Bella vs Arthritis: Week of many victories!

So much has happened since last week, I don't even know where to start. The new chemo injection is showing less side effects (so far) BUT she was exhausted the day after. I can tell that she gets tired quicker each day. The nauseous didn't seem to be an issue and nether did the headaches, so we hope it continues this way. We are planning on gradually moving her injection day to the weekend so that she doesn't miss too much school. Each week we will give it to her a day later until we reach the day we prefer. Bella and I are both confident in getting/receiving the shots that neither one of us is nervous this week....and we will show dad how to administer them this week too. We are up to 5 pills a day (sometimes another medicine if she has a side effect) and one injection a week, crazy that my 10 year old takes more pills than me. 3 of the pills help prevent side effects from chemo.
She is still in pain each day but we haven't seen any extreme swelling in over a week, which is awesome! This morning she had a rough start and was hurting, so she stayed home until she could get those joints warmed up. It gave her a chance to work on homework she missed last week during her hospital visit and recoup time after chemo. In a couple of weeks we start getting blood work drawn to make sure the chemo is not hurting her organs and to make sure her counts are track.....this will be something Bella will need to do on a regular basis.

We did get some great news last Friday; the insurance company has agreed to pay for the chemo injections(minus a co-pay) and they allotted Bella 8 more physical therapy visits. Bella's physical therapy visits are really important for her joints, it helps to reduce damage that could result in future surgeries. The insurance company isn't too keen about paying for them for some reason. We will celebrate these 2 victories...they may be small to some people, the are HUGE for us. I don't want to jinx ourselves, but I think there will be a huge insurance victory in the mail today or tomorrow.

Over the weekend we got to visit with family and attend or cousin's baby shower. It was a nice break from reality and we really enjoyed the much needed family time.

Last night Bella was presented an award through the organization she cheers for. We attended a banquet and Bella was presented a HUGE trophy called the Spirit of football/cheer award. This award is given to a player that is dealing with a disability and still toughed it out and participated. They gave Bella a wonderful speech, a standing ovation, and a gift certificate to Dick's Sporting Goods. Talk about an emotional night for mom, no one warned me that I would need tissues!

Through all of this going on with Bella, she was still able to get straight A's on her report card last week. She is truly a rock star! So proud of her!