Today's clinic visit went pretty smoothly, but still no Helen! She left about a week & 1/2 ago to go to the Holy City. Before she left, I asked her to say some prayers for Katie & all of our little friends at the clinic that our fighting this disease in some way or another and she assured me that it was already on her itinerary :-) We have not seen Helen in 6 weeks and we are really starting to miss her! Hopefully we will get a chance to see her before Christmas, when she comes back from her trip.
It's funny how the lines of professionalism get so blurred when dealing with something like this. Especially with someone like Helen who is SO warm & caring toward Katie. It is just so hard to say that she is just Katie's nurse. She has kind of become a 3rd grandmother to her. She can never retire because we would be lost without her!
Anyway, today's clinic visit consisted of the following:
1) Port access
2) a blood draw
3) 2nd (& last) H1N1 flu shot
4) Vincristine (Chemo)
More & more, Katie is fighting us on all of this. I thought that it would get easier as she got "used" to it, but as she has gotten older, smarter & healthier, she has decided to fight us off. During her port access, there was ear deafening screams and kicking. Then tonight, when I was giving her the steroids, or the "yucky medicine" as she calls it, she decided to refuse to swallow it and spit it all out. To which I had to explain to her that I now had to go and make new "yucky medicine" and give it to her all over again. She was not too happy about it, but she took the second round OK. GOOD GOD! I am sure she is more than sick of all of this as are we.
This cycle will last 3 weeks and consist of the following:
Vincristine - Day 1 (same dose as previous cycles)
Methotrexate (oral at home chemo) - Days 1, 8 & 15 (same dose as the last cycle)
6-mercapturine (oral at home chemo) - Days 1-14 (same dose as the last cycle)
Dexamethasone (oral at home steroid)- Days 1-5 (same dose as the last cycle)
Next planned clinic visit will be in three weeks, December 31, New Years Eve morning.
GLC Holiday Party
14 years ago
1 comment:
Katie's behavior in clinic is totally normal for her age and what she's going through. There's so much about her treatment that is hard and that she can't control, that it is natural to struggle against it. Next time you're in clinic (well, after New Year's Eve, since I am off that day), we can talk over some strategies that might help.
Thanks for sharing your blog with me. I love getting a glimpse into your lives outside clinic!
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