Off-Treatment Clinic Visit #3

Our third off-treatment visit and it is still feeling weird to us.  Before, when Katie was undergoing treatment, we would get to clinic and get settled in for a while because we knew she would be there for about 3-4 hours which would give us plenty of time to chat with everyone. Now, we barely have time to catch of glimpse of some of our favorite people...so, we miss them!!! I know, it's kind of weird. But, these people have been a part of our lives for 2+ years now and some of them have become like our extended family.

Anyway, we were only there for about 15 minutes when Dr. Keuker came in to examine Katie. She was upset because our friend Danielle, from Why Me, had just come into the room with donuts. So, Katie was going to have to wait for her donut...lol. Anyway, Dr. Keuker and I had another discussion about the rash on Katie's hands and he decided that it was nothing to be concerned about and that we could write it off as dry skin/eczema/sensitive skin. He said that it wasn't anything that we needed to "treat" unless it became unbearably itchy for her. So, we'll see what happens with that.

As he was wrapping up and saying his goodbyes, I reminded him that she still needed a blood test. Which, he agreed, but was surprised that she didn't already have her blood drawn.

Shortly after the doctor left, Danielle, the IV specialist (different Danielle), came in to take a blood draw. This poor woman - she is so, SO nice and she is extremely good at her job, but she always gets greeted with tears and a scream because Katie knows what is coming next. Katie hasn't gotten used to the blood draws yet, so it still scares her even though I imagine it is less painful than having her port accessed. Not that I have anything to base that on other than I can compare the size of the needles and see that the one used for the blood draw is a lot smaller and I know what it feels like to give blood. I am sure that she will get used to it eventually, but it just sucks that she even has to "get used to" something like this!! We do not have to wait around for the results from her CBC, so we left immediately following the blood draw and we won't hear from them unless they have found something that we need to worry about.

Mike scheduled Katie's next appointment for February 24th, which I promptly changed because that is Katie's birthday and there is NO WAY that I am bringing her for a clinic appointment on her birthday!!!

We were in and out of clinic in an hour today...I think that is record time!!! Katie went directly to school after her clinic visit, to her gymnastics lesson no less!!!

Her next appointment is scheduled for Thursday, February 10, 2011.