Ahhhh… Good Counts

February 24, 2010

Yay! Tanner’s counts were 3,100!!!! Hallelujah! Now, maybe they’re high enough to fight off the virus that Jake has which is causing fever and coughing.

John took Tanner to clinic today, while I took Jake to the pediatrician’s office. It can’t ever just be good news, huh? Jake has a virus and the trick will be keeping Tanner from getting it. Her counts are high enough that she might escape, but we will be extra vigilant for the next few days.

Spoke to John just a moment ago; Tanner was out of surgery for her spinal with methotrexate and was in the recovery room sleeping it off. They’ve planned on a run to Chili’s to pick up lunch. She hasn’t eaten since 2:30 am this morning; we woke her for peanut butter and jelly.

She will restart her oral chemo at 50% dosage and we return in two weeks for a counts check to see if her counts are still high. If they are, they will raise her chemo dosage to try to get her to stay within the 1-2,000 range they are looking for. If they have come down some, that may become her permanent dosage. It’s the Long Term Maintenance Dance where they try to find the correct dosage to suppress white counts enough, but not too much.

John and I laughed about my bad luck. I didn’t go to clinic with them, where normally, we have to hold down Tanner to get her “sleepy milk” for surgery. She gets very anxious about it and cries and begs me not to let them do it, even when she has Versed in her. But, this time, they had a new anesthesia team who hid the sleepy milk from her and gave it to her without her knowing. John said she drifted peacefully off to sleep with no crying.

I, on the other hand, got to take Jake to the pediatrician where I had to… you guessed it… hold Jake down while they did a strep test and nasal flu test. No escape from the screaming and crying and begging for me!

If Tanner’s counts are good at our two-week check, she’ll be able to return to school…. Hoping and praying.

Love,
Beth