Cutie!!!

Birthday Stash!! Oh my goodness! Clowning Around ! Eating Crab Legs Again!!!! Horse Carriage Ride in Central Park!

Things are going well in New York City!

Hello, Avery had her first MRI without sedation today at 5:00pm. She continues to amaze me! She did so Awesome laying still for 45 minutes. WOW! Today was the spine and Monday will be the brain. They want a baseline before the I3F8 treatment starts. I am so proud of her for getting through this without sedation. It is so hard on her to have the breathing tube down her throat. She said it was hard to lay in the tube so still for so long but was better than having the tube. Yeah! We had a very special visitor today. Rich from team brAvery Philadelphia! He is in town for a meeting and could not miss this opportunity to meet Avery. Avery thought he was soooo nice! Rich and his son Anderson will be coming out for Avery's benefit in May. Avery is excited to show Anderson around the barn. Thank You Rich for visiting us today!! Tonight Lily and Tom stopped by the new TSC in Prescott. He took photos of the baby bunny's and emailed them to us. Guess who could not stop talking about bunny's? " Well Mom... which one do you think I should get the black and white one or the orange one?" I think someone thinks she is getting another bunny. Avery loves animals just like her Mom. Avery would like to say Thank You to everyone for the cards. She asked to go check the mail only 6 times today! She feels very important when she gets mail. Thank you to Grandma and Grandpa G and Uncle Pogie and Auntie Judy for the presents. Tomorrow Avery would like to do some shopping. Weather permitting. I'd rather internet shop! Also on Saturday mornings they have breakfast for the kids. Tonight they had a beach party. We only lasted for a slice of pizza then it was time for bed. Speaking of bed I think it's time for me to hit the hay! Thank you all for the wonderful support you continue to give us. Please keep Avery in your daily prayers. Please pray these MRI's are clean and she is still disease free. Please pray for her strength to get through the tests and treatments. We appreciate every prayer said for Avery and love to hear your words of encouragement. Positive thoughts and prayers! Love, Team brAvery

Surgery Tomorrow...Please Pray For Avery!

Hello, First, I would like you to know, a sweet girl we got to know from Mayo needs our prayers. Please pray for Danielle. They have found a spot on her lung and are doing a biopsy to see if it is cancer. You can give her support at carepages.com enter HopeforDanielle. Our first appointment with the surgery team went great. The neurosurgeon Dr. Souweidane was wonderful. Very kind and Avery liked him too. We have an early morning tomorrow. Avery will have an MRI of her brain before surgery at 6:30am. This will be her first without sedation. This MRI will help the doctor with the placement of the ommaya. Surgery is scheduled for 9:00. Please pray everything goes great. She will then spend the day/night at New York Presbyterian Hospital in the ICU. Avery is not excited about this overnight. You see here in New York space is limited. In the ICU you share the space with two other patients and only one parent can spend the night. I'm guessing it will be me. We are spoiled in Minnesota. After the surgery appointment we had counts checked at MSKCC. This place was a Zoo today. It was nearly a cattle call. I could not believe how many patients. Cancer Sucks! I was not pleased with the technique of the nurse drawing Avery's blood. I had to ask her to scrub for longer than a second. She was in such a hurry. I hate rushy people, they make me nervous. Avery's Hickman would not draw blood (as usual) so we really had to pull and maneuver Avery. Finally she got all the blood they needed for her labs. No platelets she was at 112,000. We waited another hour to see the nurse practitioner. She was great, very funny. Avery started the medicine to protect her thyroid today. We found out we may actually be here for three weeks. If anyone wants to come out and help me let me know. Avery had fun tonight at the House. We met a few new family's and Avery did several crafts. A group of men from a local restaurant brought food for the guests. It was very good. For desert they had cheese cake and chocolate moose cake. Yummy! If you feel charitable the Ronald McDonnald House is an excellent charity. We could not do this without being able to stay here. The nearest hotel is $300 a night and here it is only $35 plus you get a community feel. Everyone here is going through similar struggles as you. Please, Please, Please say a prayer for Avery. Please pray surgery will go great and that Avery recoverys quickly with no complications. As always Thank You for walking side by side with us through this journey, sharing in the joy's and the sorrows. We could never get through this without the support of our family and friends. Thank you for the positive thoughts and prayers. God Bless and Good Night! Team brAvery