7 down, 1 to go

That’s right! Bree completed her 7th round of chemo this week. Orignially she was supposed to be admitted on Friday and complete the 3 day treatment, but she was delayed because Thursay night she had a fever of 100.8 (due to a cold) so the docs wanted to wait a few days for the fever to leave and allow her to get some much needed rest at home.

So, Tuesday morning came and she was admitted (after waiting a few hours of course!) to the hospital by noon and was able to start chemo that afternoon at 3:30pm. She was put in “isolation” because she still had a runny nose and since the hospital is still in RSV mode this basically meant that she couldn’t come out of the room. If I left, I had to wear a gown, gloves & a mask. So, basically we were hermits and didn’t leave the room in 3 days!

This round she received carboplatin and etoposide. She has received both of these drugs a few times and in times past, has done well. This time was different. Tuesday night came and she started throwing up, a lot. She was given adivan, zofran and a steroid called decadron to help her body not vomit, however, nothing was helping. She threw up for 3 straight hours…11:30pm to 2:30am. I just held her on my chest and every time she started to vomit, I leaned her over the bucket, and talked to her trying to give her some comfort. She just couldn’t hold anything down. Poor baby was just so exhausted. I cried and prayed for her body to stop rejecting anything in her stomach. Finally, relief came and she was able to sleep by 3am.

The next day she just wanted to sleep, but wouldn’t sleep anywhere but on my chest. So, I held her the entire day. Fortunately, she didn’t throw up the rest of the time and the doctor on call was so nice and moved up the time her chemo was given by 4 hours, so we were able to go home earlier than we originally anticipated. I brought her home yesterday afternoon and she was so happy to be home. She squealed when she saw her dog, and was so happy just to spend sometime outside in the beautiful weather. When I took her upstairs for a nap, she practially lunged for her bed and went right to sleep! Poor little baby had a rough time, but she made it through!

During this round she also required another blood transfusion because her hemoglobin had been low (8.5) and had been that low for 2 weeks. So, since she was about to be "knocked down" again by the chemo, they thought it would be best to buoy up her body with new blood. Even though there are risks with blood transfusions, she did well and certainly feels better now! (This picture was taken Tuesday (St. Patrick's Day) before chemo started...she came in so happy)A little blood...


...and my, how her color returned!

These were my favorite pictures of this round! Happy St. Patty's day!


So, 7 rounds completed and 1 to go then she will have all the tests done again to see where the cancer is. Ah, light at the end of the tunnel! She’ll have an MRI and a bone marrow aspiration. We and the doctors are all hopeful that she is clean of the cancer in her bone marrow and that the tumor has shrunk down enough to resect (take it out without harming any vital organs) or better yet, that its shrunk down to nothing!