The Beginning of the Ending

I know it's been a while since I've updated the blog. Nothing really has changed. Erika was plowing through Consolidation 2 phase like a machine, dealing with the effects of chemo like a warrior, and has finished it. Now Erika has officially started her last phase of her treatment, the Maintenance phase.

The Maintenance phase dropped her steroids down to a 1/3 of what she normally would have taken, on the same schedule every three weeks, for a week and a half long. The reason for the decrease in dosage was because it took Erika a long time for her blood to recover. They also completely dropped Lovanox, the blood thinner which I had to inject twice a day. Thank goodness! Weekly she gets chemo of Methotrexate. They are still holding back Vincristine since she is still dealing with neuropathy. Although it does appear that it's getting better so I suspect she will be getting Vincristine in the next few weeks. This phase will last until she's been in remission for exactly two years. This makes her final day of the treatment sometime in February of 2015.

There have been talks about Erika getting her central line replaced with a port, which allows her to bathe and swim. This is exciting because she has been wanting to submerge herself in a hot-tub to maybe help relieve body pains...as well as getting a sense normality.

Regarding normality, after all of this non-sense, nothing can go back to normal. Going through something like this embeds a certain wisdom, a kind of knowledge that one can only obtain not by choice but thrown at through tears and pain. When a beam of light speckles at the far end of the tunnel, you learn to hope and not give up. Every step of the way through may be our last steps together, but we push through to the end, enjoy every moment, make the best of every situation with gratitude. Happy holidays everyone and thank you all for your love, care, and support.