Today is going to be quiet before our busy week ahead. Mat took Anya to school this morning. She missed the whole last week already and will miss the rest of this week, so we thought it would be good for her to see her friends, her teachers and be in the classroom for a change.

     The schedule of this week: Tuesday we arrive at Childrens at 9am for the injection to be ready for bone scan, 10am meeting with our wonderful Dr. McAllister who will walk us through the plan of our journey, 12:30 bone scan, 2pm CT scan

      Wednesday 9am at Childrens again to be prepared for 11:10 procedure to have a life line(pic line) put in and a bone marrow sample taken. Then Anya will be admitted to the 7th floor Childrens Oncology, probably for 3-5 days where she will start her first round of chemo.

       I want to thank all our friends for your prayers and support as we are starting this battle. We are SO blessed to have amazing group of doctors who care so much and do everything to help Anya and our whole family! Some of you have asked how you can help or where you can send funds to help Anya. We will have a donation button established soon to an account where those funds can be kept. Thank you for all of your support and prayers as we go through this journey with her.

Mat and Zhenya

      Our sweet Anya approached us, her parents, in early April 2012 complaining of stomach pain and a pain in her side. She asked for some medicine to help her tummy ache. She never displayed a temperature or anything more than simple aches and pains of a growing nine year old child.

     After a few more nights of complaints though, Anya asked to see the family doctor. We took her to the Doctors office the next morning. When we got there we discovered that she needed an x-ray to determine what was bothering her left side. When the X-ray came back we looked at it together and there was a strange shape to her left hip bone. The Doctor ordered an MRI to be done at Children's Hospital in St. Paul. Anya and her Dad went to the hospital. She did great in the MRI tube, but her nerves were getting to her as she reached the half way point. Anya asked that her Dad sit in the room and hold her hand while she finished the test. It was a really special moment for Dad.

      Dad received a call from the doctor's office during Anya's half-way-point break. The Doctor said that there was some sort of abnormality on the scans and that she wanted to meet with Mom and Dad the following day. When we went to the office the next morning the Doctor confirmed that Anya has a tumor 4cm X 5cm X 5cm in her left hip and that it was probably cancer. Our worst nightmare was confirmed. The Doctor said that most likely it is Ewing's sarcoma, but further testing would need to be done to absolutely confirm the results. She stated that our Oncology team from Anya's little brother Evan, was already alerted and working on the problem. Our family is dealing with a second case of cancer in less than two years. Thankfully though we have teams of wonderful doctors and surgeons working on this difficult situation.