Back in Ft. Worth

Briley has a scheduled appointment for tomorrow for a spinal tap with chemo and chemo in the clinic. For those of you that have asked what the purpose of the spinal taps are, I will explain. Briley will go into the Special Procedures Area, or better known as the SPA, for her spinal tap. They will put her to sleep and then insert a big needle into her spinal cavity. They will withdraw a certain amount of spinal fluid (CSF) and then will replace the fluid they took out with the same amount of chemo. Although Briley has never had leukemia cells in her CSF (Thank God), the chemo is injected for precautionary reasons. The CSF that they take out will be placed under a microscope to determine if any leukemia cells are present. The procedure takes approx. 15 minutes. We are away from her for about 45 minutes total. The wonderful thing about Cooks is that we are able to be with her until she is put to sleep. Since she so accustomed to the procedure, she is usually kicked back watching TV when we walk into the recovery room.

After the procedure, she will go back to the clinic and get chemo (vincristine) through her port. After that, we are free to go. Her appointment is for 7:15 in the morning and we are usually out of there by 1:00 or so. The nurses will access her port, run a CBC, and we will visit with the doctor before the procedure. Lunch is usually waiting at the clinic when she is done with the procedure.

She is just as happy as can be right now. We drove to Ft. Worth tonight and got a motel room to save from leaving Seymour at 4:00 in the morning, especially since there is a chance for rain & fog. There's something about a motel room they excites her. Hopefully she will go to bed soon!

On a different note, one of the first cancer kids that we met after Briley first got diagnosed, Liam, passed away a few nights ago. He also had Leukemia. Him and Briley played together during her time in the hospital. Please take this time to say a prayer for Liam's family. They have been through enough pain already and now I can't imagine the pain & suffering they are going through. Thanks.