Our Amazing Connie

Back at the beginning of May, Connie and Brenda, one of her nannies, headed off to the hospital to begin Connie's radiation treatment.  She's already had chemotherapy, following the removal of a tumor (read her Amazing Story if you haven't already, it's truly amazing), and we're hoping that this is one of the final steps in her journey to recovery.

Under normal circumstances, radiation treatment can be done as a day-patient, but it's such a long round-trip to the hospital in the city that it was decided it would be better for Connie to be admitted.  Here she is in her hospital room:

Connie (and Brenda) did SO well enduring her month of radiation treatments.  Initially they tried sedating her so that she would lie still, but found that once they lay her down for the treatment, she would wake up.  Brenda helped Connie to practice laying super-still and they tried the treatment with her awake, with Brenda talking to her over the intercom.  We have a video of it; little Connie lying completely still in the big machine, and Brenda's quiet, soothing voice reassuring her the whole time.

A month later, Connie came home!  We were so glad to see her, and she was pretty glad to be back.

Yes, it's a different nanny; they switched part-way through the time because it's such a long time for a nanny to be away from her own family (you can read a blog post all about our nannies in the hospital here).

And what's next for brave Connie?  Her most recent test results look really good; the doctors just want to run a couple more tests, and then, hopefully, she will be all done with treatment.  From 'no hope' to 'all-clear'...that'll really be something to celebrate!