We have created this blog to keep our wonderful friends and family updated on Julia's treatment and progress as she battles leukemia.

On Thursday March 12th Sharon, Jeff and Julia headed to Egleston in Atlanta to have testing done for some ongoing symptoms that Julia had been experiencing over the last couple of months. Her white blood cell count was higher than normal and her iron was low. Persistent fevers had also occurred along with general tiredness and unusual lack of energy for an 8 yr old. Her doctors had long suspected something viral, but a definite diagnosis and course of treatment had been elusive. On Thursday, March 12, in response to another blood test showing low iron, her local doctors wanted to do a blood transfusion. After advising the physicians at Egleston Children's Hospital about the recent blood test and the idea of a blood transfusion, the physicians at Egleston advised Sharon and Jeff to bring Julia on to the Egleston Hospital that day. The transfusion could complicate the diagnosis.

After arriving at Egleston Thursday evening they expected to be put in a room and testing begin on Friday morning but the opposite was true. The Dr's. began blood work and various testing and continued through out the night. A couple of the Dr's. had agreed by morning that the prognosis was leukemia. This came as a bit of a shock, as you can imagine. You never expect to hear those words about your child or loved one!

They admitted Julia to a room about 4am on Friday morning and she finally was able to rest a little. Calls went out to family and friends early Friday morning. Alice Faye and Andrew (Sharon's parents) headed to Atlanta on Friday morning.

Saturday, March 14th various family and friends came to offer support. We were among those who visited Julia. She was pale and somewhat quiet but seemed good. She walked toward us with her IV pole attached. They were giving her fluids and some antibiotics. She played for several hours with her cousins and saw several visitors before she wilted.

Sunday, March 15th Julia received a blood transfusion to build up her strength before starting procedures and chemo. The blood transfusion went well.

Monday, March 16th Julia received some platelets to help build her up but she had an allergic reaction. She turned as red as a lobster. The Dr's gave her Benadryl to try and help alleviate the symptoms. After Julia was stable and the anestisiologist was satisfied that she was ok they got her ready for the bone marrow extraction and spinal tap.

Julia entered the operating room around 2:oo p.m. today and they put in a port for the chemo, they did a spinal tap to draw spinal fluid and they extracted bone marrow from her hip. We got news around 4:00p.m. that she was recovering and everything went well. One thing we learned was that the bone marrow would not be back for a week and a half to 2 weeks. The spinal fluid was clear...which the Dr. said was a good sign. The official results are not in yet but that was a comment that was made. If all goes well... the Drs. want to start the chemo tonight. We are not sure yet how many days straight she will have chemo. They had discussed 7 or 5 days of straight chemo but as of this moment we have not heard which. As we understand it....the bone marrow results will determine the treatment after the next 30 days.

Please continue to pray for Julia, Jeff and Sharon as she is just beginning this battle. She was tired and concerned about what was going on but she was doing well following the procedures today.

We will update again tomorrow! Thank you all again for the prayers and the precious gifts! The room is so full of balloons and stuffed animals, they can barely move!