10/5/05
8:45 PM Today has been a long, long day. Sophie and I left this morning right at 6:00 AM (it was still quite dark) and went to the clinic. The clinic was not terribly busy today, which was nice. Normally it's a "zoo" (as our doctor refers to it). Sophie's Carolina Pal, Adrianne, was there, which was nice (have we mentioned her before? Basically, the Carolina Pal program pairs a UNC undergraduate with one oncology patient and every time the child is in the clinic, the undergraduate, if they are available, comes to visit and play with the kid). She and Sophie played quite a bit on the computer in the play room.
The treatments went well. After a quick exam, Sophie and I went into the room that is normally used just for blood draws and the like, so there was no trauma associated with any of that (yet). The nurse drew blood, administered the vincristine and the next thing you know, out came the lidocaine spray and the PEG shot. Sophie got agitated only at the very last minute (once the spray came out) and that was that. She cried for a fair amount afterwards, but she got a Shrek Band-Aid and before long, was back to playing. Surprisingly, her counts are strong, and her immune system count (ANC) is even higher than last week. The nurse was already preparing me for the likelihood that Sophie will need a transfusion next week (or sometime after that) once her counts bottom out from this round of treatment. Today felt a bit like a milestone, though, as it was the last PEG shot and after this we have one more dose of vincristine and we're done (until the next round).
We were back on the road around 10:00 AM heading home. By the time we got home, it was all I could do to stay awake and get lunch prepared. Needless to say, we both crashed after lunch for a nap! I don't know when I have ever felt so tired.
Susan had a busy day at work, it sounds like she is feeling overwhelmed. Elisabeth had a good day at school (they had an assembly today, which is always fun. I can remember having assemblies when I was a kid).