Start of Phase 2: Consolidation

Today we went to visit the clinic after having a full week off of steroids and other chemo drugs. Molly is still taking septra twice a week to prevent a certain kind of pneumonia (yeah! Spelled THAT right the 1st time!), but other than that we have been drug free! Molly's mood and personality has done a complete 180 degree turn-around. It took about 3 days, but she is now the cheerful, playful, excitable toddler she used to be. I really couldn't remember her being so happy before... I had to go back and watch videos I took of her to see how she was before the cancer started this dance with her.

Finally some smiles!

It really is a dance... she isn't fighting cancer, she's dancing with it. And when it's too tired to dance anymore, it will go away and she won't dance with it again. I hear stories of children having relapses and even giving in to the cancer after relapsing. I don't know anything about how their lives were being lived out during that time, because they don't post on their blogs what they were eating or how much exercise they were getting. But I am determined to help Molly's immune system grow as strong as it can to keep the cancer too tired to dance. I will certainly NOT let it enter our lives again because of poor diet and inactivity. This means we won't be eating much sugar, refined grains, red meat, and dairy. I am sure I am leaving a lot of stuff out of that small "do not eat EVER" list, but I don't want to spend too much time on that right now. "EVER?" you say? Well, alright we'll eat them sparingly. But they are no longer going to be a staple in our diet.We just can't strengthen the cancer with those foods anymore.

At the clinic today the nurse accessed Molly's port with the needle and tried to draw blood for labs. The port line under her skin must have been clogged because she just could not get any blood! She pushed and pulled lots of saline through the port hoping to dislodge any small clots, but it didn't work and we ended up giving up on labs for the time being and got sent down to the RTU for Molly's lumbar puncture. We finished that, and returned to the clinic to get our chemo schedule for the next phase, and to try to get a blood draw again. They administered just enough tPA (tissue plasminogen activator) to dissolve any clots in the port line, and then tried to draw blood again. It worked!

Molly had her blood drawn for labs on Christmas eve, and the results from that were all where we wanted them to be. Everything is working so far, Molly is still low-risk, and we are moving on to the Consolidation phase. Here is the treatment for this phase:

• Second phase: Consolidation. The goal of consolidation therapy is to reduce the number of disease cells left in the body. The drugs and doses used during consolidation therapy depend on the patient's risk factors. 4 weeks long.
  
  • 1x/day chemo drug by mouth (mercaptopurine or PURINETHOL) (Side effects: low blood counts, possible liver damage)
  • 1x/phase chemo drug through the port implant (vincristine or ONCOVIN) (Side effects: hair loss)
  • 3x/phase on days 1, 8, and 15 lumbar puncture and chemotherapy administration (methotrexate or (TREXALL) (Side effects: low blood counts, nausea, mouth sores, poor appetite)

We had a fantastic Christmas and Molly and Big Sis got way too many presents, but they deserve them anyways. I am so happy that Molly had enough time to detox from the steroids before Christmas day. Big Sis has been saying that she misses playing with Molly, and I am incredibly overjoyed that they could play together with all their new toys all day! I also enjoyed myself some new Doctor Who episodes (yay!). Daddy was scheduled to work at the theater all night though (boo!). I think that Daddy working so often at nights makes the time we have together mean that much more to us, and we use it more wisely.

Molly and Big Sis opening presents on Christmas 2012!

P.S.

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