Happy Thanksgiving!

We come to you today happy to be giving thanks!

Elena had a clinic visit yesterday morning; one in which we were fully expecting to be an all day affair. We just knew that with her platelet counts being so low the week before that she would be needing a transfusion. To our complete surprise and gratitude, Elena's platelet and red blood counts have held steady. Praise God! She received a chemo push through her port and was good to go. It was so nice to have a fast and easy visit after such a hard week last week! This was the last treatment of the DI phase for this round and Elena's next phase is count dependent with a tentative date of Nov. 30th, provided her counts are where they need to be to start. While her counts were above transfusion levels, they were still well below the 750 ANC and 75,000 platelets needed to start Interim Maintenance. Her ANC has actually dropped to 0, the lowest it has been, which means Elena basically has no white blood cells in her body to fight off infection. With that being said, we are taking precautions to keep Elena's risk of exposure to any disease at a minimum for the immediate future. Please pray for rapid improvement in Elena's counts and for a germ free environment in the interim.

We are so thankful that this time of isolation comes at such a welcomed date with school out for the Thanksgiving holidays! We plan to use this down time to rest and recover as we reflect on all of our many blessings, of which all of you are a part! We thank you for all you do and give thanks for your presence in our lives. Our God is an Awesome God, and we give Him all of the glory and the honor and the praise for He is Good!!

In His Holy Name,
The Tates

"Thanks be to God! He gives us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ." 1 Corinthians 15:57