Isabella...Sunday Afternoon

Isabella was discharged this afternoon and was able to spend at least part of Easter at home! Her pathology results won't be in till Monday or Tuesday and the Tumor Board meets Wednesday or Thursday so her doctor thought she'd be much happier at home! The pathology results will determine the next step...best case scenario is surgery to remove the tumor and probably follow up surgeries to repair the vertebrae. Worst case scenario would be radiotion and/or chemo...keep praying!
Isabella is none the worse for wear and almost enjoyed her vacation at the hospital! She came home with at least 6 new stuffed animals from the staff, several craft projects, an Easter basket, a visit from the Easter bunny himself on Saturday, meals in bed ordered on demand from their "room service", which had an amazingly HUGE kid friendly menu!

My first inclination when we heard spinal tumor was to hop on a plane and go to Hopkins...but I've heard wonderful things about All Childrens Hospital and so far they're all true. Their staff is specially trained to work with children and present things in a kid friendly way so that the whole experience is associated with good feelings instead of scary. We were encouraged to tell Isabella that she has a bunch of cells that decided to hang out in a place where they don't belong and yesterday the doctors went in to find out why they were there. They're doing a test to find out what kind of cells they are and then they'll take them out so she won't have any more back pain. Think it was a coincidence that Isabella's class just finished a unit on The Body?
For now, we're back to life as usual and enjoying the time with Chelsea home from California this week, which was also part of God's wonderful plan to help us out with taking care of the boys while we go back and forth to St. Pete. Chelsea and Isabella just left to go see the Hannah Montana movie and we're planning on playing hookie from school on Wednesday to have an all girl day!
Again, your thoughts and prayers are so greatly appreciated!

Isabella and her roommate, Kandis (who also got to go home today!) in their Easter outfits!

Who doesn't love a twirly skirt??