Nina Update

For all of those interested in the little girl from my church here is the latest update. Please continue to pray for her and her family.


The latest and the greatest on Nina….
We are all doing well despite the circumstances. Your support remains amazing. We are hearing stories each day about how churches all over the country have been asked to pray for Nina. You have told your neighbors and family members about her. People who you work with are praying and asking about Nina. We have truly felt like God has been carrying us during this past week, and we thank you once again for your part in this.
Nina's catheter was removed yesterday afternoon, and she is able to get up and use the potty. Her spunk is back. She was quite spirited today walking down the hall with her hiney peaking out the back of her gown, yelling "No, No, No, I can't walk." She screams this as she makes her way all the way down to the fish tank by the elevators. This was quite a little walk as her room is the last one at the end of her hall. Then every time she went to climb back into bed, she would allow no help from anyone. She'd creep slowly onto the bed like a 95 year old woman, making lots of noise the whole time, "Ow, Ow, Ow! I can do it! I can do it!" If anyone tried to help at all she would yell, "I can do it," even louder. It stinks to watch her in pain, but we are glad to see her independence coming back. Getting up and out of bed is the best thing for her recovery, so we need to force lots of walks.
She still has everything else hooked up, and hasn't had a bite to eat or drink of water since Wednesday. They think her bowels are starting to wake up from the anesthesia, and she may get to lose the nose tube tomorrow. This would mean clear liquids. Yay!
We weren't left hanging through the weekend. Both biopsies were completed by yesterday afternoon. Here is what we know. There were three things the tumor could be
Ganglioneuroma- Benign tumor (we knew after surgery that we weren’t getting this diagnosis)
Ganglioneuroblastoma- Intermediate tumor with both cancerous and non-cancerous cells present
Neuroblastoma- most aggressive.
Nina has been diagnosed with #2 a Ganglioneuroblastoma. We are thrilled it wasn't #3!!! What a blessing that this was discovered early. It is amazing this tumor was ever found in the first place. For those who may not know, Nina was sent in for an ultra sound after having 3 urinary tract infections in less than 6 months. Her pediatrician thought she might have a condition called kidney reflux. This is not a fun condition either, but we would have gladly taken it over cancer. So, she had the ultra sound a week ago Thursday, and praise God for the amazing technician, Jenny, who found the tumor. Jenny has already come to our room at the hospital to visit us. She said she has been thinking about Nina and praying for her ever since the ultra sound. I gave her the biggest hug. Jenny is one of our heroes.
Several doctors have said that it is unlikely that the urinary tract infections had anything to do with the ganglioneuroblastoma. They have said this tumor may have been found by chance. We are so thankful for the UTIs.
More good news…The bone marrow biopsy has come back and both samples taken were negative. This is so promising to us. Nina will start many more tests in the coming week. She will need CT scans on her chest and pelvic region, a bone density scan, and some tests involving nuclear medicine. They are looking for more cancer/tumors. God has heard and answered all the Nina prayers so far. We ask for prayers now that all her scans and tests come back clean. We hope that once they have all the information, Nina’s cancer will be staged low.
Yesterday started off rough, Mike needed to go in to work for a few hours. Southwestern schools were closed because of ice, so Lindsey came to the hospital with Grandma. The girls hadn’t seen each other since the night before surgery. When Nina and Lindsey saw each other, they both started crying. Nina was crying first because she wanted to go home, so Lindsey started crying because she was so sad to see her sister this way. Seeing both my children hurting, hurt me so bad. Soon we were all three in tears. We miss our old life, but we are doing our best to keep smiling and laughing.
We wanted to include one of the pictures we took of our "Sleeping Beauty" at the hospital, but we don't have the cord to download pictures. Maybe we'll get a picture sent out tomorrow.
Love, Mike & Tonia