“The steadfast love of the LORD never ceases;
his mercies never come to an end;
they are new every morning;
great is your faithfulness.
‘The Lord is my portion,’ says my soul,
‘therefore I will hope in him.’”
– Lamentations 3:22-24

It has been a difficult week. This week Esther’s medical treatment for the neuroblastoma in her neck began in earnest.

Monday was a quiet day of making peanut butter sandwiches and doing the dishes with Karen and an evening spent playing and having dinner with a young friend.

But on Tuesday Esther’s medical team began the very difficult process of beginning her healing.

Esther is the height of a normal five-year-old, but she weighs only 32 pounds. The massive tumor on her neck intrudes into her airway. The anesthesiology team at BJC Children’s  was concerned that she would not survive the anesthetic if surgery was attempted to remove or reduce her tumor.

Chemotherapy and radiation therapy are the other two treatment options open to her medical team . In order to facilitate chemotherapy a  peripherally inserted central catheter (PICC or PIC line) needed to be inserted. On Tuesday, Esther’s PICC was inserted in a vein in her arm, then threaded through increasingly larger veins, toward the heart.

The same concerns about her reaction to anesthetics made it necessary to perform the PICC insertion procedure without sedating Esther. There was some difficulty making the insertion, but Esther was very brave, as she has been through all of her medical procedures.

On Wednesday Esther’s chemotherapy began. Her medical team decided to admit her to Children’s because of concern that the chemo would cause swelling and block her airway.