Day 20 - Chicken Legs and New Pajamas

Since my last post on Friday, the past several days have been mixed. Saturday my parents came to visit and more importantly kept Alex occupied most of the day and even kept Catherine company while Theresa and I ran errands. Catherine was in great spirits and was very active (all things considered) on Saturday playing with new toys she received as gifts and even spent time playing on the Internet. The picture in this post was taken Saturday.

Sunday was a different story. The cumulative effect of the treatments and fatigue put Catherine in a foul mood. From the moment she woke up, she complained of a headache as well as a stomach ache. She complained "her belly button hurts" the entire day non-stop. As such, most of the day was spent on the couch either watching TV or sleeping. Since Catherine was first diagnosed with ALL, I would say Sunday was the most physical pain I have witnessed. The doctors told us to expect days like Sunday but it still sucks.

Theresa's mother came to help on Sunday and watched Alex while I returned to work on Monday. Theresa made a trip up to Guilford for blood work on Tuesday. Catherine's blood work was surprisingly good. No transfusion was needed as her platelet count held steady and even her ANC (absolute neutraphil count) was in the range they would expect going from 8 last week to 140 this week (you need a count of at least 500 to fight off an infection). She even took a toy from the toy closet this time and showed the doctor that she does indeed speak and smile on occasion.

On a side note, Catherine's food cravings have changed the past 3 weeks. Her latest "comfort food" is chicken legs baked in the oven. When she eats them, all that is left is the bone! As a consequence of her increased food intake and retention of fluids, some of her clothes needed to be cut to fit over her belly. Theresa even bought new pajamas for Catherine today. She bought a night gown that I swear looks like one an 80 year old woman would wear to bed. Wearing her "dressing gown" as she calls it, and walking slightly bent over and very slow because of the medicine, Catherine certainly looks the part of an old lady.

As for the next step, Catherine continues to take her medicines twice daily and will get another round of Vincristine on Friday. She is scheduled for a lumbar puncture (with chemo treatment) and bone marrow aspiration on Friday, March 17 (let's hope the luck of the Irish will be with us!). The 2 procedures will be done at Yale New Haven Hospital (back where we started). The results of the bone marrow aspirate will hopefully show little to no leukemia left in her marrow marking the end of the Induction phase of her 2 1/2 years of treatment. The next phase, called Consolidation, will depend on those results.