Chemotherapy

Overall she is doing very well and shes supposed to go home Friday after she goes under for chemo and more bone marrow. We will then have to bring her back 1-3 times a week to their outpatient clinic for chemo. This is where they will reopen her port and take blood. She will have to go under for spinal chemo about 4 more times this month. When they take her blood they will tell us how her blood levels are doing and what amount of exposure to people she can have. For instance if she has low count they will say no stores, maybe just the park when its not busy. If her blood is good they will say ok, go to the mall but in the morning. If she gets even a cold or any kind of fever she has to be hospitalized for days because it will make her high risk. They said she will probably need a lot more transfusions in the future because of her condition. With her port the doctor said she will be able to take baths and go swimming once its healed. When she leaves the hospital, all she'll have will look like a bottle cap under the skin in her chest. Whenever she comes to the clinic they will numb the skin and stick it to get blood/give chemo. They said she should be in remission by day 8-15 if all goes well and that she may be cured as early as 2.5 years. She should start losing her hair anytime after Thursday. Thats going to be hard because she doesn't look sick right now, but shes going to. They have programs that will give us a wig for free.

Stem cell- I know a lot of people have been asking about stem cells. They are not going to use any kind of stem cells. They said they only do that when the chemo is not working or when the patient isn't doing well. If we had saved Isabelles cord they def. wouldn't use that because it would have the cancer cells in it. With that being said they have a program that will harvest the new babys cord blood for us for free, we will just have to pay a monthly fee for storage. (just in case)
This is just a summary of the past few days.
3/8/2011- She woke up screaming at 6 w/jaw pain. They gave her tylenol w/codine and she was able to get back to sleep. She ate yogurt for breakfast, but is in a lot of pain still so they gave her morphine. She took a shower today and they changed her port dressing. She screamed the whole time and we had to hold her arms away from it. Shes feeling a little bit better now once the medicine kicked in and she went to the play room with Abel and the child life lady to play. The doctor came in and told us AGAIN, well told Abel that there is nothing wrong having the pets. She told us that she would not get rid of them and that its good to have them. She said there is no risk to them licking her. If they lick her on an opened wound to just wash it with soap and water. She is the second doctor to say its ok and not get rid of them because Abel wanted a second opinion.
3/7/2011 - Busy Busy day. Isabelle is in a lot of pain, she can't eat or drink because her jaw hurts. The gave her tylenol, then tylenol w/codine, then morphine. She was able to eat a little for dinner and drink after the morphine kicked in. She was feeling better. When the nurse came in she was in the bathroom and she told me to hurry and wipe her so she could say hi to the nurse. When we got out she wanted the nurse to watch a movie w/her and play. The nurse said she'd come back because she had to finish her rounds. When she was done she took Isabelle to the nurses' station to play. She said Isabelle is officially everyones favorite patient, no surprise there.
3/6/2011 - They removed the iv tubing in her arms, which hurt her. The port is amazing and they are even able to take blood while shes asleep. Isabelle really likes a lot of the nurses now and they've been playing w/ her. Shes now looking forward to getting her blood pressure and temp. We have been going to the play room and pushing her around in the car. Shes had ups and downs today. Crankiness is a side effect. Sabrina came to visit which was very nice. Abel and my mom pushed them around in cars and they raced.
3/5/2011- On this day she has surgery to have her port put in, chemo in her spine, bone marrow extracted, and spinal fluid extracted. Very scary, but all went well. She threw up all over herself from the anethesia, and immidiatley said, "I threw up like Coconut!" (our dog) It was cute. Shes had to sleep w/a pull up on, which she doesn't like because w/all the fluids shes been getting shes been wetting the bed. Shes also having diahhrea that is explosive as well.
3/4/2011- So many people came in today, it was her first day of chemo. She had an ultrasound of her heart done. She was so cute, she was like "OOOOHH!! Theres a baby in my stomach too!! Just like mommy!! And its a little girl and she has a bow!! " She went on to tell the nurses that I had a baby in my stomach too named AJ. Too cute! She kept calling the nurses dentists. Everyone is very friendly, but another day of sticks. She felt more energized today because she had the transfusions. (She actually had a couple more transfusions) When they did her xray she said cheese and enjoyed it very much. She related it to one of her Little Critter books. She gets upset everytime they do blood pressure or anything. Its really hard because I have to make her sit still. Sabrina came to the hospital to visit, its very hard to be w/o her, but at least we know shes ok. Earlier we had tried video chatting w/ Sabrina and my mom from the hospital, but it just upset Sabrina. She started calling me and telling me to pick her up through the computer.She started crying when I couldn't pick her up. So sad.
3/3/2011- Abel took Isabelle to the doctor for a check up because she was sort of lethargic. The doctor almost didn't do blood work because she thought, like we did, that it was change in activity level. (Also Isabelle was waking up a lot in the night) She told Abel that she would hate to stick her for no reason, but Abel pushed for it. When they came back with the results they told him that she might have leukemia and she needed to come to the hospital in Fairfax as soon as possible. We packed up and got there around 6-7ish. They stuck her again to get her blood and confirmed that she had it. We were then sent over to a room where between that night and the next day she was stuck about 10 times. It was a rough night between her getting checked on every hour and her going to the bathroom every hour because they were pumping her with fluids. They gave her a blood transfusion and platlet transfuion that night. My mom flew in at around 11 pm and Abel went to get her from the airport and she went home with Sabrina. It was a miserable night for Isabelle, filled w/lots of tears.