Consolidation day 33: End of week 1…again

This was a relatively easy week. Scarlett’s hospitalization was quick and uneventful. By now we know most of the nurses and they know us so they bring us extra things that they know we like. They know what Scarlett wants and needs to be comfortable. Her port accessing went well with Scarlett helping as much as she could. She watches everything and helps to flush her tubies. She understood better this time that she couldn’t take a bath all week (butterfly wings can’t get wet after all). She still doesn’t like getting de-accessed but is getting a lot better with that. She recovered a lot quicker this time.

Scarlett didn’t have much nausea this week. We tried to stay on top of her nausea but she did throw up once on Friday. We think it had more to do with the fact that she was laying flat than anything else. She actually ran to the door when I came home today which is great. She hasn’t been able to run since the end of June. Her attitude is 100% better this month. I think the two weeks that it took her to recover really made her feel better. She had two weeks to just be herself and be without pain or exhaustion. She told me this morning that her legs hurt. I think that means that the chemo is really kicking in.

Next week, the chemo will reach its peak and her cells will decrease. The nadir (lowest point) is reached 7-10 days after the dose. Day 7 will be Monday so theoretically, her blood cells will all be destroyed early next week. She takes chemo orally every night on days 29-42. So she won’t start to produce more cells until around day 52. And it took almost a month last time to get her white blood cells into a healthy range. So, hopefully, by mid-December she should be able to see people again. That’s a LONG six weeks!

In the meantime, it could be another bad few weeks. Last weekend, Evie was a little sick. She threw up once and was just a little “blah”. She would wake up, throw up and mope around for a few hours but would perk up and be fine within a couple hours. She did that two days last week. This weekend, Tate has a full on case of the flu. According to this pattern, it should hit Scarlett next weekend. On day 40. Right at the beginning of her nadir. Right when she has no white blood cells to fight any type of infection. And at exactly the same time as she was hospitalized last cycle. All we can do is watch and wait and hope that, by some miracle, it misses her. Usually when the flu hits us, Evie gets it the worst, then Tate and Scarlett barely suffers. Hopefully, she lives up to that.

In the meantime, we will enjoy her good mood, her new personality and her princess attitude. She has been making us laugh a lot recently. She had a good day with Evie today. They enjoyed playing together, just the two of them and shared lots of snuggles. We will enjoy all the smiles and kisses that we can get!