Phase 2 Complete

Last night Emily took her last medication for Phase 2. It's over. Today she had her physical exam and we reminded her Doctor and our NP that Emily had managed to stay out of the hospital during phase 2. They were surprised themselves when they realized this. You will remember that when she started Phase 2, her doctor told us numerous times to be prepared to be hospitalized. We can all see that didn't happen. Dr. Link said that it does happen sometimes, kids with Lymphoma that haven't progressed to Leukemia sometimes have enough energy to keep them out of the hospital. Her lab results from yesterday show that she is still very low in all blood counts. Her hemoglobin was 7.7, so she has an appointment for another transfusion this Friday if the level doesn't rise above 8. Her ANC was also low at 150.

If you visited our house and you didn't know who was on Chemo and you had to guess who was anemic, honestly I don't think you would guess Emily, she really has more energy than Tracy or I do, combined.

Phase 3 will start when Emily's blood levels reach certain criteria, most likely in a week or maybe two. My guess is that she will rebound quickly and we will start phase 3 soon. I posted some incorrect information a few times about Phase 3. I thought she was going to be hospitalized 4 times, just for 24 hours each stay. Today we leaned that each hospitalization will be 3 to 4 days. We will start off Phase 3 with one of these hospitalizations, I will keep everyone posted once we know the date. It is much easier to know about a hospital stay so we can prepare ourselves, unlike when she was diagnosed.

We also don't know which hospital she will be in yet. Packard has an agreement with El Camino hospital in Mountain View, CA. When they fill up at Stanford med center, they send otherwise healthy chemo patients to El Camino. Each day the Oncology department has a "A and B team" The A team does rounds at Stanford, and the B team goes over and does rounds at El Camino. Members of the A and B team switch so all the doctors and staff see people at both sites. It's good if you are sent to El Camino it means they need you in the hospital but don't think you will need to be at the main treatment center. El Camino was recently remodeled and as a result of the HIPPA laws, every room is private, which would also be nice. Sadly there are so many kids with cancer being treated at Packard, beds are very scarce.