Archive for March 8th, 2008
Treatment Update: Not enough little soliders, again.
March 8th, 2008 | by Emily | See all Treatment Update
We “put tubey in” yesterday to draw Maddie’s blood. It was a more challenging blood draw than usual. She was nervous and hesitant to do it. She was missing her dad who usually sits with her while I access the port. My mom was here to help us work through it, and we managed to draw the blood without problems. Mads immediately grabbed the yellow and purple tube, and we headed off to the lab at the hospital. She was proud to be in charge of holding the tubes all the way to the hospital.
When we arrived, she went right in and found Maria who gave her some stickers. Then, she trooped off to the lab, got her order form, and handed both the form and the tubes to the folks working in the lab. She loves being in charge of this process and she already knows the drill. Then, we had to stop by the ED to say hi to everyone there and, of course, get more stickers.
Since we finished 2 oral chemo medications on Monday morning, we have seen the “old” Maddie the last few days; she is energetic, sleeping well, joyful, engaged, and “on to go”. We were due to start up a new phase, called Delayed Intensification on Monday, so these last few days have been such a treat.
Early in the afternoon, I got a call from the clinic saying that Maddie’s treatment and beginning of Delayed Intensification would have to be put off due to low blood counts. Her WBC count is 1.7 and her ANC is 289. She needs to have an ANC over 750 to continue treatment, so it looks like see doesn’t have enough little soldiers on board in her immune system to do much fighting. It’s hard to say what’s caused the dip; it could be some of the medications themselves, an ear infection that she had been fighting, or something else.
So, we play the waiting game. She’ll have no medications this week with the hopes of allowing her blood values rise to a level high enough for treatment. We’ll “put tubey in” on Friday and draw blood again. And hopefully, we’ll get results that will allow us to keep moving ahead.
We are enjoying seeing her feel so good these last couple of days. She’s been acting just like any other little kid. So, part of us doesn’t mind a little mini break in treatment, because we anticipate Delayed Intensification being a challenging 6 week stretch of her treatment.
