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November 2003
11/03/2003
 Terry and I had our meeting today with Dr. Kelly and the surgeons. It was what we expected. Hannah has to have surgery. The tumor is growing so much they are afraid if they don't hurry and get it now that it could become inoperable again. If that were to happen, without having Chemo drugs to shrink it again Hannah would be in grave danger.

They will have vascular surgeons assisting ... the main artery going to the right leg is clotted off, which means there will have to be some reattaching done. She has to have stints placed over her uretors so urology will be operating Thursday too. The urologists will do their part first.

We didn't know this until today, but the Psios muscle is where they think the tumor originated from ... which means it has to be removed. This muscle's function is to assist the hip bones in moving. They said she could live without it just fine. She would of course be weaker on her right side but would manage fine.

There is some concern that the tumor has invaded her bladder ... not in a large way, but still they may have to remove a small part of that as well.

The surgeons are also going to try and move her right ovary over as far as they can get it. They want to try and keep it out of the way of radiation. She is already been deemed infertile but to save the ovary would mean saving hormone nightmares down the road.

Of course we all know this surgery is as major as it gets. Her recooperation time in PICU will be at least 5 days and she will remain on a ventalator for 2 or 3 days.

The surgeons told us they are anticipating getting 90% to 95% of the tumor but will be giving it all they've got to get it all.

After surgery they are going to throw a mix of American and European drugs at Hannah. Because she has not responded to the European protocol at all ... and because the American protocol is much too hard on her little body, the tumor board has decided to mix them up. Sounds interesting to me.

I have to take her over to the Costas Center tomorrow so the surgeons can look at and listen to her right leg. Because her heart is enlarged she will need a cardiogram tomorrow too. Because she's had this constant sinus drainage and headaches she has to have chest and sinus x-rays. Of course she'll have a CBC screening done too. If she passes all these tests then she will go to surgery on Thursday afternoon. I do not have a time yet though. They have reserved the OR and all the surgeons have set Thursday aside ... so there's no stopping things now ... unless of course Hannah's throws a ringer in the middle of it all!

Her spirits are high ... I came home tonight and decided to make it a "fun time". I was able to convince her that this is "too cool" having this yukky thing finally taken out. I think I convinced her ... she is ready too. She's asked a few questions of mommy and daddy but has saved a few for Dr. Kelly too. After all she says, he is the doctor you know.

Her school teachers have been so kind sending her tons of packages home already! She had so much fun opening them all tonight. We are going to have to build an addition just for her gifts.

I will keep you all posted as I get more information.

I know that Hannah will be in your utmost thoughts and prayers in this coming week. Thank you all so much.

P. S. Dr. Kelly told me to let everyone know to please go to the Red Cross and request a direct donor for Hannah Keeton at Cardinal Glennon. She will only need red blood not platelets. So if your able we would appreciate that too.

Love, Cindi
11/04/2003
 Took Hannah over for all her tests today ... and it took ALL day! Her heart is enlarged but is functioning just fine ... didn't even have to see the Cardiologist. Her sinus and chest x-rays were great and we didn't have the test results from the CBC blood work when we left.

Hannah got to meet two of her surgeons today. They examined her legs for pulses and found the pulse in the right leg (where the tumor mostly is) to be weak. He pushed on her tummy until he could feel the tumor and she told him, "hey watch that, your pushing my guts around in there". I thought he would die laughing!! The surgeons have heard so many great things about Hannah from Dr. Kelly, the nurses, the Costas Center, and the administration that they were expecting this little darling who is full of spirit and love of life ... and what they seen today was Hannah telling them that they better watch it. They instantly fell in love with her. It kind of broke the ice of all these men dressed up in garb and masks and paper on their shoes. We all needed it today.

The two surgeons who are leading the team told us we would meet the urologists and vascular surgeons on Thursday, before she goes in. They certainly appeared to have it all together to me.

She won't go to school Wednesday because she has to drink this Phoso Soda stuff that will clean her bowels out ... poor baby. She can't eat anything all day tomorrow or Thursday either. Dr. Keller said she is scheduled to go in to the OR at 1:00 pm ... however, they want her there by 10:30 just in case they get an early opening. Dr. Keller said they already expect for this to be a very, very long surgery. May even go into late evening. I was glad to hear Dr. Kelly will also be in the OR observing too.

Hannah came home from school again today just loaded down with gifts ... I don't know what we're going to do with them all! Hannah said today that she will miss her friends and buddies (the buddies being the teachers) ... she probably won't be back in school for at least 6 weeks ... that's about Christmas time ... so I may just keep her home until after the first of the year.

Thank you all for all the work you've done in keeping the prayer chains going and continuing to send your daily prayers up asking God for a miracle.

Love, Cindi

11/06/2003 - Hannah received a miracle today ... God is so good!
 God was listening because our prayers were answered today! Hannah received what she's been deserving for so long ... and that was a miracle.

The surgery started about 1:30 pm with the Urologists inserting the stints into the ureters. No problem with any of that ... then the surgeons started with inserting another central line and IV line. Then they started on the tumor and it came out in pieces ... they were expecting it to come out in a large bulk but it didn't. The surgeon said probably because the chemo had affected a large portion of it. They sent the pieces down to pathology where they will slice them and see what was alive and what wasn't.

More good news ... the tumor hadn't infiltrated any vital organs!! It wasn't in her bladder, uterus, ovaries, etc. It had touched the tip of one of her ureters but that was cut out and reattached with no problem at all.

They didn't have to bi-pass the artery going down the right leg. The tumor had grown so large that it just pushed everything in the pelvis area out of it's way. There was not a blood clot in her leg when they went it. Can you believe it!

The doctors were sure the tumor originated from a back muscle called the Psios. Today they found out that wasn't the case at all ...it came from a sidewall muscle. Because this part of the pelvis is loaded with muscles they will not attempt to remove it. With further chemotherapy and radiation we should be able to get it all.

Because we don't have known chemo drugs that will work for Hannah they (Dr. Kelly) has decided to make up a Cocktail of American and European drugs and throw them all at her. He thinks with the tumor out now that the chemo drugs can work much more efficiently.

Dr. Keller, the lead surgeon, told us he planned to leave Hannah intubated for 2 days after surgery. This was to allow her to sleep and let the organs rest. She was doing so fabulous after surgery that Anesthesia decided to remove the intubation tube while she was in the OR!! She went to PICU and is breathing on her own. The 4 hours she was in surgery her vitals remained the same...perfect throughout the entire time. They had four bags of red blood ready to give her ... and she didn't really need any, but got one just to be on the safe side. She went through this surgery like it was a piece of cake. What a remarkable little girl Hannah is.

Because they made the incision from the breast to the pubic area and took out all her intestines then replaced the intestines, etc. they know that Hannah will be in much pain for the next few days. She woke up for a little bit while in PICU and before we were allowed to see her she moaned, "where's mommy" and then said, "mom and dad". Of course she went right back out ... then about an hour later her sissy woke her up talking to her ... that was a big mistake! Hannah demanded a drink of water and when her nurse told her no Hannah wanted to know why not. The nurse explained it to Hannah and she told the nurse to "fix it" because she was thirsty! So her nurse wet a little pink sponge and wiped her lips with it and out Hannah went again.

Of course we all know that all the thanks go to God ... we know he was there guiding the surgeons hands the entire time. We also know he made sure her vital signs remained perfect and that no organs were jeopardized ... and that the tumor was removed successfully! We also know is was the thousands of prayers going up that convinced him he needed to do this for her. THANK YOU all so much for helping my angel get well, for standing beside and protecting her, and for remembering what a unique precious little doll she is.

The Keeton Family
11/06/2003 - Cards and Gifts
 Hello ... it's me again. We were thinking today about what we could do about the hundreds of cards and presents she's been receiving since she became ill in May. Because she has massive amount of things at home (so much that I'm going to have to build an addition to hold it all) I was thinking that maybe in lieu of sending things to Hannah you could send cards to Hannah's doctors. Hannah is a child that always thinks of others before herself ... I think she would love that idea.

Here are their addresses if your interested:

Cardinal Glennon Children's Hospital Cardinal Glennon Children's Hospital

Doc Mike Kelly
1465 S. Grand Blvd.
St. Louis, MO 63104
This is her oncologist (cancer) doctor

Dr. Marty Keller
1465 S. Grand Blvd.
St. Louis, MO 63104
This is her lead surgeon (The BEST) and Hannah adores him!

Her favorite nurse in the whole world is
Crazy Katie
4 North
1465 S. Grand Blvd.
St. Louis, MO 63104

Her best friend and pal is
David Ish, Child Life
1465 S. Grand Blvd.
St. Louis, MO 63104

She is very close to Krazy Katie ... Hannah loves her dearly because she knows Katie loves her too ... Katie always goes the extra mile and takes the time to make Hannah know how loved she is.

She adores David Ish from Child Life. He brings her the most fantastic toys and arts and crafts to play with. Anything Hannah wants Hannah gets. He always makes the time to sit and play with her and just be her friend. They've been close since day one.

All the people here at Cardinal Glennon are fantastic though. Believe me when I tell you she knows them ALL. Even the door greeters run over to hug her when they see us come in the door. She has the hearts of the Chaplin to the head Administrator ... they are all wrapped around her finger. It's because of all the people who care for her, especially in the Costas Center (Mickey, Marsha and Rosemary) that Hannah says to me when we pull in the parking lot, "Oh mommy, I just love it here".

Of course I'm not suggesting anyone send cards to anyone. I just thought I would let you all know that Hannah has TONS of stuff ... tons of stuff at home and has her own toy box here at the hospital!!!

If you have any other suggestions I would love to hear them.

Love, Cindi
11/08/2003
 Hannah was in much pain last night ... and again tonight. They are keeping her heavily sedated with Morphine. The few minutes she does wake up she asks for water and more morphine.

Today she was very stiff ... and by this evening the nurse and I had to move her and exercise her just a little bit. Her goal was to have Hannah touching her nose with her finger. Hannah cried and cried but eventually made it. When we went to exercise her legs the big wet tears were running down her cheeks and I couldn't take it. The nurse only worked each knee, leg and foot one time and finally left her alone. She is very swollen and spikes a fever here and there, but overall Hannah is doing fantastic. I asked the surgeon today and he said at least two more days in PICU. With the amount of drugs their giving her they have to monitor her very close.

Dr. Kelly has been walking around on cloud nine...you'd think this was his daughter if you didn't know better! He takes every opportunity to come and visit Hannah ... even though Hannah warns him not to touch her!! He just smiles and tells her that she's going to be fine, that there's no stopping the spirit of such a spunky brave little girl. It's been nice that our family is enjoying this time with him and sharing in the faith that she has a chance now.

Terry stayed last night but went home tonight. I of course don't leave her. I'm doing fine though ... my place is here with her ... she needs and wants her mommy in the worst way right now. I had been down the hall using the ladies room and was just walking back in her room when I heard her nurse ask her if there was anything she could get her and Hannah teared up and said, "my mommy please". After a request like that I find the energy to go with no sleep ... and it's not hard to do at all.

We're not allowed to have cell phones in PICU so unfortunately I'm not able to take any calls. You can try calling Terry's cell phone or our house if you need to reach one of us.

I'll close by saying THANK YOU for all those prayers ... you can see with Hannah that one was finally answered! She has a very long road to go yet ... recovering from this major surgery is only one of them. She still has to face a year of Chemotherapy and radiation yet. So keep them going up please and just know that it was you that helped make this surgery the huge success it was.

Love, Cindi
11/09/2003
 Hannah continues to have lot's of pain still today. She got really really upset this afternoon and they couldn't give her anything more (she had her limit in a hour of the morphine she was allowed) and they got the surgeon real quick and he gave permission to increase the button pump to every ten minutes .... plus a syringe with a hefty dose to settle her down when she becomes so upset. It's scary, all her alarms are going off because her heart rate goes sky high as does her blood pressure. Her nurse told me today that because she had gotten so much morphine in May that she has built up a dangerous tolerance to it. The amount they have to give her at this time is as much as they'd give an adult.

By this evening though she awoke from a nap and she was all perky! She told me she loved me and wished she could give me a hug! Wow ... such a huge difference from what I've gotten from her since Thursday. Then she wanted to watch her favorite show on earth ... the Animal Planet station ... and she decided her Dad was going to watch it with her. Every time he got up to go to the bathroom or get a drink he was ordered to sit right back down! It was a stupid show about two headed animals ... yikes! But those two enjoyed it ... while I paid some bills.

Hannah's being perky lasted off and on until I put her down for the night about 12:30 am. She hates being moved or touched and now we have to do it several times a day and she just cries and cries. After making her use her breathing barometer and readjusting her position in bed, and upsetting her to no end, she finally went down for the count. All in all I'd say it was a so so day.

Her main surgeon told me this morning that we'd keep her a couple more days in PICU then send her up to 4 North as long as she continued to improve. Then his assistant came in this afternoon and told me he thought she might be moved tomorrow...so who knows.

I'll stay in touch as I can.

Love, Cindi
11/09/2003
 Hannah has just been moved out of PICU and is back on her favorite floor ... 4 North.

She is doing fantastic! Her artery IV was removed today, and she got a sponge bath from head to toe. She's using her Breathalyzer like a champ and she's moving her arms and legs now (very gently but at least she's moving them). She also helped me and the nurse roll her today while she was getting her bath!! They really want to see her get up in a chair today ... but with all she had done this morning and the move upstairs I'm not sure she will. They are still allowing her the same amounts of morphine she was getting in PICU ... thank goodness.

Her disposition is getting a little better too ... by no means am I saying she's back to her old self ... but at least now she just tells you not to touch her instead of screaming it at you.

She is in Room 420 and her address is

Cardinal Glennon Children's Hospital
Hannah Keeton, Room 420
1465 S. Grand Blvd.
St. Louis, MO 63104

Thank you so much for all you've done. My family appreciates it very much.

Love, Cindi
11/10/2003
 Hannah is just amazing ... she cried so hard when her surgeon told her this morning that she had to sit up in a chair and walk to the nurse's station and back ... and it had to be done today two times. She tried so hard to convince him that she wasn't ready yet ... that she had had enough stress for one day! A surgeon had come in earlier and removed her central line and IV artery line in her wrist. It was so painful because they were sutured in. He apologized but told her she had no choice ... she had to get out of bed. Hannah cried and cried the whole time the nurse and I worked lifting her out of bed. I knew she would want a walker from the first time she had to do this in June. Mommy was right and once she got on her feet she did fine! Then this evening when she had to do it again we told her she had to walk to the elevator and back. She just whined and cried the whole time ... it wasn't a cry that she was in pain, it was more like a "I didn't get my way" cry. She was looking down at her feet the whole time and she passed the elevators! The nurse and her dad didn't say one word, but I felt bad and told her ... she decided to walk all the way down another hall and back, past the elevators and nurse's station again, then back to bed. I was so shocked at her, when I was lifting her under her arms to set her back into the mattress, she reached out and gave me a big ole' kiss then laughed at herself through tears! We were both cracking up ... I had to give her a pillow to push on her tummy because it hurt her to laugh so hard.

She still hasn't had anything to eat or drink and I'm not sure when they are going to attempt that. They are waiting to hear those bowel sounds ... then she can loose that disgusting NG tube that goes in her tummy. After that she'll only have her monitors, stints and catheter to come out!!

She is doing great ... still in lot's of pain but coming along fantastic.

All our love,
Cindi and Hannah
11/11/2003
 What a big day this was for Hannah! The surgeons came in this morning and decided that the Foley catheter and stint could be removed! She did great ... then they decided to stop the NG tube from suctioning ... but left it flowing to gravity. She did really good with that too so late this evening the surgeons came back up and removed the NG tube! Since the catheters were removed we had to take her to the bathroom and beg her to try and pee on the potty (just like we did when she was potty training). It was so funny, the nurse and I were jumping up and down and clapping and telling her what a good girl she was! Then we thought we would take it a step further and begged her to stay on the potty and try real hard to pass gas ... when she did we were jumping for joy like two silly women! Then the other nurses came running down when they heard us and Hannah ended up having a "Hurray Party".

She started having severe side pain this afternoon and her nurse had to call surgery up to look at her ... that's how bad the pain was. They had to give her a injection of morphine and increase her drip till the pain subsided. It was finally decided that it was a gas pocket. The only way to get rid of this is to walk, walk, walk. Well she decided that walking hurt alot but gas pockets hurt much more. Bless her little heart she got right up and walked one long lap, then another! At dinner time she wanted to walk three laps, and by this evening she was feeling so good she walked eight laps! She walked them like a little speed racer too ... she was sweating and I was getting tired! She had a little fan party at the nurses's desk encouraging her to go go go!

She's a little worried about having to get up tonight to go to the bathroom but I told her we would be just fine. They took her off her antibiotics today and the only tubes she has left is her morphine and IV fluids. She gets to go on a liquid diet tomorrow and we are hoping those bowels will be awake enough for her to go big potty. After she conquers that I'm thinking we will be able to go home. We won't be there long though, Dr. Kelly wants her back her for Chemotherapy that will last another week!

She is making huge progress and amazes her doctors. They tell her they look forward to coming in every morning to see what new progress she has made. Of course we all know the reason for the healing progress is an answer to all our prayers.

Love, Cindi

11/12/2003
 Another good day for Hannah. She was up walking laps three times today. Then her good friend who has Leukemia is having a birthday party so we got busy making her a birthday card, then making another card for all her doctors and nurses to sign. They were very beautiful, she used glue and glitter on them!

Then Peggy, Director of the cancer floor brought her in a book about Farts!! We all sat there and laughed till our sides hurt reading about what makes up fart and why some are loud and some are smelly. It is just hilarious!!

Last night we were up most of the night with alot of pain in her tummy. The surgical team came up this morning to try and figure out what we could do different and they said only clear liquids today ... so she ate a Popsicle ... and they cut her morphine pump in half. It's been fine so far. It's when she has the attacks of the severe pain that we all get real worried because at that point she has to have an injection to settle the pain.

She continues to pee on the potty, pass gas and today she had a very small bowel movement ... so she is getting real close to leaving this place! I'm hoping by the weekend.

Love to you all ... Cindi
11/14/2003
 Hannah had a bad night last night (Wednesday). We were down the hall visiting with her friend Dani ... having a pajama party because it was Dani's 9th birthday ... as we were leaving her room around midnight we stopped just inside Hannah's room so we could push her pole through the door and her legs just went right out from underneath her! A couple of weeks before she was admitted for this surgery she was doing this alot ... I have spoke with both Dr. Kelly and again with her surgeon today about it. This is indeed an issue Dr. Kelly needs to address ... the surgeon said Hannah probably didn't do any damage when she fell but it didn't help anything either. Once we got past the falling down issue she went to sleep and within an hour or so she woke up screaming in pain from her incision and again she had to be sedated with an injection of morphine. Within another hour she was awake and screaming again and had to be given even more. Her nurse called the surgery resident up and he said when Hannah was cut open the surgeons used instruments to spread her abdomen apart (so they could look everywhere for the tumor) and being as pulled apart as she was that she is surely having terrible muscle spasms especially from her flank area. She rested after the second dose of morphine until this morning around 9:30 when we woke her up. She cried she was in pain and didn't want to get out of bed or drink and eat anything because she was hurting so much. Her lead surgeon came up to see Hannah just as I was bringing her back from her bath and rubbing her down with lotion (I was sure this would help her feel better). He got to see for himself how she screamed and cried and how nothing would work. He told Hannah to go to bed and rest ... no walking the halls ... no eating and drinking if she didn't want to ... nothing besides rest!

One of her new favorite volunteers came down about 30 minutes later and begged her to come to the play room and paint a picture. I said no and she threw a fit (imagine who she gets that from) so finally I told her with a pillow she could go if she promised to push her morphine button ... she agreed and went for about 30 minutes then was ready to get back in bed.

Her surgeon told me today that they really needed to get her off morphine ... and that we would be switching to .... I forget the name .... as this is a longer lasting pain medication. She got her first dose at 2:00 pm today and has done good the rest of today. She whimpers and cries still but I've finally convinced her that taking deep breaths with me will make the pain go away alot faster. This really helps her ... it calms her down ... so much of her problem is anxiety ... she HATES pain!

I spoke with Dr. Kelly again about the falling down issue and he just doesn't want to address it. I insisted that it needed to be and told him I wouldn't let her out of the house to go anywhere without finding out the problem. He says all her neurological functions are in tact and she appears to be fine! I told him that there was a time I would accept that as fair but not anymore. When Hannah was finally diagnosed in May I promised her and myself that I would never overlook a problem when I knew as her mother that it needed to be addressed. I pushed the issue and he did agree after she heals from the surgery to look into it.

On the bright side ... Hannah has been receiving the most beautiful hand colored pictures and cards from her class mates in first grade. They are the cutest cards you've ever seen! The little people that the kids have drawn show them standing next to her telling her to be brave ... that it will be ok ... and that they miss her. Then the second graders sent her more hand colored cards and this touched Hannah's heart because she doesn't know them very well ... they write to Hannah and tell her they can't wait till she gets back to school, that it's not the same there without her. One of the kids drew a little playground and sad face because Hannah wasn't out there to play with him! Today she received two more bundles of cards, some from sixth graders ... Hannah was really impressed! Of course these are much more "grown up" cards and the drawings are beautiful, really beautiful. I started crying reading some of them. Many told Hannah they loved her and was praying for her ... some told her that they were pulling for her ... many told her to hurry and get well because her cats missed her and one little boy even offered to give her a kitten when she gets home from the hospital. There were so many of them to read and Hannah was getting tired but really wanted to finish reading them .... but couldn't ...so I snapped a picture of her sleeping in bed with all these beautiful cards spread around her!

We're hoping she will try and eat and drink something tomorrow. Her attitude and spirit remain as happy and go lucky as always. She told me to send everyone her love ... and lot's from mommy too.

Love Cindi and Hannah
11/14/2003
 Hannah continues to still have pain but it does seem to be better today. Since this morning she's had diarrhea which gives her terrible cramps on top of the pain ... plus they want her to eat of top of all that, which makes it really hard to do. We're still waiting for all the tests they took to "grow" something so they know what's causing the fever. So far they've grown nothing ... and no news is good news.

If she doesn't have an infection and if we can get her pain under control then she can go home ... thank goodness!

She's been up and down the halls being her usual social butterfly ... until the diarrhea hits then the poor baby has to run back to her room crying for me to "hurry up with my pole mommy".

All in all she is really doing fantastic. Thanks again for all your prayers.

Love, Cindi and Hannah
11/15/2003
 Well we finally got to come home this evening. I'm not sure if we were supposed to or not as there was alot of miscommunication going on between surgery and oncology, but I jumped at the chance and here we are.

Hannah came home with two antibodies and one very strong pain pill. They are still waiting for the stool sample test to come back to confirm that she has either a virus or bacteria infection so they put her on antibodies just to cover her if it turns out to be what they are suspecting.

The diarrhea is much, much better ... her pain is unbelievably better and she looks like a million bucks. She tires so easily ... and fights it so hard. She got in the tub at the hospital this morning and one of her sterile strips came off, then two, then three and before I knew it half of it was off. It looks so big and intrusive for such a little girl that's only six years old. I hope for her sake it changes in time. The surgery nurse told me the incision was 16 inches long.

The surgeon came in this morning and I asked him a question that I completely forgot to ask him after he initially done the surgery ... I asked him if it was in her lymph nodes and he said NO he couldn't see any involvement at all! THANK GOD! I can't tell you how important this was to her recovery.

Hannah and I are just exhausted and we are off to bed. Want to say thank you again for all your support and prayers at this very, very difficult time.

Love, Cindi and Hannah
11/18/2003
 Hannah was doing so good Saturday and Sunday. Still in pain but it was manageable. This morning she woke up with extraordinary pain, screaming uncontrollably.

I started her on her Methadone immediately and worked with her to take deep breaths. She refused to eat or drink anything, she was in too much pain. I called and spoke with a surgery nurse that was very familiar with Hannah's case. She told me some things to try and I did all afternoon. It was no use though, by 4:00 pm she was hysterical and we left for Cardinal Glennon. We were taken immediately to the ER and eventually to CT to have a scan done. By the time 6:30 pm rolled around we finally got into the scan tunnel and she was completely uncontrollable. They started giving her 2 milligrams of morphine at 5:30 pm and by 6:30 pm she was up to 8 milligrams ... and nothing was helping her pain! We tried everything to get her to be still so we could get the CT Scan over with but she couldn't ... she kept doubling up in pain and finally got so angry that she started hitting the CT Tunnel, her nurse and the doctor! She was a total wild woman! They gave her Versed and Toroidal and finally she started to calm down enough that we could finish the tests. Cardinal Glennon brought over a radiologist from SLU and her surgeon came in and together they read the CT results. I could barely hear Dr. Keller over Hannah screaming her lungs out ... but I did hear him say that the CT Scan showed no abnormalities. She still has dressings and such inside of her to help stop the bleeding and it's always difficult to know what's going on everywhere with the dressings in place. They gave her contrast during the scan and Dr. Keller said they watched it go down the left ureter fine, but the right one seemed to drain very slowly. He told me she would probably have to have surgery in the morning to reinsert the stints. We were also sent to X-Ray to have an abdominal picture done with the contrast still going through her body. Thank goodness this x-ray showed the ureter is OPEN! Dr. Keller said it's unbelievable how much morphine she's getting and still continues to scream bloody murder! Her dosage is more that an adult would get! She goes back on the PCA morphine pump tonight. He wants to keep her comfortable until we can figure out what's going on tomorrow.

She's up and talking to her daddy right now. The Toroidal with the Morphine and Versed is working for now. She even ate a cheeseburger and fries her dad brought up for her. Yes, I am totally exhausted. I hadn't even begun to unpack from being here 10 days.

I'm hoping we will stay until Thursday when she has to be here for a week to start chemo.

Will keep you updated. Could sure use more of those prayers.

Love, Cindi and Hannah

11/18/2003
 Thank God I got Hannah to the hospital when I did! She became wild and was completely out of her mind in pain as the night wore on. Even after all the drugs she was given nothing helped her. After reading all the test results her doctors were upset they couldn't ease the pain at all. Then finally about 12:30 last night we were up on the 4th floor and she went to the bathroom and it was pure blood. Just like that the pain stopped immediately!! I went to put her back in bed and call the nurse and she didn't want to go to bed she wanted to play!! As I'm trying to find her nurse she sneaks out of the room and runs down the hall to a table where there's books and starts reading a story!

When the surgery resident was called up to look at the blood in her urine he stood there in total and complete shock. He had NO idea why the pain stopped and was as flabbergasted as we were. By this time it's 1:30 in the morning and I made Hannah come to bed with her book. She stayed up reading while I unpacked and got ready for bed myself. She asked me if I wanted to play a game after she finished reading the darn book!!

Her surgeon that done her surgery (Dr. Keller) came up early this morning and both of us were sound asleep. Finally he woke me and told me to come out to the hall where we spoke with her oncologist and nursing director. Dr. Keller said when he scraped the tip of the ureter to get the tumor off he nipped it a tiny bit and had to put a stitch in it. Remember the blood clot that was in her leg? That blood clot was traveling down trying to get out of her body and couldn't. Finally, Hannah made enough pressure that she forced the clot out her ureter and in doing this she blew out the tip of the ureter and the stitch that was holding it together. Now she has a hole in that area that has to be repaired. All the doctors said the pain from something like this is the worst pain one can ever have. He said it's worse than being in labor and it could be compared to passing a kidney stone, only ten times worse. So no wonder this child almost had a heart attack from the severity of the pain!!

The blood clot coming out is what caused the blood in her urine. Once the clot was out she felt like a new person. It makes me so sick that she had to undergo such excruciating pain ... but thank goodness it's over now.

The urologist came up to see us this morning and said they will have to place the stint back in the right ureter ... this time it will stay in for a while. This will benefit Hannah because the stint will protect that ureter during radiation.

She hasn't used the PCA pump once since the clot came out. She now has two new infections in her urine and she's being treated with antibiotics. She still has the CDIF infection in her bowels so she is on tons of medication right now.

We have to hope the stint will go back in with no trouble otherwise we will have to go back to the nafrostemy tube ... yikes!!

Love Cindi
11/18/2003
 Hannah has continued to have a good day ... she's been up and playing in the playroom, then at the nurses desk bugging them all afternoon ... finally they got arts and crafts out and they had a little party up there making marble magnets.

Hannah understands that she has to have surgery again tomorrow. Her attitude is "oh, well, we'll get it right one of these days"! She is squirming knowing that alot of her urine is draining into her belly instead of out of her body. The urologist says even though she has two infections in her urine that it could wait until tomorrow ... yikes!

Her urologist came by and said the game plan tomorrow is to insert the stint in the right ureter. He said it only took them 15 minutes last time and they had a big tumor to try and work around ... this time it should be a piece of cake. She will have to be intubated for this surgery and it should start between 12:30 and 1:00.

If this doesn't work there are other options but I'm too tired to go into them right now. I just got Hannah back from a bath and lotioned her down ... now it's my turn. We're going to try and hit the sack early tonight.

I almost forgot ... I spoke with Dr. Kelly (her oncologist) and he is going to start the chemo this Thursday despite all these new problems. He said it's imperative that we not put it off any longer. So we will be here for at least another week and two days. We'll get to go home for Thanksgiving though.

Love, Cindi and Hannah
11/19/2003 - Sad update
 As you know Hannah was brought back to ER Monday evening and was admitted for passing blood clots through her ureter. Today was supposed to be a piece of cake, walk through the park. Her GU doctor was supposed to go back in the same ureter and insert another stint. However, when he got in there and tried to insert the stint he couldn't.

Both Dr. Keller (her surgeon) and Dr. Cummings (her urologist) came out and took us to the conference room and told us that every time the stint went up through the ureter it would go out a hole (that happened when the stint was removed 5 days after surgery). They tried injecting dye up the ureter but again it went out the hole straight into her belly. Just above the hole is where the ureter became blocked. Her doctors had no idea why there was an obstruction as the first stint was just removed 8 days ago. There was no way to find out what was going on and to repair the damage without going back in. Yes, they cut her along the huge incision that was made only 13 days ago.

She was in surgery for 4 hours again and was spread wide open and her intestines removed once again. It's like we started all over from square one again.

Dr. Cummings came out and told us there was no repairing the ureter. He went on to say the obstruction was because for the past 8 days (since the stint was removed) she has been urinating straight into her belly from her right ureter ... as well as all the scar tissue and whatever else might be floating in there from backed up urine. No wonder she had two urine infections.

Dr. Cummings had to cut the blockage completely off her ureter. We were lucky that the ureter had been compromised for so long that it looked more like an artery. He cut a hole in her bladder and stretched that ureter and stitched it directly into her bladder. He called his part of the surgery a success.

Dr. Keller made the incision right over the other one, allowed Dr. Cummings to do his part, then went in and looked around and found everything was good, then closed her back up again.

No one was prepared for any of this ... especially Hannah. She is back in PICU and again we have to wait for the pain to subside and hear bowel sounds again. I just stepped out and came back to the 4th floor to change into more comfortable clothes, but before I left her she squeezed my hand real hard and told me she needed purple rain boots. I cried and laughed and told her I would buy her those purple rain boots and that I loved her ... she just mouthed the words back to me, "I love you".

Terry and I are taking this very hard. We were prepared for the first surgery but this time it's different. When we look at her we know this didn't have to happen. Of course Terry will take off again until she's out of PICU and I won't be leaving her either. Hannah doesn't really know anyone and if she acts like she did last time she won't want anyone around her until she's back on 4 North. They are really guarding her right now and won't allow anyone in but parents and grandparents.

All I can do is keep you posted through e-mail as time permits.

I know you all are aware how needed those prayers are once again.

Love, Cindi

11/21/2003
 Hannah was in so much pain last night ... it was just awful. She made me stand next to her and lay my hand on her arm all night. She was so scared and pleaded with me not to leave her, it was the least I could for all this baby has been through. She was in out out of it most of the day today. She would only wake up when she was in pain and needed her button pushed.

David from Child Life came in this morning and asked Hannah if she wanted him to go get mommy's birthday present from the play room that she had secretly been working on for the last two days before this surgery. She nodded her head yes. I told her it was ok to just rest and we would celebrate mommy's birthday on Thanksgiving ... she shook her head no and whispered happy birthday to me, then told me it wasn't David who reminded her it was my birthday, it was just that she was too tired to wake up yet to tell me herself! When David walked he told me everyone was waiting to see my response because Hannah was sssoooo excited and had worked sssooo hard on this present. Hannah told me I had to close my eyes and on the count of three I opened them and Hannah had made me the most beautiful bouquet of flowers made out of tissue paper! They were so pretty, I couldn't believe she could make anything this difficult. She told me she made these because they wouldn't wilt and I could have them forever. Took me an hour to stop crying. What a special little girl she is.

By this evening she did start to feel a little bit better. She woke up just as Terry turned the TV on and started watching a special about JFK. She was frowning and looked over at me and I told her yes, that someone had assassinated the president a long time ago. She said really loud, "Oh my GOSH! You've got to be kidding, that's just awful"! I decided she didn't need to watch the program ... it made me sick to watch him get shot in the head ... but Hannah screamed no! She is hooked and now a Kennedy fan.

It's 3:00 AM and I'm just getting upstairs to try and catch a couple hours of sleep. Down in the PICU those nurses are so LOUD, they could careless that there are very sick children trying to get some rest. They scream down the hall to the other nurse that their going for gloves does she need anything! Or they decided tonight just outside her door to talk all about their Christmas shopping ... and they talk so loud. Just as Hannah tries to dose off one would laugh real hard about something and wake her up again ... and she jerks when she's woke up like that which hurts her whole body. Yes, I did ask them to be quiet because she needed her rest ... that lasted about 5 minutes!! They are just rude and I can't wait to get up to 4 North where there are very caring, loving and respectful nurses all around us.

So far everything is going as expected. Her urine is almost clear (no blood), the stomach drain is still draining blood and her nurse tonight was a little concerned and left a note to speak with the doctor about it in the morning. All her vitals are good though. I thought she looked very pale tonight. It's just going to take time for her to recover again.

Thanks to everyone ... love, Cindi
11/22/2003
 This morning after the large felt bandage was removed from Hannah's incision (which covers the steri strips) I noticed a small lump off to the side. I also noticed her tummy was very distended. I asked for the surgeon to be paged and he came right down and agreed with me. He doesn't have an answer at this point why. The tummy drain continues to fill up quite frequently and is mostly urine. This is a bad sign. The urologist came in today and said we will give it until this weekend to stop. The surgeon and urologist talked for awhile today and it could be that the permanent fix with the ureter stitched into the bladder is still allowing urine to seep out. The urologist told the surgeon if this remedy didn't work he could always go back in and try something else. The surgeon said absolutely not ... we are loosing precious time every day that she doesn't have chemo and radiation. Her oncologist is starting to panic at this point. We can't afford another operation and another 2 week set back ... we just can't. Terry and I can't stomach the thought of that same incision being opened up again either. Imagine what Hannah thinks.

The surgeon made a statement this evening and he is very FIRM. If this lastest operation turns out not to be successful ... and he has not given up yet ... however, they are only giving her until Monday to have things working right or he wants to remove her right kidney.

Just when you think it can get no worse look out. He's right though, this tumor is extremely aggressive and therapy should have been started weeks ago. We're loosing valuable time that Hannah doesn't have. I tried not to throw up when I asked the surgeon what was involved in a kidney removal ... when he told me they would go in the same incision for the third time I almost fainted. I asked him to stop talking, I couldn't stand to hear another word.

Hannah has to start making progress this weekend. I just don't know if I can put her through another surgery. We have alot to talk about with her and alot to think about ourselves.

If ever she needed God to answer prayers it's this weekend. Please remember her.

Love, Cindi

11/23/2003
 Thank goodness we are back on our favorite floor ... 4 North! We are in Room 415 this time. They are not guarding Hannah as closely as they were a few days ago. After waking up at 4:00 AM in the morning and getting some Toradal she decided to sleep today until 1:00 PM! Then I had to make her wake up. Her nurses would try all morning to arouse her and she does this new thing now ... she'll pull the sheets up over her head and tuck them under her chin and hold tight so they can't get to her! Then she'll tell them to go away! They all know her and never take it personally. Anyway, after she finally woke up she had a little pain and set some alarms off but got settled and had a good rest of the day.

The surgeons came up with another idea today to force the urine down the foley catheter. The stomach drain was filling up so fast with urine causing us to think the patch wasn't working ... but we think that this might not be the case after all. We're hoping the reason for that was because the catheter needed to be manipulated. After doing this all day by simply raising the drain tube up and down we found the stomach tube hardly drained at all!!

She is still bleeding in both her drains quite alot and the surgeons would like to see that stop but after today I am very impressed and hopeful that she's going to be ok and not have that kidney removed. She passed gas today and said she was hungry ... more good signs. Now if I could just get her out of bed.

Tomorrow is "God's Day" so we are hoping with all the new prayer chains she was put on this weekend along with the thousands that she's already on that he will hear our prayers and grant us a miracle.

Love, Cindi

11/24/2003
 Hannah turned a corner last night. Just like that she started feeling fantastic. I was amazed when she sat up in bed by herself and was in no pain. Then she even told me she was hungry. She has hardly used the pcp pump for pain management last night and again today.

Hannah informed us she wanted out of bed this afternoon! Her nurse called the surgeon and he agreed. I had to make her walk real slow, which she did, but not only did she want to walk one lap she insisted on walking three! After that I had to make her get back in bed! She begged me to let her sit up in a chair for a while and I gave in. She was up about an hour and did just fine. Later this evening my sister came up and stayed with Hannah while Terry and I snuck out for dinner. They had a really good time together. Becky was amazed at how wide awake she was and how the smile was back in her eyes. Before Becky left for the evening Hannah decided she wanted to get up and walk another three laps! It takes me longer to unhook her from all the tubes than it does for her to finish her laps.

Not only is Hannah having bowel sounds, she's passing gas and went big potty a little bit today! She is doing so much better recovering this time around.

Then at bedtime tonight I was coming back from working in the conference room and the poor nurse looked just sick when she told me Hannah was lying in bed and moved and the catheter just came out. I thought I would have a heart attack right then and there. It was not anything Hannah done at all ... your not going to believe this, because I sure couldn't ... but the damn balloon was never inflated!! This was a MAJOR big deal because of the bladder and ureter surgery. Of course the doctor was paged and he was furious and her favorite nurse that was there the first time she had to have a foley catheter placed knew she would have to be taken back to the ER. Hannah will NOT allow this to be done to her. The first time Dr. Kelly brought in all kinds of drugs to sedate her with and after all of them she still wouldn't be still and let them. Tonight she started screaming and crying so hard and begging me to please just leave it out. By this time it's midnight and I'm exhausted ... so I asked everyone to leave the room so we could talk. I turned the lights down and played her lullaby music and told her we had to talk. Poor baby was still crying so I waited about 15 minutes then told her she had to listen and it was with that stern voice that she knows not to argue with. I just explained that because she had just had major surgery to repair her ureter and they had to cut a hole in her bladder made it impossible for us not to have the catheter replaced. I asked her in she wanted everything the surgeons done to her to come undone just like that. She thought about it and said no that she wanted to get better and come home. I told her what a big, strong and brave girl she was and she hugged me and cried and agreed to let her favorite nurse come in and do it.

It wasn't easy though, she tried to be still but at the last minute she would tense up. The ten minutes it took to get that catheter back in her seemed more like an hour. She just kept screaming and crying and looking at me and I would tell her to take deep breaths and she would scream at the top of her lungs even harder. I said a prayer to God that I would commit murder in the morning to the idiot that forgot to inflate the bulb if he didn't jump in here and do something quick! Believe it or not she finally gave up fighting and the catheter went right in ... yikes, that's pretty scary and I wouldn't recommend to anyone else to try that.

I just now got her settled down and in bed. We had to change everything on her bed and give her another bath ... she asked that mommy put lotion all over her then she went right to sleep.

Just before Hannah was getting a bath (she was still really mad) she decided to write her surgeons a little note ... here it goes: Dear Dr. Keller and Dr. Cummings this is Hannah. Tonight I went through a crisis because somebody forgot to inflate a silly balloon. It hurt really, really, really bad and I cried and screamed the whole time. I shouldn't have to go through all this pain. There is nothing anyone can do now but I told my mommy if this ever happened again we were checking out of this hospital and she agreed to it. Love, Hannah Keeton, 6 years old. Then she marched outside her room and stuck it on her door. After I got her back in bed and tucked in she called to me that maybe we shouldn't have told them we would leave the hospital because where would we go? I assured her that it was ok to be good and angry and to express our feelings but that maybe we should have put in the last sentence something like: I told my mommy if this ever happened again we would think about checking out of this hosptial ... Well then she wanted to get back up and rewrite the letter that took her an hour to write! I refused and told her it was fine, that she could just verbally explain what she meant when she talked to them tomorrow. She agreed that was fine with her then rolled back over and asked me why I thought Cardinal Glennon had been making so many mistakes at her expense lately ... I told her I didn't know that this was another question to ask her surgeon. I pity poor Dr. Keller tomorrow!

Thanks for all the emergency prayer groups that got together for Hannah this weekend ... I'm positive that's why she turned a corner instantly the way she did. The power of prayer is a wonderful thing.

They plan to check her creatin level in the morning and I'm hoping for another miracle, that it comes back under .7 and the kidney issue will be put to rest once and for all!

Love, Cindi

11/26/2003
 Hannah had nightmares again last night, which means she's up alot, which means we sleep in alot! We drug ourselves out of bed around 10:00 am and it was non stop all day! What an exciting day for Hannah.

Her Papa and Noni came up to visit her this morning and brought her this darling little statue of a Shar Pei puppy, then Daddy came up and brought her a Sponge Bob Square Pants Pillow. Then she got to finally eat something! It was only clear liquids but it was a beginning at least.

We met a new wonderful lady while in PICU last week. She was filling in for the secretary down there and she came in and met and Hannah ... and fell head over heals in love with her! What a precious woman she is, we all just love her. Her name is Diana and she has a little girl that is 5 years old and very sick with Pancreatitis. Today Diana brought in all kinds of beautiful gifts, a beautiful white angel bear, a small picture bible that looks like a comic book, magic markers and a huge coloring book.

After her company left she got to go down to the playroom (her favorite place to be) and her Grandpa Fred showed up for a visit. He always brings her quarters to see if she needs one for her state quarter collection. After Grandpa left, her new little friend from down the hall, Nathaniel, who gave her some of his balloons the other day because he heard her screaming from the catheter insertion came to the playroom and together they made arts and crafts. Her good friend Kathy who is a volunteer in the playroom brought her two breathtaking quilts! They are gorgeous! She also knitted her a hat and scarf, and it's so cute I might have to borrow them from her! Then her special friend who Hannah loves like a sister, Erin, who used to work as a volunteer in the playroom came to visit her ... they had a date to watch Finding Nemo together.

While she's being Miss Social Butterfly she gets another visitor, Vic Porcelli from 101.1 The River. She was so excited he was coming! Vic came bearing gifts too! Yesterday Tim, the producer from The River came to visit with Hannah for awhile too ... yes, he also came bearing tons of gifts! What can I say other than these are two extraordinary people ... Hannah loved visiting with them. Believe it or not we even found time this morning (because we knew Vic was coming) to make a batch of Hannah's Hunk of Wind with David from Child Life. We had a great time playing with this stuff and Vic still remembered how to make it "fart"!!

After a while Barb, from Make A Wish came in and brought Hannah a little of her Wish. Hannah decided for her make a wish that she wanted a princess bedroom. We are trying to get her new bedroom ready but we just don't have the time. We hired a contractor to build her "princess balcony" and it's outstanding! However, since this is the only room in the house that hasn't been finished it needs taken down to the studs, etc. Well Barb decided that Hannah shouldn't have to wait till all this was done (because there's no telling when it might get done) and she ordered and brought in the canopy for her new princess bed. It is absolutely beautiful!! It's pink and purple, her favorite colors, and Barb asked Dr. Kelly to write an order so Hannah could have this hang and drape above her bed every time we come to the hospital. We asked Jason to assist us in hanging it over her bed and it was really easy! Hannah is just beside herself ... she LOVES it. Barb also went out of her way and had a wish granting grandmother who sews to make Hannah a gown just like one that Cinderella wore to the ball, only in the same colors that her canopy was made of ... so they match! We hung the canopy, Hannah dressed in her gown and we snapped a picture of her and honestly she looks exactly like a princess. When Barb arrived with the gown she wanted to hurry and put it on before Vic left because she wanted him to see her in it ... of course Vic stayed and waited ... and she walked out of that room and looked up at him just waiting to hear what he had to say, the look on her face was so precious, and Vic said and did all the right things! She was out in the hallway walking and prancing around everywhere and Pat started calling the nurses in the Costas Center and before you know it we had tons of people up there, all making Hannah feel so incredibly special! Dr. O'Connor promised Hannah when she lost all the tubes he would teach her how to Waltz.

Her Aunt Dee came to visit as all the madness was going on and she's also Hannah's godmother. She spent a few hours with us and just after Dee left Hannah said, "you know what would be really cool, if Aunt Dee had a fairy godmother gown like mine and could come and have a tea party with me in my new princess room". Hannah is really, really going to enjoy this so much! Thank you Barb for helping Hannah enjoy this wish to the max!

The play room is always open in the morning and afternoon, never the evenings. Well, tonight a volunteer came in and opened it about 6:30 and Hannah was so excited! Of course she kept the gown on the rest of the day and asked if she could even sleep in it. I told her sure, why not!

Her new friend Nathaniel, and his parents came down to her room to visit and Hannah shared some of her "hunk of wind" with them and boy did we have a ball playing with it. Nathaniel was laughing so hard, so were his parents. It looked so funny to see this beautiful little princess with her gown spread all around her in bed making farting noises! Together they went to the playroom "farting" all the way down the hallway.

Just after that her sister Lisa came in and they made arts and crafts stuff together. Her little girl friend Dani came back to the hospital a couple of days ago and she brought with her a HUGE basket full of make-up. When I came back from dinner I went looking for her and there she was in Dani's room and the two of them had Dani's bed completely covered in tons of make-up and they tried on every different type of fingernail polish, lipstick, body glitter, body lotion and powder, eye shadow, you name it! I've never heard of little girls putting layer after layer after layer of make up on, but these two did and they looked adorable!

After all the make up fun was over Hannah went to see Nathaniel. She had promised him she would play Nintendo 64 with him. They got to play just for a little bit because he got a roommate. It's a good thing too because she was exhausted!!

We had to wash all the make up off her face and when she got in bed she had me tie the canopy across the front shut so the nurses couldn't get to her in the middle of the night...oh boy!

I guess it shouldn't have surprised me ... but it did upset me ... when we finally got her in bed her urine that was clear all day was turning bloody and her stomach drain that had been draining very little had almost filled the container that's attached to it.

Finally we found time to open her mail ... she usually averages about 5 cards a day, but today she had 10! There's so many cute cards and pictures from other children and Hannah just loves it when they think of her. She also got two packages in the mail too! So many of you wonderful and caring people have truly gone way out of your way letting Hannah know how much she is thought of and loved by you. I don't know how to begin to say thank you for touching her heart and putting a smile on her face.

As I was tucking her in tonight she hugged me extra hard and said, "thank you mommy for helping to make my day seem like a fairy tale day". I told her to thank all the wonderful people who say special prayers for her everyday, and the many people who remember her every day in other ways. Today she could thank her Papa, Noni, Grandpa Fred, Daddy, Sissy, Aunt Dee, Erin, Kathy and Karen (the playroom volunteers), Dani, Nathaniel, Diana, Barb, Vic, Tim and Dr. Kelly for e-mailing Tim yesterday with his wish for Hannah!

THANK YOU EVERYBODY!!!

Love, Cindi and Hannah
11/26/2003
 I know it's late but I wanted to let you know the News Media from Channel 11 came by today to interview Hannah and she will be on tonight at 9:00 pm.

I'll send an update later!

Cindi
11/27/2003
 Happy Thanksgiving!

Last night the surgeons gave the final ok for us to go home. Hannah's tummy drain was removed but she still had to come home with the foley catheter. She had a good day Wednesday ... but this afternoon she started having pain in the urethra area. I'm a little concerned but haven't paged her surgeon yet. Who knows what the night might bring though.

What a day yesterday was for Hannah! Make A Wish had brought up a canopy for over her bed as well as a matching princess gown! When Hannah was walking out of the play room Wednesday afternoon one of the PR people from Cardinal Glennon seen her and gasped! He asked me right then if we could put her on Channel 4 as a special Thanksgiving story. I asked her and she said, "ok". I got busy and called Barb from Make A Wish and told her it was very important to me that the Make A Wish Grandmother (who made the Princess Gown) be there too. Hannah and I both wanted to meet her in the worst way, we needed to tell her thank you.

Bob, from Cardinal Glennon set up a time of 2:00 pm for Channel 4 and Channel 11. And I was ecstatic that Barb and Wendy from Make A Wish could make it as well as the Grandmother!!

Hannah was scheduled to have the stomach tube removed at 1:00 pm which would require her to be heavily sedated. We were sure by 2:00 pm she would be fine for her interview. Her GU arrived at 1:45 pm and we were running late. Hannah chose not to be sedated so she could be wide awake for her interview. They gave her a large bolster of morphine and she started screaming just because they were removing the gauze! It took awhile but finally the tube was removed. By this time it's 2:00 pm and as I'm getting Hannah dressed for Channel 4 (they were first) they left! Just up and left because they didn't have time to wait around for her to get dressed! Even though this station was incredibly rude Channel 11 wasn't! They were wonderful. Hannah smiled the whole time, just like a true Princess. She was the belle of the ball! David and Megan from Child Life went back to their office and found Hannah a beautiful Silver Crown, Silver dangling earrings and see through Princess shoes. She was ready and just shocked everyone with how natural it came to her. She's Lisa's sister for sure!!

She was on Channel 11 last night at 9:00 pm and I didn't know this but they are having more of her story on tonight too. Same time as last night.

We have to go back to Glennon Monday to have the catheter removed. We have to go back Tuesday to talk to the radiation physician from SLU and a check up from her oncologist. I think we might be admitted either Wednesday or Thursday for another week to start her new chemo cocktail.

We stayed home and had dinner with just our family this year. It was very special, we needed this in the worst way. I hope all of you had a special and wonderful Thanksgiving too.

Take care and God Bless you all.

P. S. This was Hannah's "Thankful List" for this Thanksgiving.

What I'm Thankful for:

1. God is watching over me during my battle with cancer.
2. All my family.
3. Dr. Kelly and all of my nurses and doctors at Cardinal Glennon Hospital.
4. All my friends and teachers that love me at my school in Staunton.
5. David Ish, Child Life
6. The playroom and the volunteers
7. Everyone that is praying for me to get better.
8. Make A Wish for making my wish come true.
9. My new puppy Sumo Wrinkles.
10. All my mommy and daddy's friends who are praying for our whole family.
11. All my friends that are new and all my friends that are old.
12. All the nice people who send me cards and presents because they are trying to cheer me up cause cancer can be very bad sometimes.
11/29/2003
 We had such a nice Thanksgiving ... until around midnight. Poor Hannah woke up from a sound sleep screaming she had to pee pee and couldn't. I checked everything and it seemed fine. She kept crying and crying so I finally paged the GU on call. I'm glad it was the same GU resident that has been following Hannah since day one. He told me she might be a little irritated after 9 days of having a catheter, not to worry and to try and get her back to bed. She laid on the couch with me moaning and crying that she was in pain, sometimes she'd scream at the top of her lungs and other times she would just wither in pain.

She spiked a fever of 102.6 about 4:00 am and I made the decision to take her to the emergency room. I woke Terry up since I had been up all night and off the two of them went to Cardinal Glennon. I'm so glad I made the decision because Hannah has a very bad urinary tract infection. The ER doctor called in GU, Surgery and Oncology and they all agreed with this very strong antibiotic that Hannah could go back home, as long as her fever didn't spike up and she didn't get any worse. She's continued to be in pain all day today but hasn't spiked a fever over 102.

I can't wait for Monday to come so we can get that catheter out of her!

I'll keep you all updated.

Love, Cindi and Hannah