Violet Brielle Spataro

Last Wednesday, Violet had her EUA (exam under anesthesia). We had a 12:30 check in time which is a later time than we like because Violet cannot eat anything before her procedure. Then, it turned out that the surgery before hers ran late, so she was not taken back to start until just after 4pm. Poor little girl went all day without being able to eat. We were obviously not happy, but there was nothing we could do. We just did everything we could to keep her occupied and distracted as much as possible. She handled it all very well up until the last hour or so and then she was having a hard time. After her EUA we were told everything looked as good as they had expected. No new tumors and the much regressed tumor in her left eye is still on the optic nerve, but it is inactive. Both her oncologist and ophthalmologist agree that no more chemotherapy will be done after this month. Violet has her next EUA scheduled for the first week in February to monitor. The next day, my mom and I too...

In this time of Thanksgiving, our little family is thankful for many things. We are thankful to our Lord Jesus for giving us the strength to get through this most difficult time in our lives. We give thanks to Him daily for giving us the means to keep a roof over our heads and food in our home. We praise Him for the healing that has and is taking place in Violet! We are thankful for the support, love and prayers of our friends, family and kind strangers that have kept us lifted up. Josh and I try our hardest to remain positive and hopeful every day. It isn't an easy thing to do. I admit honestly that it is, in fact, very difficult at times. We work at it daily and pray about it daily. It is very important to us to provide Violet with a happy and peaceful home life amongst the chaos of her condition and treatment. So, for all of you who have given us encouragement, true support and sensitivity in our time of need we are so grateful! We are praying and keeping a hopeful heart tha...

The last 3 weeks have been a bit of a roller coaster regarding Violet's ANC. One week after Violet's 3rd round of chemotherapy her ANC dropped way down to only 100. Then, last Thursday it climbed to 1900! That was a very happy day! Yesterday it was back down to 384. (For those of you who are new to Violet's story please see this previous post  HERE  for an explanation of ANC.) We knew that even with the Neulasta injection (an injection used to lower the chance of getting an infection by increasing white blood cells in the bone marrow) her count would most likely go down before it came up, but we thought once it went up that it would stay up until the next round of chemotherapy. Unfortunately, Violet's system reacted against the norm. I do want to make sure that I mention Violet did so well in tolerating the effects of the Neulasta injection. Prayers were definitely answered! We were both amazed and very happy at how strong she was and how it seemed that her discomfo...

On Thursday my Mom and I took Violet to the hospital for her labs, doctor appointment and chemotherapy. While we were in the waiting room after her blood draw, we were approached by hospital staff wanting to know if Violet had been enrolled in the Beads of Courage  program. I let her know that I wanted to enroll Violet and that I had sent them an email but hadn't heard back yet. She then told us that they had a photographer there and they wanted to know if Violet could be in a little photo shoot receiving her first beads. The hospital wanted to use these photos of Violet for promotion of the program! I agreed and they took us to a room where they had the beads all set up, the photographer ready to go and representatives from the hospital/program. I put Violet up on the hospital bed and they began to ask me which procedures Violet had gone through so that they could give her all the beads that she had earned. She held up her bead packages for everyone in the room to see. It was so...