Consolidation Phase

Well today we were supposed to start the consolidation phase of Isabelle's treatment. Her ANC (total white blood cell count) wasn't high enough for them to begin. (They need her at at least 750, she was at 280) They want us to come back next Friday and they think her counts will be fine by then. We pretty much drove to the clinic and drove home. The good thing is that we have a week off! They did explain a little bit about this phase. It is a period of six months, broken into 3, 2 month sections.

In this first 2 month period she will be going under every Friday, as I explained before, to have chemo put into her spine. Abel will give her Cytarabine  "ARAC" chemo every Sat. and Sun. (That is the one that goes in her tubes with a syringe push) Monday we will go to the clinic and she will get deaccessed and more chemo.

She will be on an oral chemo called Mercaptopurine "MP". They are pills that we will have to be crush. She will be on this chemo from the first day that we begin this new phase, till the 15th day. She will then have a break and restart it from day 29-42.

She will get a chemo called Cyclophosphamide "CPM" on day 29. (administered IV at the clinic) On days 15 and 43 she will be getting a chemo called PEG-asparaginase which is also administered IV.

Isabelle has been feeling great with minimal side effects from the chemo right now. One of her eyes has been drooping pretty drastically. The doctor said it was a side-effect of the VinCRISTine chemo that she got 2 weeks ago. The doctor also said that most likely will go away with time. She has also had some leg pain as well, but has been a lot more active.

Her ANC is still very low so there will be no Easter egg hunt at Ida Lee this year,  no mall visit to see the Easter bunny, and no flower festival either. At least she is doing well and thats all that matters.