7/11/05
8:30 PM (Randall posting): As anticipated, today was a busy day. Ashley from church (different from Ashley from Duke) came early this morning to stay with the girls while I worked on a variety of chores (mostly preparing for worship on Sunday and sorting through all the material I collected last week for my 35 page paper). Susan had been long gone by the time the rest of the house woke up, and she put in another long day today.
The Home Health nurse came this morning as well, and she did bloodwork and helped with the dressing change (always traumatic, no matter what). Sophie's counts came back this afternoon, and they're holding steady. Her ANC is still right on the borderline of being worrisome, but that's where they've been for a while.
Because her counts are where they are, she'll get the same dosage of methotrexate tomorrow that she received the last two visits to the clinic. Tomorrow she will also receive vincristine and--don't tell her--a spinal tap with methotrexate. She's awfully worked up about the spinal tap, but I don't know what else to do other than to keep reassuring her that it's necessary to keep her well and that because she'll be asleep (this time), it won't hurt. We'll see how she does tomorrow with all of that!
Elisabeth did her first swim lesson today and did really, really well! Mostly, I think she was excited about seeing friends from school (Haley, Sarah, and Megan) who are taking lessons this week as well. Elisabeth was not exactly the best swimmer in the bunch, but by the end of the time, she was actually propelling herself in the water (underwater even). I was really proud of her and she was proud of herself, I could tell.
Tomorrow is a big day for all of us. I'll be taking Sophie to the clinic for her last visit in this phase of the treatment, Susan will stay home and worry and fret over her proposal (due tomorrow afternoon), and Elisabeth has swimming, piano, and dance back-to-back-to-back.
When is the weekend?