Thursday Clinic Visit

Today, Kaitlyn was supposed to start round 2 of Phase IV: Consolidation II (anyone else confused?) but she did not start because her absolute phagocyte count (APC) was too low. It is supposed to be at 1,000 and her count was 892. So, her doctor has delayed the start of the next round for at least another week. I don't like delaying her treatment, it makes me very nervous and I expressed that concern to her doctor. He told me that I should not be concerned about this because delays happen all the time. He said that it just means that she is responding really well to the chemo, in fact, she may be responding too well and they may have to scale back on her dosages.


The science behind all this is truly amazing. They walk a fine line with the treatment plans between toxicity to the body versus benefit or treating the disease. Kaitlyn's counts indicate they may be a little too aggressive for her and they may decide to scale back on some chemo dosages. But that won't be determined until at least the next round. If her counts are consistently low, they may make a change.


The other white cell count they look at is called absolute neutrophil count (ANC). If under 500, she is considered neutropenic, which basically means that her white count is really low and she is susceptible to everything. Her count is right at 500, so we will be extra cautious this week as we really don't want to be spending Christmas in the hospital.


All the technicalities out of the way and her doctor sat down to play a little bit with Kaitlyn today...


Katie playing with Jeff from Hole in the Wall Gang and Dr. Koo Koo...

Dr. Keuker...

This is Dr. Keuker and he is saving my daughter's life. I regard this man with THE HIGHEST ESTEEM. What can I say? Somehow, "thank you" doesn't seem to be enough. We are blessed to have him taking such excellent care of Katie. And at 2 years old, we approve of her choice for a "boyfriend" :-)