Four years ago, Greta went to the ER, where we all learned the heart wrenching news that she had cancer. After a year of chemo treatments and a stem cell transplant, we were celebrating the end of her treatments. Now, four years later, Kristi, Randy and Greta were lucky enough to be invited to the Make A Wish Ball last night, here in Grand Rapids, where they were able to honor Greta's amazing oncologist, Dr. Fahner. We are so thankful to have him as her doctor and for the great care he took in her treatments. We are so blessed!

3 Year Scans Tomorrow!

Time for scans again...

Thursday we'll be spending the day at DeVos Children's Hospital again. Greta is going in for her 6 month scans. She'll be having a CT Scan, Bone Scan, EKG and EEG, then we'll be back on Friday hopefully for results and a check up with her doctor. This scan marks her 3 year post transplant. Wow 3 years already!

Greta was 17 months old when she first started treatment and just celebrated her 5th birthday in November. She also started going to Young 5's this past fall. She absolutely loves it. She loves her teacher and has already made many friends.

Greta has an amazing joie de vie. She throws herself into everything she does. She started playing soccer this fall and when she isn't running for the ball, she is organzing team hugs. Both Greta and Gavin took swim lessons this winter and love being in the water. Greta's also enjoying her second year of ballet and this year added tap dance. We'll be adding T-Ball to the mix this Spring at her request.

She's doing great, but we're, as always, a little anxious when it comes to scan time. It seems the further and further away we get from her last treatment, the more anxiety we have over the fear of something showing up. So we're asking that you keep us in your prayers this week, prayers that Greta continues to be a healthy little girl and that our concerns are eased!

Thank you!
The Betz Family

Results are In!

Posted 17 hours ago on Carepages.com.....

Greta's doctor just called with the good news that her scans all came back normal and there is no sign of tumor or cancer activity. What a relief! We'll be back at clinic on Friday for an EKG, Echo and lab work, but otherwise we're all set for probably 6 more months!

We had a fun time yesterday checking out the new hospital. It was a lot of fun and we had so much to do that the day just flew by. I'll post some pictures of Greta at story time with a local morning show yesterday.

In more good news, we are leaving for Disney for our Make A Wish trip next month. We are all very excited to go and so thankful for MAW allowing Greta to have a wish. We'll be sure to take lots of pictures.

Thanks again for all the prayers and support!

2 Years?!?

Yesterday marks two years from when Greta was admited to the hospital to begin her chemo and stem cell rescue. In some ways it feels like a very long time ago, and others not quite long enough. Two days ago the new Helen DeVos Children's Hospital opened. It looks like its a beautiful new facility and when Gavin saw pictures of it he said it looks like a fun place to go. We're so excited that the kids and staff have such a fun place to be for treatment and to work. It looks amazing. We just hope we never have to sleep there!

We will be getting a chance to see if first hand in two week two weeks when Greta goes in for her bone and CT scans. Luckily, we will only be there for the day. This will be her first scan in 6 months, the longest span between scans yet. It's a nice break, but it's a little nice to have the reassurance more often that she is still healthy. So please keep us in your prayers that we get good results once again. This will be her first scan that whe won't have to fast for, now that we know she can handle sitting still without sedation. So we'll be able to check out the new cafeteria too.

We hope everyone had a wonderful Christmas and New Years. We had a great holiday and the kids both said it was the best one ever. We are mindful of all the families for whom this may have been a very hard Christmas and we keep them in our thoughts and prayers. We are also asking for prayers for Greta's Great Grandpa Ray who is in a lot of discomfort due to his cancer, we ask that you pray for his pain to lessen and for him to have peace.

Thank you,
The Betz Family

Happy 4th Birthday!

The below was published to CarePages.com on November 17 at 4:36pm. Kristi asked me to re-post it here, sorry that it is a little belated! - Kari

Greta turns 4 today. We can hardly believe she is already 4! We're celebrating tonight by going to the mall to ride the merry go round as she reqeusted. We're having a family party this weekend where Greta requested everyone wear princess dresses.

Greta had her regular clinic visit last week. She once again looked great and her counts were all normal. She gave a bit of a fight for her flu shot. It took two nurses, mom, one child life specialist and her doctor to get it done and a whole lot of screaming, but once it was over she quickly went back to playing and laughing agin.

While at clinic, her doctor talked about her next scan taking place in January. Which would also be her two year post transplant anniversary. It is amazing to me that its already been two years since then. What a busy two years it has been!

We'll update again in January when we're back in for scans. Until then, we wish you all a happy Thanksgiving, Christmas and New Years!

With love,

The Betz Family

Clinic Appt and Other Happenings...

Greta was back at DeVos last week for her check up and for some lab work. Everything is still looking good for Greta and the doctors are very happy with her counts. The great news now is that we are only going to the clinic every two months and her scans are every 6 months! We of course have mixed feelings about that. It was nice to have that reassurance that the cancer had not returned every 3 months so waiting for 6 months will probably make Randy and I worry a little more when she gets the next one. But it will be nice not to put her through the full day of scans as often.

Greta was also due for another vaccination while we were there and later that night she complained that her leg hurt and she woke up several times that night crying in pain. The pain continued for the next day and when we were getting her ready for bed we noticed that her leg was pretty swollen from her thigh down to her knee and when she walked she just dragged the leg behind her. We called the doctor and they reassured us that this was pretty common and could last 3-5 days. Unfortunately it made for a pretty miserable weekend for Greta.

Greta did start preschool this month and her ballet classes. She was very excited for both and much to my surprise (and very unlike her brother) she jumped right into both classes without so much as a second glance back at mom. She loves her preschool very much, but I think she would like her ballet class to happen every day!

We'd also like to request you keep another one of our DeVos friends in your prayers. Max who is 7 years old is fighting a brain tumor and just found out that the chemo and radiation treatments haven't stopped the cancer. Please pray for the miracle his family is so desperately needing.

Thanks for continuing to follow Greta's progress!
The Betz Family

Greta is Good!

We got the good news today, Greta is cancer free. The scans showed some inflammation in her chest, her doctor joked that this was an expensive test to show that Greta has a cold!

Now we're at the cottage for a week of sun, swimming and boating. The kids are very excited to have Grammy, Opa, Mom and Dad for nine days.

Thanks again for all your continued support and prayers!
The Betz Family