Day 5 in the hospital, Day 3 of chemotherapy and Brooke is doing well. On Thursday she had surgery to place her central line, another lumbar puncture, her first dose of chemotherapy into her spinal fluid, and a bone marrow aspiration – all under general anesthesia. She was pretty sore and run down after all that and she threw up that night. Yesterday and tonight she was feeling much better! Her spirit is undaunted – she is still so positive and accepting of the situation and she finds the silver linings and reasons to smile in everything.

Also, we have had several pieces of good news this week. Brooke’s MRI showed no damage at all to her brain and only minimal bruising to her optic nerve that looked like it was caused from the pressure from the extra fluid. (Brooke’s had some blurred and double vision in recent weeks, so we are happy to hear it’s not due to any irreversible damage!) They relieved the pressure when they did her lumbar puncture and already she is reporting that her vision is better!! Also, the preliminary results from her bone marrow biopsy are negative! Which is positive!! So far they have found no evidence that the leukemia is back in her blood or bone marrow, which is really good news! Some lab guys still needs to confirm this for us, but her oncologists felt very good about what they saw! This is basically the difference between her relapsing because the chemotherapy didn’t work last time, or just because they missed some of the cancer cells. It’s much easier to go back in and knock down this resurgence of cancer cells when they are the kind that respond well to treatment!