A Week's Update from Suanne

It's been a whirlwind week. It's been wonderful to have Elise home with her family. Elise and I spent last week and yesterday going to and from the UW Medical Center to finish up her 30 sessions of radiation therapy (horray!) and making sure her anti-coagulate blood levels were stable. It made for several very long days for Elise in the wheelchair ... which she handled like a champ. Then this weekend, Elise, Echo and I, along with their sons, went to the Tulip Festival in Skagit Valley ... it was so beautiful with all of the blooms and a huge flock of snow geese. The kids had a good time with all of the farm animals. It was the first fun trip in our wheelchair accessible van ... and it performed like a charm! Then, on Sunday, we had a small family birthday party for Elise at their apartment. It was fun as the girls chit chatted in the dinning room, the guys played Wii bowling in the living room, and the kids were having fun playing with the 60+
party baloons in the hallway. Cameron did a great job decorating. Last night and today, Jasper is staying with me and hubby (Grampa John) so Elise and Cameron could have some alone time together.

When Elise met with her radiation oncologist yesterday, he was very pleased with her progress ... she has more energy than expected and, based on her returning abilities, the tumor appears to be shrinking. The next big medical decisions for Elise will happen in about four weeks when she'll have her next MRI and possibly begin chemo and/or the gamma knife (stereotactic radiation). Right now, it's just nice to look forward to a bit of down time from the hospital.

Suanne (Elise's Mom)