Quick update for the long delay

These last few weeks have been pretty relaxed at home, but stressed at the same time when you take into account the waiting we've been doing for Molly's ANC to reach a level high enough for her to (1) get off of antibiotics and (2) start chemo treatment again. As of Thursday afternoon, it was at 600, which is above the number it needed to be to stop the antibiotics and de-access her port. But it needs to be at 750 in order to start chemo again, so we're still waiting. The Home Care nurse is coming over on Tuesday morning to take blood for labs again, and we're crossing all our fingers and toes that the ANC will be high enough to start chemo treatment again.

Normally I would be thrilled to have 4 weeks off from the weekly clinic visits, but this is hard on me because I am so worried that the cancer cells will have time to build up again and we'll have to start back at square one. Sigh, whatever happens, I just have to keep calm and carry on I suppose. There's no quitting for us.

Me and Molly's Daddy watched the movie My Sister's Keeper (2009) last week and it kind of hit home with us. Not the part where they had another child to use as a donor to keep their daughter alive, but the part where the mother did all she had to and all she could to keep her daughter healthy as long as possible. If you haven't seen it yet, ignore the remainder of this paragraph; there be spoilers ahead. Anyway, if Molly gets to the point where she really would have a better life if we let the cancer take her in it's own time, I hope that I can let it and let her have a happy {however long she has left} instead of taking my efforts to cure her so far that she has to resort to planning her own death. And I hope that the point at which that situation might become true is very clear so we don't have to dance around it forever with feelings of guilt.

P.S.

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Postponing the next phase

We got to go home from the hospital on Thursday January 31, but Molly's Absolute Neutrophil Count was still too low (300 - normal is about 1500 for cancer patients, and 3000 for healthy people) to take her off of the antibiotics, so she got sent home with her port accessed. She also had to take the medication for the c. diff. for another week. A low ANC means that she is at a very high risk of catching infectious diseases or getting an infection from open wounds.

We were hoping her ANC would come up so we could de-access her port and stop giving the antibiotics (I think she might be getting a yeast problem because of the meds) but the labs from Monday (Feb 4th) showed that her ANC went even lower (100), so it is apparent that we'll be giving her the cefepime through her IV port 3 times a day for at least another week. The pharmacist that sends us the meds told me that he thinks her ANC bottomed out and it will be rising pretty quickly now. We have labs scheduled for next Tuesday, and that will tell us if we can discontinue the antibiotics and start the next phase of chemo.

P.S.

Our family and friends are such great people! We are astounded at the level of support you all have for us! Thank you so much! By the way, Daddy is recovering just fine from his abdominal surgery. He's still sore and can't get comfortable when we sit and watch TV, but he's back to sleeping normally. It'll still be a few weeks before he can help with carrying kids around, but that's OK because we can't go anywhere with Molly's ANC so low anyway.

P.P.S.

Please comment if you have anything to say or if you have any additional questions about the post above you would like answered