Just A Fingerstick

Yesterday we went for what will now be our routine - a weekly fingerstick test just to check Catherine's counts. Given that we just finished a 5 day pulse of steroids, I knew the counts would be good. I will admit that I expected them to be much higher (ANC-2300, hemoglobin-12.3, platelets-180,000). In the past when she has gone on steroids, her counts have gone up beyond normal parameters. The last time that happened, Dr. Darryl had said that the further along you go in treatment, the less the impact the steroids have on your counts. I guess we are beginning to reach that point, plus she has a bit of a runny nose (like every other kid in town) which is probably affecting her counts. Dr. Darryl also mentioned that the bone marrow aspirate from last week shows that not only is Catherine still in remission, but her bone marrow is still trying to recover from Delayed Intensification (amazing how they can see that). That may also explain why her counts weren't as high as expected and I would anticipate that they will drop again pretty soon.
As I mentioned in my last post, Catherine had very severe jaw pain from the Vincristine. I am happy to say that by Tuesday it subsided enough that I didn't have to give her any pain medicine. And, as the week wore on, her energy level picked up again. We are still working on taking our medicine without a fight. After a month off, I shouldn't expect miracles.
Not to forget Alex - on Thursday I picked hime up from school a bit early. The kids were outside on the playground, and despite my hoping that school would give him a chance to be with kids his own age, I found him with who else? - the 4 year olds! He always gives me a good laugh despite his crazy antics!