It will take until December 2015 for Millie to be declared, in effect, "cured"- and there is always a real risk for leukemia to develop as a side-effect of the chemo drugs she was given. Millie has scans in about a month, on September 11. We have no reason to expect them to be anything but clear, but will report here the results.
I have heard from other moms that Millie is opening up to her friends and schoolmates about her experiences with cancer, doctors, and hospitalizations. I hope that her willingness to talk allows her a way to examine her feelings and understand this medical history in a way that she can make sense of it all. Perhaps she'll become comfortable enough, and even interested enough, to help other kids who are going through what she has experienced. I've brought up the idea of visiting the 10th floor of Kaiser Foundation Hospital- where she spent so much time and knew so many amazing nurses- but she isn't quite ready to return.
We haven't been to our physical therapist in many months- as we were told that the peroneal nerve that was damaged by the tumor-removing surgery had to heal on its own. The repair process is unbelievably slow, but we are seeing improvement. Millie can now lift her four little toes on her right foot, and is able to lift the foot to a near horizontal plane. The big toe still hangs, making it difficult for her to get into certain shoes. The overall inability to flex her foot still causes her to over-compensate while walking and running. March of 2013 will mark the three-year mark from the surgery, and we've been told this nerve can take three years to repair. As I've said before, if all we have to worry about is a dropfoot, we'll take it over cancer any day!
