Good, But Puzzling

8/13/04

3650 miles later, we returned to Bryan, Texas, having seen much of the southwest. More about the trip later. I want to fill you in on Erin's scan week.

Both the bone scan and the MiBG scan were normal this round. That means that the spot of Erin's liver that appeared on the MiBG in both May and June has disappeared! She also had a hearing test and a test that measured how well her lungs worked. Both of these tests went very well. She had good lung power and only had hearing damage at the very highest range of the spectrum. This means she might not be able to hear butterflies or small birds whispering. She can definitely hear secrets spoken by parents from across the house--behind closed doors, no less!

While all this is good news there was a small piece of the puzzle we haven't figured out yet. Erin's CT scan showed a bone abnormality on/between(?) the 4 and 5 vertebrae. Her doctor is going to biopsy it on Monday. It could be a bone infection, some sort of back trauma, or something else. Since this doesn't show up on either of the other scans, we are reasonably confident that it isn't relapse--just something there that shouldn't be there.

I will post these results, along with the bone marrow aspiration and biopsy which they will also do Monday, when I have them. I will also tell you about our trip and post some new pics.

Thanks for checking in.