From the Beginning

On August 2, after she was diagnosed, Annalynn received a Platelets transfusion and had a severe reaction. She had to be given a double dose of medicine to bring the reaction down. However, her physical appearance still had signs of an allergic reaction. Now the doctors pre-medicate her before her platelet transfusions to ensure that she won't have any more severe reactions.


8/3
12:45pm Annalynn went into surgery for Central Line inserted into her chest which is attached to the large vessel that leads directly to her heart. This way, whenever the doctors need blood they can just take it from this central line, instead of poking her with needles. Annalynn liked this idea, however, preparation for surgery was a long road. Nick, Nikki and Aunt Raquel were at the hospital with her before surgery. Annalynn was very scared. The 3 of us tried to talk about other things to get her mind off the formidable surgery ahead. It was very difficult to let the doctors take her. We knew she would be in good hands, but this was all so fast and so very alarming that we had not had a chance to wrap our heads around it. Yet, there it was. After surgery Grammie Beck was there to help keep Annalynn's mind off of what was going on. For the adults that were waiting at the hospital while she was in surgery, and for those who weren't there in person, this was very scary and difficult.

During the surgery a bone marrow test was taken and found that there was no cancer in her spinal fluid or in her brain, which was very good news because Annalynn will not need a bone marrow transplant. The doctors did discover that 96.6% of her bone marrow is/was cancer cells. One week later, when they tested her bone marrow again her percentage dropped to 1.6% of her bone marrow was/is cancer cells. So basically, Annalynn went into remission after her first round of Chemo. Remission is when you are under 5% for cancer cells in the body.