Delayed Intensification Stage 2

Angelica started the final Intensive stage of Chemotherapy last Friday April 29.

Her and Jon headed into BC Children’s Hospital for her 10am appointment and aside from being grouchy because she couldn’t eat – it was a fairly uneventful morning.

She wasn’t allowed to eat because she had a procedure where she is lightly sedated and they don’t want her to possibly vomit and then choke on it…and so, no eating or drinking 6 hours before the procedures. Typically she has these procedures, first thing in the morning, but for whatever reason, this one was a bit later.

So last Friday she received Chemo into her spinal fluid (via a lumbar puncture), and two types of Chemo intravenously into her port. One of them she seems to tolerate with no problem and the other she tolerates ok, but not as well. She is also back on a steroid for a one week on, one week off and then repeated….

The steroid can cause a host of issues – like a diabetic state, increased appetite, flushed cheeks, increased mood swings, insomnia and the worst one for Geli is that (last time) in the first week off, she felt some pain in her joints and then in the second week off she was in a LOT of pain for about 4 days. Even morphine and codeine didn’t take away the pain it only just barely relieved it. Some kids are hospitalized because the joint pain can be so bad…..we are definitely praying that is not the case this time around and that she is able to tolerate everything this round.

Angelica basically spent the weekend on the couch. She felt pretty rough on Saturday and Sunday and by Monday she hadn’t really slept all weekend and was crying. Instead of sending her off to school, I sent her back up to bed with a gravol to try to get her some sleep. She rested a little but didn’t get enough sleep. Stupid steroid!

Then on Wednesday she received the chemo shots into her thigh muscles and that appointment is a looooooong boring, 4 hour appointment. It takes about an hour to get signed in and to process the request for the chemo to be delivered to the clinic. They won’t process the order for the chemo (through the pharmacy) until the patient is physically signed in, and then after the injections, she’s got to hang around the clinic for an additional 3 hours just in case she has a anaphylactic reaction to the drug. Apparently its a possibility with this drug and the more times that you receive the drug, the greater the likelihood that you might possibly have a reaction.

So she goes in and hangs out and watches movies for 4 hours. Fun, fun!

She felt pretty good today and she only has 2 more doses of the steroid and then her week off starts.

The way this stage works out is that there are two parts…..The first 4 weeks and then the second 4 weeks…

The first 4 weeks looks like this….

Day 1 – Chemo via LP and IV
Day 4, or 5 or 6 – Chemo into her thighs
Day 8 – Chemo via IV
Day 15 – Chemo via IV
Day 22 nothing

first half is over…..

Day 29 – Chemo via IV
Day 30 – Chemo via IV
Day 31 – Chemo via IV
Day 32 – Chemo via IV

Day 36 – Chemo via IV
Day 37 – Chemo via IV
Day 38 – Chemo via IV
Day 39 – Chemo via IV

Day 43 – Chemo via IV and Intramuscular

Day 50 – Chemo via IV

and then we wait until Day 57 or until her counts come up enough to start Maintenance…..

There are the steroids and the oral chemo that I’ve not mentioned and well, really it all “seems” like a lot and that’s because it is a lot to deal with and keep straight, BUT……..we’ve done this round before and we are trying to stay focused on the fact that every day we finish, brings us one day closer to the end of this intensive year of chemotherapy.

Today is day 7…we have one week under our belts with only 7 weeks of treatment to go……

Angelica had a decent day today. She stayed at home because she needed to get a bunch of work done for her Homestay Teacher. The biggest challenge today is managing her blood sugar levels by food which is complicated by the fact that all she wants to eat are carbs and high sugar foods, add in the steroid which makes her feel hungry ALL THE TIME and coming up with creative ideas for what to eat is pretty much a full time job right now.

She has her next trip into BC Children’s tomorrow morning.

We are asking for you to pray as Geli goes through this last round before maintenance. She needs to be able to stay positive mentally and emotionally as we make our way over the next 2 months. She is tired. This has been a very long 10 months and just before she started this round she was feeling pretty good. She was feeling very normal, probably the most normal that she has since this journey started and to all of the sudden feel pretty crappy again….it’s a hard blow to take.

And also that she wouldn’t feel so wiped this weekend. It would be nice for her to be able to enjoy the weekends with our family.

Thank you for all your support and prayers. We would not be where we are at now without all of your love and support and encouragement and prayers.

We are SO THANKFUL!