EARLY RAPID RESPONDER!!!!! Wooo Hooo!!!

Monday Dec 6
Hi everybody... it's been a busy last two days.  We started the day yesterday Sunday with getting our Christmas tree and starting to decorate it.  Then Madelyn became extremely tired and pale so we were worried.  We called the on-call Doctor and he said to head to the ER to check her blood cell counts.  Luckily, they were excellent yesterday.  I have a feeling she just got overly tired from the fun of Thanksgiving the day before.  


This was the first time I had to "stay behind" too.  That was hard.  Madelyn has been very clingy to Peter during all her procedures and accessing of her port.  I think his big strong arms make her feel very good.  She wanted Peter to go with her and so I had to stay behind with Sophia.  I was glad my sister Kim was there for a visit.  It was hard to sit and wait the 3 hours to hear how she was doing.


BUT today we had fabulous news!  The results of her bone marrow biopsy came back by our appointment today and what we were praying for has come true!  She is an Early Rapid Responder.  Basically the chemotherapy is working in it's current regiment and she will not have to go on a more aggressive treatment schedule.  This also increases her survival rate significantly.  It also means she will not need her additional bone marrow biopsy that was scheduled for this Friday.  HOORAY MADELYN!!!!!!


I am just now having a few minutes to myself... both girls are napping at the same time... and I am just crying.  I am soooooo happy for Madelyn.  Her tiny little body is fighting back big time.  This is day 8 of her chemotherapy and they like to see less than 5% Leukemia in order to be labeled an Early Rapid Responder.  She had 2%!!!  This is just AWESOME.  


Also her ANC (that number that tells us how well she can fight off bacteria, infection, etc) is at 1300!  This is just amazing.  Normal levels are over 1,000.


She is such a big girl.  The nurses continue to be impressed.  Continuing to only want to swallow pills, helping the nurses removing tapes and bandages, and being goofy to make them laugh.  


She is starting to have a little trouble with her walking.  This is a usual side effect of one of her chemotherapy drugs called Vincristine.  It effects the nerves in her limps and makes them "not work right" as Madelyn says.  She will start some physical therapy soon for this and it should cease when she stops the Vincristine.


I want to thank everyone who is sending us wonderful notes of encouragement.  I may not respond right away but only because I have not had the time.  Keep sending them.  Peter and I both love them.  Truly it raises our spirits.  It feels so good to read all your notes and to know that you are all thinking of us and especially our Madelyn.


I also want to tell you all how amazing our families are.  Urs, Harriet, Terry and Jim with our friends Tony and our sweet Ashley, packed up our house, let us borrow lots of stuff and moved us into the apartment.  My sister Jen got everything we would need for handing Madelyn's chemotherapy drugs and helped me completely disinfect the apartment before we moved in.  My sister Jill has been making calls and dealing with our KP Studios "stuff."  Jim and Urs bought us new tires and had them installed.  The window of our car happened to break two days before this all started and they got that fixed.  Jim completely cleaned out our car.  I'm talking vacuum and a clean.  Man o' man... that was probably about the grossed job EVER.  Terry organized a whole Thanksgiving dinner that arrived on our door step on Saturday. We are beyond thankful.


Ok,Madelyn just woke up from her nap.  Those steroids... hungry again... more soon...


Much love... Lisa