Off-treatment clinic visit #12

This afternoon, Katie had her 1 year out of treatment clinic visit.

We met with Nurse Practitioner, Chris, today who talked about "the possibility of relapse" which I don't really want to even think about nevemind talk about. But, it was good to hear a medical professional talk about the decline in likelihood as she gets further away from treatment. Kaitlyn's blood looks good and there are no swollen "nodes" anywhere!

Her blood draw this time included a test for her antibody "titers". This required taking 6 vials of blood. Needless to say, this was not fun for Katie, but the testing is required to determine what level of immunity is left in her body after all the chemotherapy she received. Once these levels come back, they will decide what vaccines she is required to receive for re-immunization. These results will be sent over to her primary care doctor and we will have to go there to get her necessary immunizations. We will get these results at her next clinic visit and start the re-immunization process after the holidays.

Kaitlyn is now on a "two-month" clinic schedule, so we only have to go every other month - or 6 whole visits in a year. How awesome is THAT?!! I can remember going 6 times in a 2 week period!!!!!

OH! and I can't forget that Katie got to bring home "Echo" & "Baby Echo" again from kindergarten :-) They didn't really help very much in the blood draw process, but I think it means the world to Katie to have the special privilege.
Her next appointment is scheduled for Wednesday, January 04, 2012.