A Difficult Week Ends Better

The chemo hit Isabella pretty hard for most of the week. She was very nauseous most of the week and did not want to eat or drink anything, which caused her to be very lethargic. We were getting pretty worried about her last night and were trying to force her to eat or drink anything. This would cause her cry and get so worked up that she would then immediately throw anything up.

Fortunately, we had an appointment today to go into Hassenfeld children's clinic at NYU to get another chemo treatment (Vincristine). This is given as a quick push through her port. While at the clinic, they gave her IV fluids, which immediately perked her up and gave her energy. It was like she was a new kid. But they are still worried about her weight loss, so we have another appointment on Monday.

Once we got home, Isabella had an apettite and asked to eat different things and has also been drinking pretty well. Her stomach is still bugging her and she threw up a little, but at least she is willing to eat. We expect her to really start eating and to be able to keep everything down soon.

Annalise, who has been with her grandparents all week up in Vermont, comes back home tomorrow. This should cheer Isabella up some more and we expect to have more Wii time.

Wednesday Update – February 18

Isabella has been home for a couple days now and she’s constantly on the brink of having to go back to the hospital.  The other day, her temperature rose to over 100 for a few hours, even though she was acting normal.  We gave her some Tylenol which helped reduce her fever and her temperature has been fine since.  Also, I mentioned that we need to make sure that she is being hydrated sufficiently.  We have to measure her urine output every few hours and if she doesn’t urinate a certain amount, we’re supposed to contact the children’s clinic so that we can bring her in and be given fluids through IV.  But every time at the last minute, she manages to pee just enough that we don’t have to bring her in!

Today is also Day 5 of the chemo cycle and she took her last dose of Temodar, which are the pills.  After the first day when she took the pills like a champ, the last 4 days were a little more difficult.  On Day 2, she started feeling more nauseous, so she didn’t want to eat or drink or take anything orally, so we really had to work at getting her to take her pills.  It was tough, but she did it.  As a reward for taking her pills, we setup a new Wii that my friends at my office bought for her.  She’s felt pretty crummy over the last few days, but the Wii is definitely something that will cheer her up for many days to come!

Back Home - Chemo Cycle 3 Continues

So we're back home with Isabella. We finished the first two days of chemotherapy, which is required to be done in the hospital because the carboplatin is given through her mediport over a 4 hour period. The remainder of the chemo will either be given at home (temodar pills over the next 2 more days) or in Hassenfeld children's clinic (vincristine through her port), which should just be a quick office visit.

Isabella has started to feel nauseous and her appetite has been affected. It's still early in the cycle, so we expect her to continue to be nauseous for a few more days. Our job is to try and keep her hydrated for the next several days or else we may have to bring her to Hassenfeld for IV fluids. But so far, Isabella has been doing ok at home. She is drinking a little bit and managed to keep down some food. She did throw up a couple times, but it wasn't immediately after eating.

We think she'll do much better at home than in the hospital. We will be making plans with the hospital social worker to coordinate in-home therapy and schooling. Being home will also be much more convenient for us so we won't have to have one of us stay overnight at the hospital - that was getting real brutal.