Autumn went in for a second surgery yesterday at 1pm. It was to remove the 14 staples (Autumn called them her 14 babies :) and place her portal for chemotherapy. This time the procedure was a lot shorter (about 1 hour) than the removal of the tumor (almost 3 hours). She is such a trooper, she did so well!
She was in a lot of pain when she first woke up and the nurse on duty at the time had refused to give her any more pain medication (god knows why!). A second nurse followed shortly to explain that she MUST have pain medication, as it was almost protocol! For some reason she resisted again and finally gave in and gave Autumn a little something to take the edge off, finally!
After the surgery, a nurse came in to give Autumn her first chemo treatment. It is so strange watching them put this insane chemical in your baby, it hardly seems real. It felt as though Autumn was part of a weird experiment being conducted by aliens just to see what would happen. As a parent, you just have to give up internal resistance and find a way to accept what is happening, but it seems so unnatural.
The good news is that she seems to be doing so well. My mom and I stayed with Autumn last night in a hotel across the street from the hospital because Autumn also has her first radiation treatment today. She only has 7 consecutive days worth of radiation instead of 10 (we are thankful!). Each treatment only takes about 20 minutes and the radiation itself lasts only seconds.
Every Tuesday for the next 10 weeks, Autumn will have her chemo treatment She would love all of your thoughts and prayers on that day especially. She may get sick from it, she may do well. The doctors said she can even return to school if she is doing well, amazing! We have been told that the hair loss is fairly quick, it begins in about a week and most of the hair falls out within 5 weeks. I worry about how she will react to all of that. She has already had a lot to deal with and this in just one more hurdle. I am open to just about any suggestion regarding her, her siblings, any advise one can give us to help with the understanding and compassion.
We are so very thankful for having ALL of you in our lives, it has made this entire process more bearable. Thank you for being there for us, we love you.
Autumn and her family
Thank you so much for sharing this blog with all of us. I am thinking about Autumn everyday and want to know how she's doing, but am reluctant to call that often as I know you have much on your plates right now. So this is great. It will also be a great record of this period of Autumn's life jorney that years from now will mean a great deal to her.
ReplyDeleteMuch love to Autumn and all you Cannons! George
We are happy to read that Autumn did relatively well today. I'm not surprised to hear she's been a trooper! Autumn is mentioned in our household often. We look forward to the day when she will be accepting visitors. In the meantime, she and all of the Cannons will be in our prayers. molly
ReplyDeleteAutumn is an amazing little girl. To be able to handle all those scary, invasive and foreign procedures with such amazing and innocent courage. What an inspiration for us all. Especially my two little girls who can't even imagine what it would be like to be in Autumn's situation.
ReplyDeleteThanks so much for the updates. It must be so hard to recount those awful situations and put into words. Please know it's so much appreciated. We continue to keep Autumn (and all the Cannons) in our prayers and have positive vibes heading your way, everyday. Take care of yourselves.....
alex, bella, and maggie