More relapse

After doing so well on the RIST for over 6 months, the recent scans from the beginning of February 2013 unfortunately show new tumor activity. This was difficult for us to hear as until now, the RIST protocol was showing improvement with each new scan. We have decided, together with Dr. van Noesel, to change to the chemo combination of Topotecan and Cyclophosphamide. Hannah had Topotecan 2 years ago which helped her then to go back into remission. Hopefully she will tolerate this new combination as well as the previous chemos. She has a great quality of of life, managing her energy so well that she does pretty much everything she wants to.

Hannah is still riding horses 3 times a week, and at the moment has gone to England for the weekend for her cousin's 18th birthday. Above is a photo of Hannah with her leased pony Pringle (her favorite!) She loves being at the stables and can easily spend all day there. She loves to help with the other girls that are horse crazy too.

Although she misses school regularly for hospital appointments, she is keeping up with the class well. She enjoys learning and sets very high standards for herself. Once a week she has a tutor at home to explain anything she might have missed and has help from the hospital education department during chemo weeks.

Despite all of the setbacks and treatments, Hannah remains happy and positive, and amazes everyone who knows her!

Phase 2 RIST continuing

It has been a while since our last update and we apologize for the delay! Hannah has been doing really well the past few months and is enjoying going to school and riding horses. Last week we received better than expected news about Hannah's recent scans. They showed much improvement. We really were not expecting that as Hannah has had some pain again in her arm recently. We were very pleased to hear Dr van Noesel speak of a 'partial remission' and even possibly a 'very good partial remission'. For now we will continue with the chemo every few weeks here in Rotterdam, and will have more scans in January. 

A real highlight for Hannah lately has been her leased pony 'Pringle', who she loves. She is at the stables often looking after him and rides now 3 times a week. This is not only fun for her, but it is also excellent for her general condition. She had a competition last weekend and won 1st place (riding Pringle, of course!)

We have been to England twice recently, the first time we stayed in Sam's town of Guildford, where he is attending the University of Surrey. As this is close to London, we went there with Hannah to see one of her favorite shows, Singin in the Rain. Hannah absolutely loved the show and it was great to see her enjoying herself so much. Recently we also had a weekend in London, arranged for us by the English charity 'Rays of Sunshine'. Hannah went to the TV show "Strictly Come Dancing" ("Dancing with the Stars" in the US). She had a great time there and met many of the dancers and stars. A photo of her on the set, below. Rays of Sunshine also arranged a really nice lunch for us at a top sushi restaurant and Han got to make sushi with one of the chefs, photo also below.

For now Hannah is feeling well and has lots of energy. We are also enjoying this good moment.

We hope you all have happy holidays and thank you as always for thinking of Hannah.