optic nerve. He feels that this is being caused by her headaches and seizures. His belief is that if she can get on top of the seizures it will help control the headaches and vise versa. He said the headaches are causing more seizures and the seizures are causing her more headaches. His solution is to again increase one of her seizure meds and see how she does with that. He still wants her to have another MRI on the 25th of this month and see him again so hopefully this will help!! We will keep you posted...

Thanks again for all the prayers!!!!