Lucca will start her Stem cell transplant & it could kill her

[BenBow]

Here's a tv spot on Lucca
   Tv Link

[Doc Nock]

Wow... touching and humbling for sure!

May Lucca and the Miller family both survive this ordeal and watch that pretty baby grow into a great servant of He who has watched over her.

Lord in your Mercy

[MR BILL SHORTY]

Praying for Lucca and the Miller family  

[Cyclic-Rivers]

Still Praying!!!!

[BenBow]

Lucca should be discharge to the Ronald McDonald house in Chicago or a week of isolation then she will start radiation for a week then a week of immuology (sp)where she receives a iv of something to help her system get built back up. Hopefully this will provide her a clean bill of health. Thank you all for your prayers.

[4dogs]

[Doc Nock]

Sounds like a lot of cloudy weather before that po baby can enjoy being a child... but it if works...and she can be cancer free, AMEN!

Wonder what they can do to put those poor, poor parents back together again...and their finances?

Prayers for the baby to indeed come out well and clean--- and the parents to find help with bills!

Lord in your Mercy...hear our prayers.

[MR BILL SHORTY]

       

[zarch]

prayers sent          

[Doc Nock]

No reports for this week... but that outline of her 3 weeks of trial starting the 24th sure would be enough to keep her family stepping!

Prayers continue for the darling baby...

after all this, Lord in your Mercy, please heal this child!Amen

[BenBow]

She's got her smile back! Lucca starts radiation Monday for 4 days then off for 3 than back for 4 more days. Then 3 weeks later she starts immunology treatments for 3 days than 3 weeks off for 7 times This will take her to next February. Then Lord willing she will be clean and done with this crap.
   
Lucca and her mom Mary
   

[4dogs]

      Its working! God Bless

[Rookie@51]

I'm smiling too. God is so good to us even in all the dark time we face. Thank you Lord for giving man the knowledge to do all this work and for the faithfulness of this family to depend on you for strength and hope. We smile through tears of joy for them and for your healing hand. Thank you God for all things great and small. Amen. Thank you for sharing this with us. She is a beautiful baby girl....... Dusty

[Doc Nock]

Amen, Dusty... Amen.

Thank you, Lord!!!

[bowslinger]

Thank you for the smiles! Prayers sent!

[BenBow]

Update. Lucca is starting the radiation.
"Lucca started radiation today. It was originally supposed to start Monday but for some reason was delayed till today. She did well. There is not too much to it. She is sedated each day which is probably the worst part about it. We do that first and I can be with her. Then they wheel her away and do their thing. Today she was back within an hour maybe less. Then the rest of our time is waiting for her to wake up so we can leave. Each day they said she will be asleep for less time once they find the perfect amount to give her to keep her asleep for just the procedure. The side affects are nauseas, loss of appetite, hair loss, and feeling tired. She seemed ok today maybe just a little more tired. The other big thing they are watching is her liver for the VOD (clotting of the liver). They put her on another medicine to help with this over the next two weeks.
Dr. Cohen stopped by today to talk about Lucca's next steps. The immunotherapy will begin sooner then I thought. Once she has recovered from radiation she will start. I can't imagine her needing much more than a week to recover from radiation so we will definitely be starting this before her 100 days are up probably in August. This means Sunday through Friday she will be in the  hospital for the first treatment, then she will come home for two weeks. The second treatment will be Sunday through Friday, home for the weekend, and then back again for Sunday through Friday, then a week off and back to the other plan. You rotate plans and do five treatments two long three short.
Although it will mean our road isn't over and more hospital stays its important to do this sooner rather than later. There still may be microscopic nueroblastoma cells wandering around Lucca's body waiting to grow and we don't want to chance that.
On a happy note Lucca gets to go home this weekend!!! Just for the weekend but that is super exciting!! I'm sure she is going to love it. So far she has loved having more freedom. We go on walks and she seems very memorized by everything.. We have had to go to Target a couple times for necessities and she has enjoyed that too!  it will be great to be home even if it is a couple of days. "

[Doc Nock]

Hidden in those loving words are descriptions of some harrowing trials yet to bombard the dear child's young body with all this radiation...

Hair loss? Liver clotting?

It seems there are many, many miles to go for this darling child and her parents! I cannot fathom the depth or scope of medical bills they face, even with insurance!

To have come so far... prayers for continued resilience and constant progress toward total healing!

Lord...in your wondrous Mercy...hear our prayers

[DennyK]

Amen Doc!

[zarch]

well said doc              

[BenBow]

Here's a Lucca update from her mom and a couple of pictures.
   "I apologize I haven't posted in awhile daily radiation keeps you busy. Each week day Lucca goes to the hospital around 11:30. She is sedated around 12:15 and heads to radiation at 12:30. She is usually gone about 40 mins when she returns she sleeps for awhile and then we try to wake her up and have her eat. We usually get to leave around 3. Sometimes she has other appointments and sometimes she has to stay longer for a blood transfusion. The rest of the time we are in our room playing and often doing laundry( she gets sick a lot).

So far she is doing well with the radiation. Her nausea has increased a lot and I think her belly hurts. She has had an increase in diaherra and she crys through out the night. I think it is because her belly is bothering her. Last night I gave her some Tylenol and it helped a bit. But otherwise as many of you have seen from pictures on Facebook she is happy and playful. She has her moments like anyone but she is doing well overall.

we went home last weekend for the first time since May. She really loved it. She loved seeing her siblings and pulling their hair and touching their faces   . It was really cute. It made it harder to leave. We will go home again this weekend. When we return Monday she will have four more days of radiation and I think we will get to come on Thursday for a bit longer. My guess is a couple weeks. Once her counts recover from her radiation she will start the immunotherapy. We will be inpatient but only for a week at a time and we will get to come home on weekends and there will be breaks through out. It will be better but still hard. I think this will go through December or so."
   
The chemo has Lucca puffed up.