How It All Began

A synopsis of the last weeks events written by Mom.

Greetings All (in more ways than one as you will see), I wanted to provide some details of how this whole thing started and update our dear friends and family. Brianne has been living and working in our old home place, Sylva, NC for the past year. She began attending my Alma mater Western Carolina University in the Fall of 06. Beez hit a bump in her academic road, put school aside for the time being and began working full time for Wal-Mart in December where she is now a customer service manager. In the meantime she has been developing new relationships and deepening old ones with some church family/friends. Faithful as always, God placed some beautiful people in her life to show His unfailing love for her.

The past 10 months have been an incredible journey for her of grace, faith, love, truth, anger, pain, struggle, acceptance, joy, more love, and more grace. I am beginning to see how God was not only healing but strengthening and (unbenownst to us) preparing her foundationally for a new experience in Faith and Trust. This new path will be filled with a wide range of experiences, emotions and physical changes.

On Sunday September 9th Brianne experienced very sharp pains in her abdomen. They were so severe that a trip to the ER was needed. The ER doctor ran the usual labs, gave her pain medicine and ruled out appendicitis. She was told her platelets were very low and she needed to follow up with her family doctor that week. The next day Brianne was driving down to Macon Georgia as the pain continued. She saw her doctor on Tuesday morning and they performed an ultrasound which revealed and enlarged spleen and she was sent to the hospital for a CT scan. Beez came home and awaited results from the doctor. The call came saying her spleen was very enlarged and her platelet count had dropped critically low. She had to be admitted immediately for a transfusion and further testing. Tuesday evening Beez was in the hospital for what the doctor thought was a very severe case of mono. On Wednesday, the results were negative for mono and other disorders so the next plan was to test for Leukemia. Needless to say we were all shocked to hear of the possibility of Leukemia and we focused our thoughts and prayers on staying positive until we knew for sure. Brianne had a bone marrow biopsy in which they were not able to aspirate any fluid and that was not a good sign. Late Friday afternoon the oncologist told us that my Beez had Leukemia. We did not yet know the type but were told that she needed to be transferred right away to a specialized cancer treatment center. We chose Emory and thankfully Emory had a bed and a physician to accept her right away. She was transferred late that night and that's where she is now.

It has been a real whirlwind of events and quite a shocking discovery for us all. On Saturday, the doctor told us that another bone marrow biopsy needed to be done to determine the type. They knew it was acute and not chronic but whether it was ALL or AML had yet to be determined. They explained that she displayed markers for both. So again we waited and hoped for the best. On Tuesday afternoon we were given a definitive diagnosis of acute lymphoblastic leukemia, ALL. So now, let the treatment begin. We have gathered information, asked numerous questions and searched out the search engines to find all that we can about ALL. There are links attached to this site for additional information. Some very positive things can be said for the treatment and recovery rate of people diagnosed with ALL. Brianne will be getting a very aggressive treatment regime. Once again, and much to Brianne's dismay, even though she is an adult, she will be treated as a child. The pediatric treatment plan is the best and most successful course of action to take. We are very pleased with the medical staff here and specifically her doctors.

Brianne and the rest of us will be posting information from time to time to keep everyone updated on her progress and plan of care. There are few things I need to mention about visitation and such. She cannot receive flowers or fresh fruit/vegetables. No visitors under the age of six and no perfumes or strong colonges on her visitors. This is due to immuno risks and nausea/vomitting related to strong smells. More information will be provided later regarding details of treatment but she will be in-patient here at Emory for a minimum of three weeks.



The number to call at her bedside is 404-712-3615. Her mailing address is Brianne Tsavatewa room 615E c/o Emory Hospital 1364 Clifton Rd. NE Atlanta, Ga 30322.



Thank You for all your love, prayers and support. We are very blessed that you are a part of our lives.