Update from reports

Cass awoke a couple of times in the middle of the night due to the pain from the side effects of her medication and treatment. We took her back to SickKids Emergency this morning. Since the side effect was one of those expected beforehand, by the medical team, they were able to quickly set up the necessary medication and treatment to subdue it. Cass felt better again afterward. The palliative group at the hospital had arranged for us to move to Emily House this afternoon. They wanted us to see if it was a better place for Cass. We can leave the place if we don't feel comfortable staying there. This was set up mainly in Cass’ interest as she was barely able to move around by herself due to the recent sharp pain she has at her back.

While the medical team was helping Cass to relieve her from the side effects, the palliative team and the oncologist came in to explain to us about the report from the latest CT scan that Cass took yesterday. It was performed when she told the doctor she had difficulty in swallowing food and even drinking water. From the report, the oncologist stated that the tumours at Cass’ T5 area had indeed increased in size, that some obvious changes were also captured from those small tumours originally found elsewhere along her spinal cord, and that more tiny little ones were noticed in both her lungs. It was devastating to us to hear this news. Cass is still struggling with the sharp pain she has in her leg, in her arms and at her back. We still don’t have a good grip on how to subside these pains, yet now we have to face new and more severe problems. The doctors did not want to say how soon the situation would become out of control, could be weeks or could be months. Cass did not want to lose the battle so soon. She just asked the oncologist if she could be treated with another round of radiation. However, the doctor clearly indicated that it would be very unlikely that radiation could be applied to the lungs. At that point, Cass broke into tears and said that she would like to do a lot of things that she had not accomplished yet, going back to the pool, going back to school and going to university..... We could hardly say anything to comfort Cass but just embraced each other and cried! I held my emotions and comforted her that if she were really to leave mama and papa first, then we would just like her to stay happily in Heaven to wait for us. She could do more than she wanted to do there. We will only be parted temporarily, and will eventually meet again very soon.