Marathon

Today started off at 5am, getting up and going to the hospital for Emily's full day of procedures. It was a long day, but everything went very smoothly schedule wise. She was prepped to be put under for her Lumbar puncture and the procedure was underway by 7:30am. We walked with her and the anesthesiologist to the procedure room and were there as they put her under. The procedure itself lasted around 15 minutes and she was brought to the recovery room. We were done so early the recovery room was nearly empty, usually it is full of kids recovering from various surgeries, it's definitely not one of my favorite places. In the recovery room they started her IV hydration and sent us to the Day Hospital. We were really happy to have Nurse Mary, one of our favorites, she's been working in the day hospital for 27 years, she pretty much runs the place. She also really likes Emily. Emily was hydrated enough to start the Cytoxin at about 10:30am. Cytoxin takes about 30 minutes to infuse. In the middle of the Cytoxin Emily's nose started to feel "hot" which is a side effect. It didn't bother her that much and the sensation went away after 15 minutes. After the IV Cytoxin was in, she was given Zofran for nausea. Cytoxin is the drug I mentioned 3 weeks ago, that usually makes people very stomach sick. It didn't for Emily last time, but that may be because Tracy and I are on top of the Zofran and Ativan, which are both effective for nausea, and Emily seems to handle it well. After you get Cytoxin, you have to get 4 hours of IV Hydration. They actually pump the saline in her for 4 hours at a fairly high rate, so the medication moves through her system quick. After all that, she was given her IV Cyterabine dose.

Then came the Doctors, who wanted to exam her, as they always do. They continue to be happy with Emily's progress. Emily had her exam with Dr. Link, her Oncologist, but Emily also asked if Dr. Dahl was there. Our NP, Karolina, went and told Dr. Dahl that Emily had mentioned him, and he came over and sat with us for about 15 minutes and talked with Emily. He also checked in to see how Tracy and I were coping with "all this". It was so impressive that he made time to just chat with us, we aren't even his patient officially. Dr. Dahl has a very good reputation in the Oncology field, and that he has taken an interest in Emily makes me feel even better about the care we are getting. That is to take nothing away from Dr. Link we feel very lucky to have him.

What's next? On Friday we have an Ultrasound to determine if the blood clot is gone. Obviously we hope it is, but we also really need it to be, as Emily's platelets are getting low, as I mentioned in last night's post. Her Hematologist is hopeful it will have resolved. We have 3 weeks of the Consolidation phase left.

Emily has expressed interest in writing a post on the Blog, so look for that soon. I may even video tape her and post the video so you can all see how well she is doing. She is also starting to read the comments more often.