January 27, 2008

Hi everyone!

I thought I would write a weekend update. It has been a pretty decent week since Tuesday. I really think Alex is starting to feel better, all the way around. If you could see the changes in her since a month ago, you would be amazed. Unfortunately, her energy level and her mobility isn't getting much better... in fact, I think she has lost some endurance. I am a little concerned about it, but after calling the oncologist on Friday, they don't seem to be too concerned yet. One of my concerns is her heart... When she was first diagnosed she had an echo-cardiogram. They do this at first to check out the heart... muscles... how the heart is performing and then they use that to check against other scans as the treatment progresses. Some of the chemo drugs can damage the heart, so I want to make sure that isn't happening. With some of the other "rare" side effects that she has had, I don't want to take any chances. The doctor seems to think that her endurance, or lack of, is due to her extremely low blood counts, and that should improve as her counts do.

My husband and I finally had a night to ourselves last night!!! My mom came and spent the night with Alex and Dan and I went to dinner with friends and then we spent the evening downtown. It was a great night... it was such a nice day and the evening was so mild, that we were able to walk all over downtown, have a few drinks... meet up with friends... and then even went to my other favorite restaurant, after dinner, for creme brulee and coffee. It was nice to get away and leave Alex is capable hands. She had a great time with her grandma. Thanks mom!!!! I don't know what I would do without her!

Tuesday is going to be another busy day at the hospital. Alex has her regular appointment in the clinic, and then we head over to the University side and she sees the Neurologist. They have been wanting to see her to check her progress from her stroke. I am really hoping for an MRI soon to see how that dang blood clot is doing. Just to see if there is any, even if little, progress has been made will make me feel MUCH better!!! PLUS, we both are so excited to get rid of the Lovenox shots some day!!! Poor Alex is so black and blue right now from the twice a day shots. It is getting hard finding a place to give them to her, and she has about 5 more months to go... Uggg!!! And another thing... with her platelet count so low, everything bruises her. And I mean BAD!!! Alex joked the other day that she is going to call Child Abuse Services on me. She looks like I have thrown her down the stairs every day since we have been home. I swear that I haven't :) When your platelets are this low, just bumping things causes bad bruising. I would take pictures, but she would definitely call Child Services on me.

I hope everyone is having a good weekend. I will write back in on Tuesday and let you know how all the appointments went.

One more thing... my cousin, Tina, is trying to arrange a blood drive for family and friends. I will keep you updated on when and where. Alex is O+ but, really, please come and donate no matter what type you are. It's a great thing! Alex can actually receive O+ or O- blood.

Please keep the good blood cell vibes coming! We really need them! Thanks for all the thoughts and prayers.