Halfway Home

Hey Ya'll.....Bill again,

Well, we got started on the chemo about 9:45 pm last night. It was a looonnnnggggg night! Initially, Erin had a severe headache which I think subsided about 11:00 pm after some pain med. The chemo is administered over 3 hours during which they must periodically come in and check her vital signs. Then when the chemo finished at 1:00 am, they started her on two units of blood because her H&H (red cells) were low. So, that was another four hours to complete with periodic checks to make sure she was okay. When the transfusion was complete around 5:00 am, they had to stick her arm to draw blood for labs which she hates. After that things quieted down for a while and she slept pretty much until 8:30 when she had some breakfast before starting the next round of chemo at 9:00 am. As I am writing this she is sleeping soundly which is a good thing. All-in-all, other than constant interruptions through the night, she did pretty well. No nausea and no stomach pain so far! When she completes this morning's round, she will have two more to go spaced 12 hours apart followed by the triple shot L-Asparaginase on Wednesday afternoon. If all goes well, hopefully, we will be headed home around dinner time on Wednesday to recover!

For those of you keeping score, her WBC was .5 yesterday, HGB ws 7.6, and her HCT 22.0. Her plateletes were 82. This is essentially day 8 of 9 for this round. We believe her counts are heading towards the bottom and then it will be a matter of waiting for them to come back up. Since it is a split round, we're not sure what to expect as far as how quickly her numbers will start to bounce back. The doctor told us yesterday that it may take longer this round just because her system has been hit so hard by all the prior rounds. Our prayer is that her counts will recover quickly with minimal side affects during the low cycle so she will have a few relatively good weeks before starting back to work in August. She will also have to be careful not to overdo (which I think will be very hard for her) for several months to really let her system recover from the chemical warfare that has been waged against it for the past 7 months.

As always we thank the Lord that he has blessed us with such an awesome group of prayer warriors to help us make this journey! We have truly felt His presence and yours throughout this process.

Our heartfelt thanks and appreciation go out to all of you.....blessings, Bill

"In that day you will no longer ask me anything. I tell you the truth, my Father will give you whatever you ask in my name. Until now you have not asked for anything in my name. Ask and you will receive, and your joy will be complete. Though I have been speaking figuratively, a time is coming when I will no longer use this kind of language but will tell you plainly about my Father. In that day you will ask in my name. I am not saying that I will ask the Father on your behalf. No, the Father himself loves you because you have loved me and have believed that I came from God. " - John 16:23-27