April 22

I thought we'd know next weeks schedule after today. But, alas, we do not. Her counts were:

Hem 39.5    Plat 157   WBC 5.4   ANC 335

The oncologist who saw us today (not her usual doctor because this was a post-inpatient followup appointment) thought Madelyn's counts could still rebound by Monday.  Her ANC needs to be above 750 to move into the second phase of Delayed Intensification.  I can't imagine she'll be there by Monday right now, but we will see.  She will be NPO (no food or drink) after 3:30am that morning.  So I will bring lots of snacks with us.  If she does not end up moving forward with her battery of chemo, as scheduled, she can at least EAT!

Madelyn has been feeling good since Thursday afternoon.  This means my shoulders have begun to relax and are not located next to my ears anymore.  She pooped THREE times today.  Oh ya!  We're doing the poo-poo dance.  Ah huh!  You go girl.  Woo hoo!!  Miralax is our friend.  

We had a good day except for a moment when the girls were taking a bath together, started fighting over an alligator and a My-Little-Pony, I was trying to pee and email the studio about work at the same time.  Multi-tasking to the extreme.  Not pretty.

So one more thing before I sign off tonight.  Madelyn has been increasingly more stressed during the accessing of her port recently.  Crying, screaming, anxiety.  Today Peter asked that Child Life come.  Madelyn loved having someone come and chat with her directly.  She loves talking with people and telling them her stories.  Then, this young, sweet Theresa from Child Life (did I mention how old I feel these days), followed us into the room for accessing and suggested that she use an IPad.  MJ played games, popped bubbles and ... well, loved it.  She barely noticed the needle going in other than to say "make sure and count." 

I also have a group of three other women from Edmonton, AB, Wisconsin and Los Angeles that I email with.  Their cuties are between 3 1/2-4 1/2 yrs and are in the exact same stage of treatment, with the exact same type of Leukemia, with the exact same indicators (Standard Risk, Early Rapid Responders) .  It has been very nice chatting with them.  Well, they have just been commenting that the IPad should be prescribed to parents who have children facing cancer.  Needless to say, we will be the proud owners of an IPad soon.  It will be Madelyn's IPad.