Thursday Clinic Visit - Maintenance Round 17

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

Today at clinic, I made it known that Katie had been running fevers and they put us in a room by ourselves. It was too bad too because one of Katie's little friends was in the infusion room, but I would hate to see one of the other little kiddos get sick if Katie was still contagious. It's always more fun when you are in the infusion room and there are people to talk to while you are waiting.

Helen came in to see Katie and she brought with her 2 small figurines. One was Mickey and the other was Minnie. Helen just went to Disney World and apparently Mickey and Minnie knew that Katie is coming soon. So, they asked Helen to bring these back to Katie and let her know that they are very excited to meet her in October. Katie was thrilled that the "REAL" Minnie and Mickey sent these for her...lol. Thank you Helen - You're THE BEST!

Also, on today's social calendar, Katie added Dr. Grossman, one of the other oncologists, to her list of boyfriends. He was VERY happy to hear this news because he has been fighting for a spot on this list for MONTHS now...lol. Dr. Keuker is still in the #1 position, Jeff from Hole in the Wall Gang is #2, Brendan, the little boy next door is #3 and now Dr. Grossman is #4. Dr. Keuker was not too happy about this news and he mentioned something about challenging him to a duel for the girl's honor...lol.. I walked in at the tail end of that conversation and may have heard it all wrong...lol..

I asked nurse practitioner, Jen, about Katie getting her "regularly scheduled" vaccinations and she agreed that Katie should not be receiving any routine vaccinations right now. At the end of her treatment, they will check her antibody titers (level of antibody to a certain disease in her immune system) for all of the routine vaccinations. Depending on where her levels are at, she may or may not have to get them over again. But, in the meantime, there is no way of knowing if her body will mount an appropriate response with the vaccinations anyway, so there is no use giving them until she is done with chemotherapy. As far as school is concerned, she will require a special "pass" on the vaccination requirements for now.

Dr, Keuker also decided that since Katie had been on antibiotics for 24 hours and fever free for almost 20 hours that she could stop the antibiotics. Of course, we will have to call back if she spikes another fever. This was great news, but rather annoying all at the same time. We paid $50.00 for the liquid antibiotic, Cleocin, and she only took 3 (11 ml) doses of this drug and now it is trash. Because it is liquid, it is only good for a few weeks...it expires on 3/17/10. What a total waste of money!!!!!!!! ARGH! Don't get me wrong, I am glad that Katie no longer needs it, but it makes me wonder if she really needed it to begin with.

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)

Her next clinic visit will be in 3 weeks, March 25th, which will include a lumbar puncture.

OH, and in case you were wondering, there are only 10 clinic visits, 2 lumbar punctures and 1 bone marrow test left, but who's counting? I AM, DAMMIT!!!