Diagnosis

We finally got the results from Rachel's biopsy today. The results were not as great as we had hoped they'd be but it's not hopeless. Rachel has Ependymoma a rare form of brain cancer. The best ways to treat are surgery and radiation but Rachel doesn't qualify for either of those. The neurosurgeon is looking at possibly removing the tumor from the spine but that won't take care of all the cancer. Our first approach at beating this is going to be chemo. She will start at the beginning of next week. The odds are 50/50 that the cancer will respond to chemo. Our hope is that it does and she will continue on with chemo until she is 3. At that age, she will be developed enough to receive radiation therapy. We are definitely trying to stay hopeful but this is going to be a tough cancer to beat. The odds over the last 25 years are that 1 in 4 kids have survived it. We're praying really hard that Rachel falls in that 25%! Please keep praying for us we need it right now. Rachel has recovered well from her surgery and today she got to play and move around all over the hospital floor. She is in very good spirits and you can't even tell anything is wrong. I'll have to post pics later because they are in Michael's camera at the hospital.