Thursday Clinic Visit

Today's clinic visit marks the end of the third cycle of Phase IV for Kaitlyn's treatment and it was very nerve wracking. She started her visit as usual with a weigh-in and height measurement. Then a short while after that, she had to have her blood drawn to see where her counts were at today. At this time, she is neutropenic and her counts are too low to even give her the shot of Methotrexate that is due tomorrow. This makes me very nervous. I hate it when they decide to do something other than the "plan". I know that her protocol has specific information to follow and this is one of the instances included, but it just makes me nervous to not give her the treatment that she was due tomorrow.

She also received two shots of PEG aspariginase today which she is starting to exhibit signs of an allergic reaction to. She developed what looked like hives at the injection site. So, her doctor is going to look into a replacement drug for the PEG aspariginase. A drug called Erwinia aspariginase which is made in Europe and is not always available. This drug would be administered twice weekly instead of every other week like the PEG aspariginase. Which, if they choose to switch her to this drug, would mean that we would have clinic appointments three times per week...sigh...we would have to do that until May when she reaches the Maintenance phase of her treatment. They also gave her some Benadryl so that the allergic reaction does not get any worse. She has another dose of that to take at 9pm tonight and another tomorrow morning at 5am.

Her next clinic visit is scheduled for next Thursday where they will retake her blood and check to see if her counts are high enough to start the next round of Phase IV.