Tuesday Update

After talking with Esther, here are some updates:

These past couple of days have been much more joyful and full of hope and peace. They are sensing the fruit of people's prayers - thank you. They are also seeing Ava more like herself, which has been really uplifting.

Even so, it's been a little strange to experience such emotional extremes within a week: feeling the valley-low-darkness-of-the-night when faced with the possibility of losing Ava, to feeling hopeful for her healing and at times even dreaming of returning to a "normal" life. It's tiring to go between such extremes, and it's also a bit surreal to feel the hope of "going back to normal" when the reality is that there is still a long road ahead.

Mike & Esther had the opportunity today to meet with two other families (friends) whose children are also battling cancer and are currently at Lurie's for treatment. They are thankful for the time together and to connect with friends who know what the journey is like.

Ava is now off IV fluids and encouraged to drink on her own to stay adequately hydrated. Ava's blood count is almost at zero, but not yet. It's hard to interpret the numbers of the other blood components, if they are decreasing as quickly as desired. Yet again, they seek to put their hope in God and not in what the numbers say. A side perk of Ava's immune system being wiped out is that her body isn't displaying the kind of hypersensitivity it normally does. As a result, her skin is really beautiful and shows no sign of eczema. However, the challenge with this is that when Ava gets itchy, she can scratch and cause skin breaks, putting her at great risk of infection with no immune system to fight it. In addition, they cannot give Ava any antihistamines for the itching; the concern is that the side effect of drowsiness would prevent Ava from waking up if she ever has a fever. It is imperative for them to know when/if Ava has a fever in case she ever gets an infection.

In addition to the prayer requests in Esther's previous post, please pray for itching relief for Ava, that she won't scratch and will be protected from infection. Please also pray for their transition home as they learn to settle into a new routine as a family. They are thankful for Mike's mom who arrived from China today to help support them during this time, and they continue to be thankful for each one of you.