Another Step in the Journey - April 28

Hi everybody -

Yesterday Mom took me to Edward Hospital for another MRI. This one lasted 3 hours but I was asleep. When it was over we went out for lunch. I was pretty sick to my stomach so we went back home and I went to sleep.

Note from Brianna's Parents:

Children's Memorial read the scan today around midday and called shortly thereafter to give the results. The MRI confirmed what we were pretty sure was occurring. We found that her pain along the spine was due to the cancer spreading to the spine. To say that this news was a surprise would not be accurate because Brianna was telling us of her backache pain that was primarily along the spine.
Brianna will be temporarily stopping the Avastin/CPT-11 treatments and instead be starting about a 4 - 6 week radation treatment plan that will be focused on the spine. We will be monitoring her pain level and giving her the appropriate dosage as directed by the doctors. We are going to be figuring out where in the next couple days. Hopefully we can find a facility closer to home that she can take the radiation treatments as opposed to driving 1 1/2 hours each way to Northwestern Memorial Hospital where she could get radiation treatments if we wanted to.
This weekend Brianna will have her Grandma and Grandpa Sharp and her Aunt Faith and Aunt Julie come into town to visit this weekend. Also her Aunt Lisa and cousin Braeden and Hailee will be flying in town Thursday night and staying the weekend to visit with her as well.
We appreciate all the thoughts and prayers for Brianna as those are what help sustain us through each day. We appreciate all that everyone has done for us as a family and will continue to do for us as a family. It can be hard to stay focused at times but everytime we see Brianna still having good days where she is her cheerful, bubbly smiley self we are reminded that we have the strongest daughter in the world. She has been an inspiration to us as her parents and we are thankful that we are lucky enough to be her parents. She is truly amazing.
Please keep Brianna, Max, Kole, Alexis, Andrew, Caleb and all the children that are the warriors that fight the monster that is pediatric brain cancer every day. We are in awe of all of those children!
Thank you again for stopping in to check in on Brianna !!!
With hope and gratitude,
Matthew, Jennifer, Brianna and the rest of the family!