December Chemo day.

Today was a really long one, and poor Emily had to endure 4 different IV pokes. With all best intentions Tracy had lined up the CT to be on the same day as the IV Chemo so Emily would only have to be stuck once in the vein. We showed up at the hospital at 8:30 and waited....then around 9:30 things started to happen. They put a Sinera patch on each of Emily's arms. Sinera patches warm and numb the skin, making it a little easier to find a good vein. We told the Radiology Dept that we wanted to keep her arm accessed so we could get Chemo later in the day. So they accessed Emily's left arm. The nurse did a really poor job, taking a very long time digging around trying to get the vein. She did such a bad job that there was blood coming from Emily's arm. We went on with the CT and the put a dressing on the IV for later use. We were already concerned that the IV didn't look like it had been done very well, and that Emily might have to get another IV when the Oncology nurses saw what Radiology had done. Well we learned that you can't even give Vinchristine in an IV that has been placed in a joint like an Elbow. The risk, and I'm not kidding, would be arm amputation if ANY of the Chemo leaked out into her joint. Well this was already a bad IV and they just won't risk the complication, so Emily had to have a second IV placed in her hand. It took two trys, with the first one being totally unsuccessful. Emily received her Chemo after they finally accessed her vein in her hand. Then she needed to have her Port flushed. We aren't using the port and is why we had to do all these IV's, but it still needs to be flushed once a month with Hepron to make sure it doesn't clot. We actually did her labs through the port today, since we had to access it anyway we wanted to use it, rather than just flush. So all of this took around 6.5 hours to complete. She also had her exam from her NP and everything looks good. We won't get CT results until next week, since her Dr. is out of town. He may be able to review them from the road but worse case is next Tuesday we will meet with Dr. Link and go over the CT. I wish we didn't need to wait that long, and I hope someone can give us good news sooner.

When we were done with the CT and Chemo there was a ballet performance at the hospital that Emily was able to attend. She really enjoyed it, and got a chance to meet the dancers and take pictures with them. The performance was a nice end to a long today.

Emily started her 5 day Prednisone this morning, and will continue with 6MP and Methotrexate on their schedule.

Emily is doing really well in school and lately her attendance has been near perfect. She is learning a lot, especially a lot of math. She is also active in her Brownie troop. Last night her troop decorated a Christmas Tree in San Jose for Christmas in the Park.

All in all things seem to be going well. I really want those CT results though.