11/5/10 - LAST TREATMENT!!!

For over two years, Brinley has been battling cancer. Yesterday was her very...last...treatment. The day could not have been more perfect. Let's get to the details first, get them out of the way. Her ANC was 2000 since she has been on hold for her oral chemo. Dr. Fluchel felt it was pointless to restart her oral chemo for 9 more days, soooooooo......when she is done with steroids on Tuesday, she is DONE!!! We were not expecting that, it was a nice surprise! We will be having our own little celebration once the steroids are done, next weekend probably. It did shorten my weight loss goal though! Instead of having 9 days to lose 2 more pounds, I now have 5. Anyhow, I have lost almost all the weight I gained while she was on treatment, 22 pounds so far! And I feel wonderful, all around wonderful.

She will have surgery to get her port removed in December and have her first "off-treatment" check, that we will be doing monthly for the first year.

Dr. Fluchel warned us going off-treatment can be very emotional and scary. We no longer have the "blanket" security feeling of the chemo keeping the cancer away. It is not correct, she does not have a higher chance of relapse when the chemo stops, but there is something comforting knowing she is getting chemo every day. So I'm sure we will be having all kinds of emotions. I just feel fluttery in my heart. It's like a nervous feeling, but happy at the same time. Maybe like before you get married, you are so nervous and excited at the same time.

Are you wondering why there were not any pictures of our perfect day? Well, we videotaped the whole thing, and in our hurry to make sure we got every little thing on video, we didn't take one picture. Not one. So look for a video in the next few days when we can get it together.

The nurses came and sang her an "off therapy" song and presented her with a gift, well, a slew of gifts really! It was such a happy day. We were hugging, and thanking, and smiling the whole day. Brinley had brought donuts to thank everyone, except she was fasting for her LP, so the whole ride in the car she said "those smell soooo good!" As soon as she woke up, she asked for one of her donuts back. Funny girl. They were happy to give her one.

They allowed us to videotape the whole LP (they sedate her, remove spinal fluid to check for cancer, and inject chemotherapy into her spinal fluid), one of the nurses did the video tape for us since we can't go in at the RTU. We had to get permission from the Dr and the anesthesiologist to do it and I was so worried they would say no way. I've heard of that happening. They were so nice and agreeable and had no problems whatsoever. I really want Brinley to have that someday, so I was so thankful they allowed us to do that.

I feel like we are in a dream, it doesn't feel real to me yet. I will have more to say this week, for now we are so happy this will be the last time she will do this, and sad at the same time. Not sure where the sad comes from, I guess we have been through a lot.

So what now? What do we do now, with no chemo and cancer and treatments to worry about? Now we watch her grow up.......