Start of cycle #3
This has been a very good week for the McAllister Family and we couldn't be more happy with things! Belle started her 3rd cycle of chemo today and she seems to be getting accustom to the routine. She has been dealing with a stubborn cough over the last three weeks that she can't seem to kick but I think almost every kid in Colorado has been sick over the past month. Hopefully she is able to get over this cold soon! Chemo went well today and we will just hang out for the weekend and hope that there are no fevers that will have us back at Children's Hospital. Fingers crossed!
She also had her first MRI yesterday since her diagnosis in December so this week has been filled with both anticipation and nervous concerns if the treatment is working.....well we have found out that the tumor is stabilized and it appears to have shrunken a little bit. Most importantly the contrast effects on the image is less prominent then the original so her oncologist Dr. Foreman is very excited about these results and is exactly what he would like to see. Everything is moving in the correct path and the tumor is responding like a low grade tumor. He also indicated that her ventricles have returned to their normal size! She has been on chemo for about 2 months and only her full strength of CBDs/THC regiment for about 3-4 weeks so this news is promising! Here are the pictures from December and also from yesterday.
(December image of enlarged ventricles)
(March ventricles at normal size)
(December image contrast of tumor)
(March image of tumor...smaller and significantly less contrast showing in the tumor)
So we have a lot to celebrate and Belle is doing well....I told her she is just crushing cancer!
We also had a wonderful time at the fundraiser on Saturday at Backcountry CrossFit. It was so amazing to see so many people come out and support our family! It was a very emotional day filled with laughter, smiles, tears, celebration and of course sweat.....lots and lots of people working their butts off in the name of fighting cancer! Steve called the WOD "Fight Gone Mac".....so very cool! I couldn't have asked for a better day and turnout.....I'm still in shock how many people came to the event on Saturday....by my estimate at least 300 people came throughout the day! I showed up at about 6:45 ready to start the day. The WOD consisted of teams of four....20 minute WOD of rowing, box step ups, burpees, and ab mat situps! I was dead set on participating in all 4 WODs....I couldn't let everyone have all the fun all day long! The last WOD at 10am was the most packed with people....I think there was at least 90 people working out all at the same time.....I was taken back by how cool this was and how many people are supporting us and love us! I stopped half way through the WOD and just took a moment to take it all in...I stopped my best bud Nick and said to him "Look at this man...look how amazing this is....all these people out here for Belle!" I get goose bumps thinking about it! The pot luck was great and the food/beer was so good! It was great see everyone.....family, old and new friends, people from high school that I have not seen in 20 years, met people from other CF boxes that heard about the fundraiser and came out to give support....I can't say thank you enough to everyone that came out! I also want to say thank you so much to Steve and Ashley Hartle of BCCF for hosting the fundraiser and bringing together so many people to help with cost of her medical bills and medicine. It was such a special day and I will never forget it....again thank you to everyone that came to support the event, donated and made it such an amazing day!
We will be starting to document her CBD/THC regiment this month for the study she is in through Children's Hospital. Hopefully our efforts can someday help other families in the future and give them the promise of what CBD/THC oils can do to fight cancer! It's a lot of documentation but whatever it takes to do our part! She is tolerating the oils very well so they say at Realm of Caring we can increase the dose as it will continue to aid in the process so we will see how that goes. We are going to just keep fighting here!
That's about all for now and we are grateful for everyone helping us in so many different ways! Thank you for all the love and support!
GoFundMe Link: https://www.gofundme.com/mcallister-family-medical-fund
God bless,
Mac
