Monday, November 19, 2007

Today's Clinic Visit

Today we headed to the clinic to begin our second month of maintenance. It was a breeze really with only blood counts and IV Vincristine on the docket. Of some interest, (perhaps only to me) was that Kate's ANC went from 5,000 4 days ago down to about 1000 today. The doctors have been telling us that when the kids are sick their counts can really plummet in a matter of days. Being the skeptic that I am, I had to see it first hand to believe it. In fact, when they told us to go to the ER 4 days ago I said "but her counts were nearly 3,500 one week ago". They told us that it didn't matter because after only a couple of days they could easily drop to neutropenic level (below 500) and then she'd have to be admitted. I am going to try and roll with it in the future and not be so frustrated with this whole "checking the counts" ER process because although that trip is a painful process it is in her best interest to be safe.
Today Kate is tons better with only a slight junky cough and runny nose. Her body has obviously been silently fighting that virus though with such a drastic change in numbers. Hopefully we are headed for a more germ free holiday season. Can you say hand sanitizer?

PS-Although Kate recovered quickly, keeping her in my bed was not such a good idea for MY health. I had a painful 3 days of nasty cold and headache thanks to little miss petri dish. Alas, the things we do for our kids...

8 comments:

Christy said...

Hello. I found your blog through a friend, Jen Keller. She told me to check it out because my little girl, Eliza, also has leukemia (ALL). We are a year and 8 months into it. Eliza is 5 and was diagnosed when she was 3, almost 4. I have a care page you can visit. I was really good about updating it, but not as good now that she has been in maintenance for so long. If you are interested go to carepages.com and her page is ElizaLynnBrian. Also, if you ever have questions, you can email me at christybrian@cox.net You have gone through the worst and it does get better from here. It is still hard, but a lot better. Good luck! Aren't these kids amazing?

anne-ross said...

Carolyn, thank you for all the updates! I know it's been a roller coaster w/ the counts, but am glad that Kate feels tons better! You guys are in my thoughts and prayers and I hope to see you Thursday morning for the 1/2!
Love, ARC

BIGSKYBLAST said...

Thanks, Carrie, for the update. I'm glad Kate is better. NOW TAKE CARE OF YOU!

Anonymous said...

I'm SO glad you're back online. You do a great job of keeping the world updated! Thanks

Kasey said...

So glad to hear Kate's feeling better. I hope she's adjusting to being back in school after a few weeks.

We've had a bad cough/cold and allergy thing going crazy in our neck of the woods (day 12 for me, thank you very much). Very much looking forward to a long TG weekend. Take care of yourself! Love, Kasey

Anonymous said...

You guys are amazing! Good luck with all of your training for your marathon. We'll all be cheering for you :)

Craig said...

We love you, Kate! Keep it up.... (and by that we mean spread it to your brother and your dad too!)

Kari said...

So glad to see you blogging again and to hear that Kate is doing well :) Give her my love and best wishes for continued improvement!