More Info

Hi Everyone - we wanted to give a little more detail regarding Mom's trip to Buffalo and how everything shook out today.

Mom's liver is starting to get back to where it needs to be. It's made some progress that we are hoping continues through until she starts back up on Monday. Her other blood counts are all good - white blood cells slightly up due to a small, manageable infection but otherwise they are right where they need to be. We won't know how many blast cells she has from her bone marrow until Monday when we get there.

Mom was given the option of starting Thursday or Monday - there would have been no difference, just a few extra days of rest. Mom surprisingly (is there a special font for sarcasm?) chose to rest longer at home. That means we'll be packing up for the long haul on Sunday and heading out to get her settled in the Hope House for Course 2. Course 2 is the Consolidation Phase, where the chemo is designed to keep the leukemia from multiplying.

Course 2 consists of a phase A and phase B, both identical and both 28 days long for a total of 56 days. Day 1 will be a very difficult day (that will be next Monday). She will have interthecal chemotherapy in her spine, 3 hours of additional chemo and a host of other pills and shots. The remainder of 2A will be pills, shots and visits to the clinic. Some will be done at the hospital and sometimes they will send a nurse over to administer right at the Hope House. After the 28 days of Course 2A she does the same exact thing for Course 2B. Day 29 will be another tough day and the remainder of 2B will be pills, shots and visits to the clinic... etc.

While we're at the Hope House we're expected to get into a sort of normal routine. I think we all have a new definition of normal, but we're looking forward to having a kitchen, a private room where people are required to knock before entering and won't be doing so every 20 minutes, and we are happy to be rid of that dang beeping pole. Maybe we'll even make some friends that we can make Christmas cookies with. Whatever we do, we're going to do the best we can to get Mom better and get her home.

Tonight we sat around chatting about the day and wondering about what is to come. Mom was very happy to be able to spend some time catching up with Gina, who brought over a tray of lasagna that her mother, Barbara, made. She didn't even get out of the driveway and we had mom's piece heating up. Within minutes half the tray was gone and there was silence from all of us for the first time all day. It was delicious, needless to say. Dad is already wondering when an appropriate time to "put another request" in would be.

Tomorrow I'll be working from Mom's house and Sancho and LuLu will be taking over watching Mom. Just joking, they'll be helping but I'll be doing most of the dirty work. I think Mom might be a little more happy about taking her pills if I have them delivered on a paper cup strapped to LuLu's head though... I may have to try that tomorrow. We're always looking for new and interesting ways to make pill taking less miserable for Mom. I'll let everyone know how it goes.

Hope everyone is having a good night. Thanks again for all the well wishes and prayers.

Love,

Amy