November 19th - Make that a Triple!

Hi everyone!

Just a little update from the hospital.

We checked in today about 9:00am. They whisked away Alex's 24 hour pee sample. We were glad to be rid of it :) The doctor came in to do her exam of Alex and we talked to her about Alex's back pain. She agreed that it had been too long since the last lumbar for it to be pain caused by that. SO... she wrote for an x-ray first and then an MRI if the x-ray doesn't show anything. Because Alex was going downstairs to the procedure room, they medicated her in the clinic for anti nausea. As soon as the RTU was ready we headed downstairs for the lumbar puncture. Alex's doctor decided that he wanted to do another triple chemotherapy that she had a few weeks back. He wants to make sure that he is treating these cells that keep showing up aggressively. SO... more chemo in the spine :o( boo! (but it's good in a way) The spinal procedure went well and then we went back to the 4th floor where Alex room will be for the next 3 to 5 days. I guess with this high-dose methotrexate, they want to make sure it completely clears her system before she goes home. That is why it could take anywhere from 3 to 5 days. We are in room 4405 this time. We've been here before. This is the room where you can see offices across an open courtyard and it looks like someone has a small kid standing in the window... it's pretty funny. It's some kind of dummy... I will try and take a photo of it.

SO... after the lumbar puncture we headed to radiology for an x-ray. They did two different views and it was fairly painless for all. The x-ray people have already called with no findings. I didn't think they would find anything on an x-ray. SO... tomorrow Alex will have an MRI to see if that will show anything. A pinched nerve or something? Who knows. It is nice to be in a Children's hospital where they don't mess around with diagnosing something for very long... just order an MRI and be done with it. It would take me months to get an MRI for back pain. Anywho... that is on the menu for tomorrow. As of now we are waiting to get the I.V. chemo. They are loading her up on fluids before it can begin. This form of I.V. chemo will run for 24 hours solid.

That's about it today. We did find out that even though we THOUGHT this would be the last treatment before the transplant regimen, we were wrong :o( The doctor thinks he is going to do another lumbar procedure to make sure these resilient cells stay away until the transplant. It looks like we may be back up the Monday after Thanksgiving. YAY! But only for an out-patient procedure.

I hope everyone has a good weekend! We'll be here :o( Please send good vibes so all this crap clears her system quick!

Thanks so much for checking in! I will update tomorrow with the MRI results. Here are some photos from today.

Alex getting an x-ray on her hip/back

Alex and Dan in the clinic

Alex and I