WELL… We’ve been in the hospital for 12 days now and most of those were spent getting Angelica healthy again (read here). Her next round of chemo was to start when her blood counts were up to the right level and we were aiming for Tuesday. It seems that she was starting to feel better just in time, and would go straight into the next round without any days of actually feeling ok.
BUT… they were overbooked for the procedure room where they have to do the bone marrow biopsy before the next round starts so after a brief consultation in the morning they decided to wait one more day and start today. I called Patti and then called the kids school and got Jeremy and Xandra out. Patti picked them up and brought the other two boys in to see us and we actually got one day to see each other. ALL SEVEN OF US TOGETHER FOR ONE DAY!!! The weather was great and we went to Red Robin, Granville Island and Safeway (Gelica needed some snacky foods). It wasn’t enough time to make up for all the time we’ve spent apart, but it was great and totally unexpected.
THEN… As Angelica had not started her chemo yet she could go to the oncology teen group. (they go out every four to six weeks and do some cool activity.) They were going glow-in-the-dark bowling and having pizza. Geli didn’t know if she could do the pizza so she brought her own soup and snacks and went and had a great time. It was so great for her to have a day to take her mind off of the hospital and enjoy herself before the next round.
FINALLY… today came and we started the next round. We got a bone marrow biopsy, a lumbar puncture with a small dose of chemo in her spinal fluid, six hours of pre-hydration and then a huge yellow bag (actually 1 small bag and two huge bags) of chemo that run for 24 hours. Once this is in her, she will get another bag of liquid to stop the chemo from going to far and then a flush that should take most of the active chemo out of her system, and this takes another 2 – 3 days. Best case scenario we go home Sunday.
PLEASE… Pray that Angelica does not develop mouth sores (known as mucositis), the most common side-effect of this drug. Please pray that she flushes the drug quickly. Please pray that she has great peace and confidence that things will go well for her. Pray that Patti has peace at home, and that we would all be together as a family again really soon.
FROM… Jon