"...I don't have cancer!", she said.

Just a regular day, I dropped her off in front of the hospital, she took Isaac up to the clinic, checked in, got her vital sign, got her chair, got her IV,  got her blood draw but today Isaac got tested too.  Both looks so happy when I got there... Isaac showing off his hospital bracelet.

Doctor came by to exam her then we chatted for a good 45 mins.  Izzy's case is now reviewed by hospitals nationally.  They are not comfortable to pick a treatment method yet until they are able to locate the EVB.  Izzy will be having a 2 hours sedation PET scan new week,  mainly is to find the EVB virus in her system.  If they find anything, a surgery will be needed to remove a piece of her tissue to find out if it's in her T-cell or B-cell.

Not too long after they started her infusion, a child specialist came by to invite Izzy to the Hyundai Hope On Wheels events because the Chair of the Cancer Clinic would love Izzy to be there to get her handprint and have it displays in the hospital.

We went.. there was a brief introduction and a Hyundai ambassador sharing his experience. After the speech, they gather these 5 kids (including Izzy) to get their prints. They used the words "cancer patients",  Iz turned to me and said,"I am not going to get the print, I DON'T have cancer, mom."

I have to say, I was a little shocked but impressed that she knows who she is. So, I told her it's not about cancer but it's to celebrate the life she has,  it's to be recognized, it's to respect and it's to appreciate what people are done to help you guys. You doing it is to tell them thank you, it's to honor their work and it's do be part of their work.  Whatever we do don't always just about us, it should be others too.

She stood up and went line up for the handprint. I am very amazed by Hyundai Hope On wheels works and how much money they donated to help the research of childhood cancer. :)

She is still fighting..

I apologize for taking me five and the half years to write another post! It's ridiculous.

Where did I left off???? Where to begin? Oh yea, Izzy is now 10 years ago.  What a blessing!

Most of you known Izzy has half a heart baby in first 5 years of her life.  During the next half of her life, she is not only a heart kid but also diagnosed with auto-immune disease, was hospitalized for weeks and weeks. Doctors were confused, she help to take the doctors to a different level of their practices.

"Your daughter is very complex." - Doctor X

"Izzy is very tricky, we need to think through the options of treatment." - Doctor Y

"I don't have the answers right now, I need to reach out to the Immunologists and the Infection Disease specialists and I will get call you as soon as I have the answers. " - Doctor Z

Those are the quotes from the Specialists for the past 5 years but I have to say, they are all very trust-worthy, very caring and very on top of their games. We have good medical team for Izzy here. The Goodmans are extremely BLESSED.

So, what's Izzy's current episode?

Izzy is currently, officially diagnosed with Chronic EVB (Epstein-Barr Virus). To simplified it, it's Mono virus.  I am sure some of us had mono virus before, it would take about 4-6 months to recover from it but for Izzy, it might last for a life time due to her auto-immune issues.  The virus lives in her B and T cell, if it's not treated or leave it in the system for too long, it would turn a monster. You know what I mean, right?

EVB was found on and off the in her peripheral over the past 4 years but it was now only found in her bone marrow, the number was high. It's messing up how her bone marrow works. She has to have Bone Marrow Biopsy every 2-3 months which also mean she will need to be sedated and as most of you know, Izzy was with half a heart. Procedures under general anesthesia is bad... just bad!!! Besides all those medical reasons, this is one of the procedure she is very nervous about.  She fought the drug every time they injects good amount of strong meds in her system.  It was hard to see her crying, screaming "No!" to unconscious. I had to tell myself that we are lucky that we have the way to detect and treat it.

I had a long chat with one of her specialist yesterday, they recommended a few options:

1) Sending her to Cincinnati Children Hospital to get treatment, this treatment is targeting T cell which UNC Hospital have no technology to do.

2) Bone Marrow Transplant.  This is where her little brother Isaac can help.  They need to do some test on Isaac to make sure that they are a match. Yay, super Hero Isaac.

3) Same old treatment we did all the time. Gave her huge dosage of Rituximab which is targeting on her B cell. Which is my less prefer treatment. We been using this method for years, did it work? if it does, she wouldn't be in this situation.

So, here is where we are. I am hoping to get a final decision once all the Specialists agreed with each other.

Whatever it is... Izzy is in good hand. She is loved and taking care by many.  :)

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Thought from the parents: Like we always say giving up is not an option, we will do anything to keep her happy and alive. :)

I promise I will stay posting regularly from now on. Thank you for reading and love to all.