this is our life, this is my story: A sigh of relief

Today was an interesting appointment. My mom, Madison and I went to Madison’s 6 month follow up with her team of amazing doctors at Phoenix Children’s Hospital to have her last MRI read. These appointments are really hard for me, until I hear that Madison’s cancer is still gone. It didn’t start off that smoothly. Today we met out new oncologist, (I don’t remember her name, I don remember she is REALLY young). She is going to be a good doctor to have on our team; however I think she has a little to learn in the way of “bedside manners”. The MRI team didn’t fax over there read of Madison’s MRI, so she decided to look at the disc that we get from Banner Desert. She noticed some spots in Madison’s brain that did not appear normal, (remember Madison’s cancer was in her cervical spine, not her brain) she did not wait discuss this with the other doctors, and away from my mom, Madison and I. So for the next 30 minutes, Madison is getting looked over by 4 different doctors, 4 different physicals (she passed with flying colors), I am freaking out that my daughters cancer has spread to several spots in her brain. Finally our neurosurgeon (shining knight) Dr M came in, made his usual comment of amazement that Madison is still able to hold her head up (that is how this all started, when Madison was 18 months old her dad, Grandma Gin and I noticed that Madison was using her shoulders to hold her head up. It took 3 appointments, in one week, at her pediatrician’s office before her usual pediatrician was able to see her and ordered a MRI “to rule a few things out”. The pediatricians’ before told Jason and I that Madison’s neck problem was because we still had her in a crib. STILL??? She was just 18 months old. So we bought her a cute butterfly twin bed and 2 days later Madison was still having problems. So after an appointment with her pediatrician we took Madison to her first MRI. The first time she was sedated – that was really hard. At 8pm that night (never good news at 8pm) I got a call from the pediatrician that Madison had a tumor in her cervical spine and we were at Phoenix Children’s Hospital the next day and met Dr M. He was intimidating, and at the time I thought HE lacked bedside manner. Dr M is just to the point, and sometimes that is hard to take, other times I have looked forward to his point of view.) Other times like today. Dr M was late today, he walked in and made his usual comment about Madison still holding her head up, the other doctors were shocked he would say something like that. I have come to love his personality. I know what he says is true, it is amazing that Madison is able to hold her head up after all that she has been through. I know he really is amazed. He is the only doctor that had said the words, that Madison is a miracle. She really is a miracle. Anyway, our new oncologist told him that Madison had some spots in her brain on several of the MRI images, after just a few minutes of him looking at the 333 images on the disc he was able to show us that the “spots” were just regular fluid movement in her brain, and absolutely nothing to worry about. And after a few minutes of chatting about how far Madison has come and how amazing she is to be as unaffected as she is, my mom, Madison and I headed home. Thankful for another clear scan, and 6 months of getting back to “normal”.

my beautiful angel

purple building in the corner is Phoenix Children's Hospital. this is the hospital that employs the most amazing doctors, the doctors that saved, and continue to save my daughters life and the lives of so many other children. It was a really scary place when Madison was there for her surgeries. now it's comforting to come back for visits with her doctors

this is madison getting her blood pressure. she was nervous about this appointment, her last few appointments have involved pokes (shots), and a (gas) mask. I explained several times in the last few days that this is a talking appointment, no pokes and no mask.