Thursday Clinic Visit - Maintenance Round 2

Katie is doing REALLY well these days. The last round of steroids proved not to be so bad. The last few days on them, she was kind of whiny, but nowhere near as out of control as she has been on the higher doses and we didn't end up in the hospital this time, which is always a plus.

Over the past few weeks, I have been bringing Katie out to some of the local parks and I have noticed that she seems to have lost some of her leg strength. When she runs, it looks like her legs are made of cement and she has a hard time keeping up with the other kids her age. I am not too concerned with it because her legs aren't in pain, they are just weak and hopefully with a few more visits to the park, she will gain that strength back.

And finally, drum roll please....her hair IS DEFINITELY starting to grow back. At first, I thought it was my wishful thinking because it seemed so fast, but now, I am 100% convinced that it is starting to grow back. When Katie was a baby, she had this really cute hurricane-like swirl of hair on the back of her head and it has started to form again. I stare at it constantly and I am literally thrilled to tears to see that little swirl again. As soon as it fills in a bit more, you can bet there will be pictures :-)

Today's clinic visit consisted of the following:
1) Port access
2) a blood draw
3) Vincristine (Chemo)

This cycle will consist of the following:
Vincristine - Day 1 (same dose as previous cycles)
Methotrexate (oral at home chemo) - Days 1, 8 & 15 (increased dose from 7 pills to 7 & 1/2 pills because she has gained 3 pounds since the last clinic visit)
6-mercapturine (oral at home chemo) - Days 1-14 (same dose as previous cycles)
Dexamethasone (oral at home steroid)- Days 1-5 (much lower dose than previous cycles)

Next planned clinic visit will be in three weeks and unfortunately, it will include another lumbar puncture.