Elsa Update

Let me start by saying a big "THANK YOU" to each and everyone of you who said a prayer for Elsa and her family. For those of you who are new to my blog, Elsa is a little girl from the exact same orphanage in Nanjing as Mylee. In fact, she also lives in our town along with four other Nanjing cuties (there are a total of six right here). Anyway, we all get together twice a month, once with the kids and once with just the moms. We have so much fun and look forward to our times together.

Back in August we were all brought to our knees when we found out that Elsa had cancer. She immediately started chemo, became very sick, lost her hair, and spent countless hours in and out of the hospital. As a mother I cannot even begin to imagine the emotions Susan and he rest of the family must have been going through. My heart literally ached for them. Since August we have not seen Elsa (actually I was able to visit with her briefly during one of her chemo treatments), and we have only seen Susan a couple of times. We miss them terribly. Elsa is such a sweet little girl and her mom Susan is an amazing woman who I admire and am so blessed to call her my friend.

Elsa had a scan done just before Christmas. The result; two of the three tumors were completely gone and the one that was left was the size of a marble. Elsa's doctors sent her home for the holidays and scheduled another scan for January. That scan, THE scan was yesterday. I know along with myself other Nanjing moms were on pins and needles all day so I cannot imagine how Susan and the rest of Elsa's family felt. As of late last night we still had heard nothing other than the scan was done and Elsa did not have to be sedated.

Fast forward to this afternoon and I still had heard nothing. I ended up calling one of the other moms regarding another matter and she told me she had just gotten off the phone with Susan with GOOD NEWS!! Well, good news with a bit of a hiccup. The scan still showed the tumor, but the good news is that it has not grown or changed at all. Why is this good news? Because the tumor hasn't grown or changed that means it is not active and could just be calcified tissue. As of now Elsa has has once again been sent home to live her life like a normal child. She will go back for another scan in May and if the results are the same Elsa will be officially in remission.

This is such GREAT news and I am so happy for Elsa and her family. I am also happy for our Nanjing group because this means Elsa will be able to start coming back to our play groups and we will be seeing more of Elsa and Susan.