Kennedy is doing very well and recovering from her surgery yesterday. She is having very little pain and has not even required Tylenol to manage it. The only time she is hurting is when it gets touched which we are being careful not to do. She is having a small amount of pain from her bone marrow aspiration and lumbar puncture but nowhere near the problems we have had in the past. Her surgeon, Dr. Salin, said everything went well with no complications. Dr. Olson, the oncologist, agreed that things were looking good and expects her to begin the consolidation phase next week (of course, it will depend on whether MRD is found but she does not expect that it will). I know that all of your prayers have made the difference in her remission and surgery. Thank you everyone for keeping Kennedy in your thoughts.

She is nervous about how her port will be accessed now that her straw is gone but she is looking forward to playing in the pool and taking a long bath. I told her that I will be putting special numbing cream on before we go and that although they will use a needle, it won’t be “pokey” it will just feel like they are pressing on it. The first month it will be tender but it gets better after that. I was surprised at how big the bump was. I thought it would be like a mosquito bite but it is more like the size of a silver dollar. Of course it is swollen but still not visible under her clothes. This will be nice when she does go to school. One of her biggest concerns is that she will not look like other kids.

As I was about to update this journal, Kennedy’s new hair arrived. She was so excited! It was just like Christmas! She tried it on and could wear it with the hair she has left (because it is thin). It’s longer than we thought it would be (down to the middle of her back) and she loves it 🙂 It is almost identical to the shade of hair she has so that was fun. She just can’t get over how long it is. She just told me that when her hair grows back she wants it to be long.

Thank you again for all of your prayers and heartfelt wishes. We love you all and hope to see you soon.

Mel