Serenity started Interim Maintenance this week. The hospital has reverted to an older protocol which has us going in every 10 days for intravenous vincristine and methotrexate. Although we had originally been told that most kids don’t get nausea with vincristine, it is one of the medications that Serenity was taking during Induction and she was quite sick. So we are not sure what to expect during this phase, as far as side effects. The good news is that she won’t have to take any oral meds at home, except as needed to manage side effects. This is a huge relief. I would much rather drive up to Primary Children’s 3-4 times a month for IV meds than have to try and force her to take them each day at home.
During this phase her chemo dose will be increased at every visit. At some point her blood counts will drop, and then the chemotherapy dosage will be dropped a little bit too. They want to give her the maximum dosage they can without causing her hematocrit, platelets, and ANC to drop too much. What this means is that we’re expecting her numbers to drop, we just don’t know when. I know this isn’t a huge thing, but it’s kind of scary to me. In the beginning her numbers were frequently low and she had to have many blood transfusions, and we couldn’t take her out in public places. With school starting up I worry about what she will be exposed to through the older kids.
What a blessing that you don’t have to give her meds at home anymore! I can’t imagine how hard it is to give your baby meds when you know she hates them and they make her feel badly. Good luck with this phase! I’m sure you will have difficult moments but look how far you’ve come! This phase will be successful and you, Phil, Serenity and your other children will come out the victors of this whole cancer battle.
Thinking of and praying for you all daily! 🙂
Kids and germs–I’ll be praying for that specifically.
Thank you both!