Hannah finished the first half on Delayed Intesification 2. The main chemo for that is Doxocrubicin, or as it is affectionatly known; The Red Devil. It is red, can make you sweat, pee, or cry red. It can cause serious heart problems so there is only so much one can have in their life. Hannah actually did better with it this time around. She has had more side effects this time from the Vincristine than anything else. For the second week in a row, Hannah's reflex's from knee down, when tested, were zero. It is something called peripheral neuropathy. It causes her to lose the ankle jerk reflex, which they call "foot drop syndrome". All that said, she doesn't seem too bothered by it, except for the taste of the medicine!
The second half of DI 2 involves the chemo's Ara-C and Cyclophosphamide. For the next two weeks she will go to Children's for five days in a row, two days off, then five days on again. They are long days in a chair getting meds that give her a tremendous headache. This time, however, her doctors are taking steps to help decrease the pain. They are going to run the chemo drip half as fast as usual, give her extra IV fluilds, and order up doses of oxycodone to have on hand.
Today, Hannah had Methotrexate intrathecally. The whole procedure went perfectly smooth. She woke up happy, which I am always grateful for.
Hannah has been such a little clown over the last week. I have about a million funny stories I have been meaning to share and great pictures to post. But...my brain is mush. Seriously, by the end of the day for the last week or so, I sit down to type and then, mush. I will try again a little later. For now, here is Hannah in the hat her Uncle Brett sent her. The whole Children's staff was commenting on it!
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Button Update-Thank you all for weighing in on the buttons. I was going to go with the picture of her in the pipe and then my friend Sarah sent me an email. A friend of hers fixed the picture of Hannah at the park so that is wasn't so blurry. I have decided to leave them both up. Yeah, indecision as a decision! hee hee
i'm glad it seems to be going okay. The "red devil" sounds horrible, and so does five straight days in the hospital. But you both seem to be in good spirits, despite it all. I'll be thinking of you and Hannah!
ReplyDeleteHope the doctor's plans do reduce the headaches. Am not surprised your brain feels like mush with all this, but despite everything I'm glad to see Hannah is maintaining her fashion standards! Hope the next week goes as smoothly as possible xxx
ReplyDeleteHello, sorry it's been a while. So good to see Hannah taking it so well and smiling and playing away despite her treatments. Fully understand mushy brain, just blog what you need to at the time. I find that generally means I eventually clear the path for the funny stories. Take care x
ReplyDeleteI love that you went with the 2 buttons! She really is a gorgeous little thing. x
ReplyDeleteWell one really hard thing down...one more to go...
ReplyDeleteYou are an AMAZING MOMMY! You are handling more than any one person should be...and with GRACE, DIGNITY AND FIGHTING FOR YOUR LITTLE GIRL!
Hannah is a stylish rockin' 5 year old.
Love you guys,
Liz
Thanks for sharing and keeping us up to date. You two are amazing!
ReplyDeleteShorewood is my friend with the amazing button skills; I love both buttons. Yay for indecisiveness.
ReplyDeleteI love the purple hat too, she is always putting her best face forward for a photo even with those headaches.
The button looks great! Hannah looks adorable in the purple hat. Very fancy. I hope the headaches aren't so bad this time. Thinking of you guys. Kathy
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