Friday, February 1, 2008

No More Chemo Yet

Well, Anya's counts weren't high enough on Wednesday to start chemo on Thursday. So her doctor has asked that we come back in on Monday, February 4th to try again. She is fairly confident that the counts will be high enough by that time to start on Tuesday.

The doctors weren't concerned that Anya's counts hadn't recovered yet since she has been traditionally late in dropping and recovering. And they were thankful for the break so that Anya's bottom will have more time to heal. She is still waking in the night with pain and discomfort from it.

If we start on Tuesday, this phase will be completed in four weeks bar any infections. After that Anya will be able to start Maintenance once her counts recover again after this final part of delayed intensification. The next few weeks will include clinic visits for intravenous chemo, oral chemo, spinal taps, and a stay or two at the hospital.

Also wanted to share one story: In keeping with Israel's side of the family's tradition of giving each other lots of nicknames, we call Anya 'bean' and Esther 'pie'. Last night we were sitting at the table eating chili (we make ours similar to goulash). Anya picked through her bowl and ate everything except the beans. She asked for more pasta and I told her that she needed to eat two beans before she could get anything else. To encourage her my dad said, "You need to eat beans because after all your mommy calls you 'beany'." Anya sat and thought for a moment and then said, "Then I would prefer to be called 'pie'." Wouldn't we all?!