Monthly Chemo done !

Today was Emily's monthly chemo and physical exam at the hospital. She gets her IV chemo every 4 weeks, so this is actually the second visit in the calendar month. I was thinking it was next week, and it wasn't until last night Tracy reminded me it was today. Since I am off of work I took Emily and gave Tracy a break from the pediatric oncology waiting room. It's not a super fun place.

Emily had to be peripherally accessed in a vein in her right hand. They were able to draw the CBC blood test through the peripheral stick. The Phleubotmist was really good and got her on the first try. Emily uses a Sinera (warm + numbing) patch, which helps with the needle stick, but she still has a lot of anxiety just before the poke, which she always apologizes for and all the nurses and we always tell her, it's ok to be scared, everyone is. The staff always tells us they wish all the kids could be as brave and as positive as Emily. I am happy she's so confident and positive, and comfortable in stressful situations, in fact I wish I were as tough as she is sometimes.

Her physical exam was quick and all positive. Everyone is on vacation so we saw a nurse practitioner who we haven't seen in a while, Erika. She was amazed at how well Emily was doing and how much she had progressed. Erika did a lot of the Lumbar (spinal injections) punctures on Emily in the Operating room, that's where we would usually see her. She cleared Emily for her IV Vinchristine. After that we went over today's lab results, which they had back in 25 minutes (WAY to go Stanford labs). Emily's levels look great. Her protocol calls for another week of %50 chemo, so we are staying on the same dose as last week, but her levels indictate that next week we will be going to %75. Then after 2 weeks at %75 she will be back on a full dose. This REALLY shows the impact of her getting a cold, she has to reduce her dosage, and that can't be good, so we really want to stress to everyone to stay away from us if you have a cold, yes just the common cold is horrible for her. We've been lax about it but are really going to step it up this cold season. This may lead to more home school days here and there, but it's her life that is at stake. I dont' mean to sound too dramatic, she looks great and these things happen, but want to do what I can.

Yesterday I had to go to the hospital pharmacy to pick up some chemo pills. When I was there I ran into Dr. Link. He was jamming out to leave on a ski vacation. He remembers that I am a ski fanatic, so he brought up skiing with me, which was nice that he was trying to relate to me. I told him I wanted to get Emily back on the slopes, and wanted to see what he thought. He said she absolutely can be skiing as long as her platelets are above 175K and today they were 534K so she's cleared to ski ! woo hoo. The very last thing Emily did before she was diagnosed was a ski trip, and I never thought in my wildest dreams back in March and April that we would make it to the slopes this year. Well I can say for sure we will be, and I am very excited about that. Emily can add skiing to another thing she did while on chemo. I love that Kaiser Permanente ad that says "I have cancer, but cancer doesn't have me." Emily lives that slogan %100, and in a way Tracy, Haley, and I do too.

2008, can't wait to say goodbye only 1 more day.