Playing "Stump the Doc"

September 7, 2004

No news yet. The waiting is excruciating.

September 4, 2004

Again, no definitive news, but as you can see from the latest email from Erin's doctor the pathology is looking more positive than they originally thought:

They [the pathology department] have still not signed it out. When I spoke with her [the pathologist] yesterday [Thursday] afternoon, she [the pathologist] was very positive about the pathology (i.e. not looking bad at all). They wanted to do one more thing that was either going to be finished today [Friday] or next Tuesday (depended on if it worked the first time or if they must repeat). So sit back and relax over the weekend. I already called off Dr Nuchtern from taking Erin back to the OR anytime really soon to remove anymore because I'm not convinced we will need to do that.

Talk to you on Tuesday.
HVR

Anyway, I plan to take Dr. Russell's advice and enjoy the weekend. Erin feels well. She is downstairs playing trains and singing songs as she composes them.

September 2, 2004

For those of you on the Erin Watch, I have no definitive news. This afternoon I received an email from Erin's oncologist in response to my question--"Are we still winning at "stump-the-doc"?. I will quote her e-mail in its entirety:

There is alot of discussion and perplexity...this is actually good news.
The biopsy Jed [i.e., the surgeon] took this week doesn't have alot of cells - she
[i.e., the pathologist] used the words "burned out appearance".  Although this
is preliminary, it is better than "aggressive appearing" or "alot of bad looking cells".

Hopefully something tomorrow.

How is Erin?
HVR

So, that leaves us waiting at least another day. I want you all to rest easy tonight. That's what we are going to try to do. Erin has had an awesome week at school this week. She is adjusting and making new friends among her classmates. She is reading and doing math like a champ.

Of course, I will post when I know something.

August 31, 2004

No news yet. Dr. Russell dropped me an e-mail this afternoon and said that because of the kind of tests that pathology was running not to expect any news until Thursday. Erin is back at full speed today. She stayed all day at school and went to an hour and a half dance lesson after school.