"There is no reason to be sad..."

I told Saskia the other day that we as parents were very proud of her in the way she keeps herself, that even in the midst of things, she never is too upset for too long. She said that there is nothing to be sad about and that it is of no use to cry about something you cannot change.

These words just blew my mind away as you expect this type of response from an adult. She is an amazingly strong little person. If more people (adults) would have more of the attitude Saskia portrays, I reckon the world would be a much better place.

The results of the tests of the previous weeks came back yesterday and we are reservetly happy with the outcome. The tumour in her neck has shrunk substantially and the left-over bits don't show any sign of active Neuroblastoma. The C2 vertebrae however still has active cancer in it. Although the cancerous area in her vertebrae has reduced, it is not gone yet. The overall good news is that there is still no sign of any cancer elsewhere in her body.
The treating team is happy with the progress and says that this outcome is as good as it can get and that the rest of the treatment will take care of her vertebrae. So I guess we have to be happy with the progress as well, even though we would have liked that there was no longer any active cancer.

On Tuesday Saskia will receive her sixth cycle of chemotherapy for which she has to stay 3 days in hospital for. After she has recovered from this, she will be operated to remove all of the left-over bits and all of the gland nodes on the left side of her neck. Thereafter she will receive another chemo treatment which targets the bone marrow, followed by a stem cell transplant and radiation.

We are still not there yet, but "there is no reason to be sad....".
Please continue to pray for Saskia and all who care for her.