Wednesday, January 6, 2010

Labs are in and increased chemo seems spot on

Emily just finished her first week of increased chemo dosage. The reason her dose was increased was because she's grown and gained weight so the dosage is adjusted for that. However it was the first increase she has had since she started maintenance back in November of 2008. So the new %100 chemo has been adjusted going forward.

She had to take Zofran a few times this week because she woke up feeling nauseous. My guess is after a few weeks she won't need that anymore, but we will see. She also complained of leg pain, which was probably due to an increase in the IV Vinchritine last week. To remind you, Vinchristine causes neuropathy and if you watch Emily run you can see the longer term side effects of the drug. It should slowly resolve over the years after treatment. Some children get it much worse and have to do physical therapy at the end of treatment.

The results of her labs justified the increased dosage all her levels were great and her ANC was around 2600 which is good. I mentally track her ANC and for the week following steroids high 2000's are normal and the levels typically work their way lower over the month until the steroids jack them up again.

Emily is back to school this week, and she seems happy about it. I think she missed her friends and teachers over the holiday and was excited to see everyone again.

Emily will remain on %100 dosage for the week ahead.

3 comments:

Anonymous said...

Happy New Year to you and Tracy and the kids....Thinking about you and cheering you on in 2010!
Tiffany

KMGheno said...

Big hugs to you Peppers, Happy New Year!

Anonymous said...

Glad to hear Emily is taking all this in her stride, as usual. Hope you and Tracy are doing well too. Thanks for the explanation about the neuropathy. I had forgotten that the effects will slowly resolve after treatment. I wasn't sure that would happen. Thanks too for keeping up this blog. It keeps us in the loop as much as possible.
Love, Grannie