Brinley made counts this week with flying colors, ANC was 2700 yesterday!! Woah! So we went in today to get her chemo, she got the methotrexate and vincristine. It took a while, of course, we were there for over two hours again, first they had to give an IV medicine that helps with nausea, then they gave the other two. We saw her usual doctor finally, after well over a month, then we saw an oncologist we hadn't seen before. He was quite the chatter box. We talked a for a long time about her walking, he explained a lot of the things they look for to be concerned about. She's walking pretty funny still and falls a lot, so we are just watching her for now. He feels like if she's happy and functioning okay, and it's not affecting her life too much, which is true, we shouldn't worry too much about it for now, just keep an eye on it. I kept asking questions because I was enjoying his willingness to take time to explain things to me that I had been wondering about, but I think David was shooting daggers at me with every new question, because it would be a 5 minute explanation for each one. Poor David...lol. But I was learning a lot because he wasn't afraid to tell it to us straight. I asked about relapse, for example, and how common it is, and he was very straightforward, instead of reassuring us that she would be fine, he was honest and upfront. It was nice.
She had lost a little weight since last time, so we met with the dietician about her eating. She advised us to switch her back to whole milk (we recently switched Jade and Brinley to 2%), hopefully that will help. Jade could use the fat on her body too! I don't like hearing she has lost weight, but it wasn't a ton, so I won't get too overworked about it. Chemo does that kind of stuff.
Next week she will go to the orthopedic specialist to see if her bones that were fractured are healing okay and not affecting her growth. They can help us decide if we should con tine physical therapy or not. If her walking issues are just a side effect of the chemo, then there isn't much physical therapy can do for it, we just have to let the medicine wear off. She has two more doses in this phase of treatment, then we move on to Delayed Intensification in January if she doesn't have any setbacks. Next visit she will have a lumbar puncture and get chemo in her spine. It's funny, I always feel fine while we're at clinic, but feel sad afterwards, I guess I do a lot of thinking and it gets me down a bit. I hate putting all this poison into her body. I feel so helpless to it all. Sigh. To make things just a little worse I got a ticket on the way home :(
A daytime trip to Gardner's Village
I hope everyone had a great Thanksgiving. We sure did! We were able to avoid the hospital by the skin of our teeth, Brinley ran a 100 fever Thanksgiving and the next day, but never got above the 100.4 that would have her admitted. David reminded me that she always seems to get a fever after the vincristine, so I'm pretty sure that's what it was. So we got to be with our family, and ate and ate and ate. We played games that night and had tons of fun. The next day was more of the same, we just hung out with family, watched the fever, and went nuts with the hand sanitizer. Yesterday was good, we couldn't take her to church because of her ANC, so we switched off classes, I had to teach Sunday school, so David came home after Sacrament Mtg and I went to the rest. The nursery leaders said they really miss Brinley, hopefully she will get to go again soon. It seems like a rare occasion now when we can all get to church together.
The home health nurse came today the get her CBC, so we'll know her counts later this afternoon. That will tell us if she needs a transfusion. She still looks really pale, so I'm sure they are low, the nurse things she looks like she needs one.
We had some fun surprises this weekend too! We got a package in the mail from Taylor's old soccer coach Amie, in Las Vegas, with presents for all of us, it was fun and the kids loved it! Then my mom brought something from the Young Women in her Ward in Las Vegas. They had put together packages in pillowcases for each one of our kids. They were stuffed with toys, hats, blankets, all kinds of things. It was like Christmas for them, they loved it so much. It is so nice to have people out there that are willing to put a huge smile on my kids faces while our lives are so different than what they used to be. It has made this easier for them. Sometimes I feel guilty for accepting so much, but then I think about what all of my kids have had to endure, and I realize that they deserve a little something special, knowing that someone else was thinking of them and took the time to do something special. We also got some Mr. Potato Head toys from a friend of my mom's in Vegas, and it has been a hit too! Needless to say my kids have had a great weekend!!
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