Stuck in the in between

Brinley's IVAD, incase you're wondering

Yesterday we reached out 29th day of induction. At 6am Brinley took her last dose of dexamethasone and away we went to the children's hospital.  Her procedure today was to have a lumbar puncture, and another Intrathecal methotrexate, and cytarabine, but that wasn't until 1pm. Brinley was had her IVAD accessed without any issues, and her blood work was looking good.  The wait was a bit brutal, just based off the fact that I had given her a steroid that makes her crave food...and she can't have anything to eat or drink until 1pm.  But Brinley was a champ, she sat quietly and patiently waiting not saying much and at the odd time would play with her brother. Oh yes I brought Carter! I was super glad i did because he did amazing, and he was able to take part in making Christmas crafts at the beach. 

Finally we get the call that they are coming up to get Brinley for her surgery! After waiting 20 mins outside the O.R. they wheel her in and the anesthesiologist starts asking me questions about day of diagnosis, what type of cancer she has, how she handles anesthetic, etc etc...has this lady even read her chart?  Anyways I go over Brinley's chart with her pointing out her procedures, medications all of the above.  They inject Brinley, with what I like to call the Micheal Jackson drug and she's out like a light.  I'm telling you, it doesn't get any easier watching you're child get put to sleep, I've been through it 6 times in the last month, and it doesn't get easier.

watching fireworks

An hour goes by and Brinley is back in the clinic. She's in much more pain due to the bone marrow aspiration.  They try and draw marrow from the same general area, and after each draw they have to manipulate the area more and more, so she's in a bit of pain, nothing codeine won't fix.

After Brinley is settled with a snack the doctor comes in to speak with me about the next step.  And the next step....*drum roll* .............

Is that we have to wait until next week for her bone marrow to get back, possibley the week after.  All bone marrow is sent to Calgary, and it takes time, and with Christmas added to that, it may take even a bit longer.  So right now we cannot consider consolidation yet because that is all based off of her bone marrow.  2 weeks ago, her lymphoblast cells here 2% which is great, but they have to be 1% or lower for consolidation.  If they are still 2% she will enter "extended induction" which means high doses of chemo, more often, for a week...which could result in....Christmas at the Stollery. If we results are 1% or less, we might be able to kick off consolidation in the out patient clinic...again sometimes a week at the hospital is needed to make sure the child balances out and can handle the chemo.

So for right now we are stuck between induction, and extended induction, OR consolidation. What a mouthful.

Oh joy. So here is my Christmas wish, bone marrow results come in on the week after Christmas, it's less than 1% and we can continue to stay home. Come on Santa I've tried really hard this year!

So right now I'm going to get my stuff together, choke down some kind of christmasy coffees from Starbucks, and finish my Christmas shopping...or should i say start it?