Day 5 & 6 of Chemo

I apologies for not having an update yesterday. I had to catch up on my sleep while Erika was asleep all through out the day yesterday. Her second day of chemo consisted of Prednisone (steroid for a total of 29 days) and Doxorubicin (just day 4 and 5). The side effect she felt mostly were from nausea. She was on a high does of anti-nausea medication which was why she was asleep all day. Other than that, she went through it all well.

Yesterday we got a visit from Dr. Ash. She is in charge of the Clinical Trial studied and organized by the Dana-Farber Cancer Institute (affiliated with Harvard Medical School), http://www.dana-farber.org. She gave us good news. After doing the second bone marrow biopsy, the lab found very low traces blast cells (the leukemia cells of ALL). Although, her concerns are the spot they found in the middle of her brain from the MRI over the weekend. The question is why did her spinal fluid show negative of leukemia when there is a spot in her brain? Normally, if there is leukemia up there, then there is leukemia down below in the spine. Because of this, they want to do another spinal tap next week on Monday to verify the data and throw in another small dose of chemo.

Dr. Ash  re-assured us that even though Erika opted in the clinical trial, she's in very good hands. Not only does she have all of the staffs support here at the LDS hospital, but she also has Doctors in Boston who are also watching her progress through the trial. There are a total of 114 spots for this trial. Erika was the 114th volunteer to take the last spot. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dana-Farber

Today, day 6 of chemo, she received a dose of Methotrexate along with another does of anti-nausea. We'll see how she does today.

"Hospital food sucks" Erika said.

The chemo in light sensitive bag.

RN, Nataliya, injecting the chemo.

Chemo going into the central line.

RN, forgetting to cover the chemo. It was only exposed for less than a minute.