Saturday, April 18, 2009

Big Saturday Coming Up

So Isabella's blood cultures came back positive, meaning she definitely has an infection and needs to take antibiotics for 10 days (until April 25). The good news is that if her white cell count goes up, we'll be able to go home and administer the antibiotics at home instead of having to spend the whole 10 days in the hospital. But we'll be here at the hospital for at least few days.

We are also scheduled to have an MRI on Saturday morning at 8:00am. We're trying to be cautiously optimistic with this one and not get our hopes too high. It would be an amazing miracle if the cancer was all gone, but it would also be devastating if it hasn't gone down significantly or even grew since the last MRI. Realistically, we're probably somewhere in the middle and we're hoping to see very little, if any tumor left. We may not know the results until Monday.

Isabella has recovered pretty well from her fever. She's been eating great and acting normally for the last day or so. Her platelet count is also low and she had her first spontaneous nose bleed for this cycle which lasted for well over an hour. If she wasn't neutropenic, we would definitely be outside enjoying this wonderful weather.

Wednesday, April 15, 2009

Back to the Hospital

Isabella was just admitted back to the hospital. This afternoon at home, she had started to feel sluggish and started spiking a fever, so we drove her in. They will draw her blood and check the blood cultures to see what is the cause for the fever. She could be in the hospital up to 2 weeks depending on the results and the treatment.

Monday, April 13, 2009

Quick Update

Just wanted to give everyone a quick update. We had a nice and quiet Easter weekend. Grandma came down from Vermont to spend the weekend. Since we expected Isabella's blood counts to drop over the weekend, we didn't go anywhere or have visitors. Because of that, I ended up eating way too much ham and way too many hard boiled eggs (I think there was kielbasa somewhere in there, but it was all a blur).

Today, everyone went into the City to the Hassenfeld children's clinic for a checkup. Isabella had her blood drawn and as expected, she required a platelet and red cell transfusion. Physically, Isabella has been doing very well. In the previous cycles, when her platelet and red counts were this low, she would start bleeding spontaneously from her nose and she would be pretty lethargic. But so far, aside from a tiny bit of spotting, her nose has been ok and her energy level is pretty good.

Isabella has another checkup on Thursday, then we are scheduled for an MRI on Saturday. We have no details yet on when the next and final cycle starts.

Thanks for keeping up.