October 2000 Updates on
Mary
Beth
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10-3-00 Mary Beth continues to improve with each passing day. Yesterday was the first day in the past five weeks that she did not get nauseous. She hasn't started eating yet, but is working to this goal. She is slowly regaining her strength and walked upstairs with assistance for the first time last night. I think she was afraid I was getting close to dropping her during one of our evening piggyback rides. I only came close once when we both started laughing so hard that we had to pause to regain composure! She is working diligently at catching up in her scholastic life and had visits from her tutor and Dr. Wood yesterday. She wants to send out a huge "Thank You" to all who opened their hearts and wallets in purchasing raffle tickets form her. She sold over $600 for the cause thanks to her sales associate Barbie and all of you. The drawing is tomorrow, so MB sends good luck wishes to all who purchased tickets from all the SJA Angels. This Friday marks the 28th day after her stem cell transplant and is the first measuring date to determine the success of her high dose chemotherapy treatments. She is scheduled for an MRI at noon on Friday. Please pray for positive results. Thank you and God bless you, We continue to receive blessings from countless acts of your love expressed in so many ways they are impossible to describe. Some of the more recent occurred this week with news from Our Lady of the Pillar. A rosary will he held today at Pillar at 11:30 AM by all students, teachers, and numerous parents and other parishioners. This rosary is being said in honor of World Rosary Day and for special prayers for Mary Beth's MRI today at noon. Additionally, Father Tobin gave us a letter he received from Rome announcing that the entire world wide organization of the Marianists has added Mary Beth to their daily petitions. This petition was originally initiated by Father Tobin and has been distributed by the World Council of the Marianist Family to the 8,000 priests, brothers, and nuns of the Marianists across 4 continents in some 50 countries. All of your acts mean so much to us and enable us to smile, laugh, and be at peace when facing the challenges of our everyday lives. Thank you. We are uncertain when we will be informed of the MRI results, but will disseminate this information as soon as we know. God bless you, PRAYERS ANSWERED!!! We want to thank all of you for your prayers that resulted in us receiving very good news this morning regarding Mary Beth's MRI results from Friday. If her treatment was effective, we were told to expect that the three remaining lesions would be the same size, smaller, or no longer present. Of the three, one is no longer present and the other two are the same size. These two may be either dead or dying tissue or scar tissue. For all intents and purposes - THE CANCER IS GONE! So, our collective prayers are being answered! Mary Beth will continue to receive MRIs on a six week interval to monitor her status. She is still restricted from visiting enclosed spaces with a lot of people, which includes school and church. She can, however have limited visitors at home provided they are healthy. She can also attend open air venues, so she will be going to Busch Stadium on Thursday night with her sisters and Mom to see the Redbirds playoff victory over the Mets. Thank you for your continued support throughout our roller coaster ride. We are enjoying being on the upside with you today! God bless you, We have been living with Mary Beth's good news for just over a week now and things are going well. Everyone at home is more relaxed than we have been for quite some time. I personally have slept through the night for the first time in almost a year. Mary Beth receives physical therapy treatments daily and continues to gain strength. She is walking upstairs without help and is more steady on her feet. Her only outings so far have been a ride in her wheelchair around the neighborhood and attending the second NLCS playoff game at Busch Stadium. Although the Cardinals lost the game, it was very special for her to be there. She is an avid baseball fan, saw several friends and the outdoor venue is the only type of environment she is able to attend until her immune system recovers. She will have her immune system tested in the beginning of November to determine when her visitation restrictions will be lifted. If she shows tremendous progress from these tests, she will be able to return to school shortly thereafter. Most likely, her immunities will not recover until early December when her doctors forecast she will be able to again attend indoor venues like school, church, and the movies. She remains on intravenous nutrition and occasionally eats some solid food. She enjoyed a piece of William's 4th birthday cake on Monday but couldn't eat the pizza for dinner he requested for his birthday meal. Her food restrictions will be lifted on November 7th. She is looking forward to again eating food prepared outside of our home and eating cheese other than American. We have been saying our prayers of thanksgiving every day and include each of you in them. Thank you. God bless you, Mary Beth has been steadily improving during the past 10 days. She has been eating enough solid food and consuming enough liquids that she was taken off IV foods this week. Her blood counts continue to improve and she gets stronger and stronger physically. She walked to the end of our block and back for the first time this week with Joy, her physical therapist. William had his birthday party yesterday and Mary Beth spent 2 hours outside participating in the fun. She was doing so well that we were all getting very comfortable with our lives, until today. Early this afternoon, she started breaking out with blisters which appeared to be the beginning of shingles. Sheila took her to Children's Hospital where she will be staying until at least Monday afternoon. The doctors will be analyzing a culture to determine affirmatively whether she has shingles. She is very susceptible to all viruses and diseases because her immune system has not yet recovered from her treatments. We are reminded of how fragile life really is when we experience days like today. Please say and extra prayer for Mary Beth so she may be released soon and achieve her goal of attending St. Joe in early December. Thank you and God bless you, Happy Halloween! Mary Beth will be released from the hospital today and will continue to receive IV medication to treat her shingles. She says the pain is minimal, but we know that her threshold is high. Most likely, she contracted them from her own body. Her immune system is very weak and she had chicken pox at a young age, therefore the virus remains in her system. She will be again confined to our home, but is looking forward to seeing all the ghosts and goblins in Chaminade Park tonight. If you get a chance, you should drop by to see our pumpkins. Two are dedicated to Mary Beth. Thank you all for your continued thoughts and prayers. Thank you and God bless you,
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The
following page contains updates regarding Mary Beth's progress for
October of 2000.
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