Round 3, Day 1

Today was the big day for starting Myla's 3rd round of chemotherapy--a round that the doctors are calling "Intensification 1" because the chemo infusions in these last three rounds are more intense.

My pictures are uploading slowly tonight, so I'll give you a few visual appetizers to hold you over until the rest of this blog entry is linked to today's photos.

1. Myla in her play seat.
2. Myla biting her lips because of teething.
3. The remains of my dry cleaners that recently burned down.
4. Melissa kissing Myla's cheek.
5. Myla looking content.
6. A cool door. (Yes, I'm still waiting for Myla's pictures to upload.)

After teaching class this morning, we loaded into the Volvo and drove South from Kokomo to the Riley Hospital for Children in Indianapolis. We stopped first at the ROC--the Riley Outpatient Center. In what has become a familiar drill to us, we served time in the waiting room on the 3rd floor before we headed into the clinic area for the measurement of Myla's blood pressure, length, and weight.

We then headed back to room 10 where a nurse came in with the medical supplies needed to take Myla's blood for the testing of her ANC (absolute neutrophil count). After changing the dressing on Myla's central line, it took a lot of work to draw blood from Myla's central line because of a flap of clotted blood (or something) had developed over the interior opening of Myla's central line. The flap is pushed open when infusions are pushed through her line, but it closes and forms a barrier when blood is sucked back the other way. There is medicine available to help dissolve this flap, but after some additional work and creative position of Myla by Melissa, the nurse was able to draw the blood needed for the ANC test.

Meanwhile, we waited in the room until a doctor we hadn't seen before came into the room to announce that Myla would be admitted based on her excellent ANC of 1,800. That's good news, because it means that the leukemia is not crowding out her good white blood cells. The last time we were admitted, her ANC had only risen to the 700 range before sinking to the 300s on the day of her admission. So, that's got to be a good sign. We then headed down the hall, up the service elevator, and into the Childrens' Cancer Center located on the 5th floor of Riley. We were assigned a room of our own, which was great because we didn't have to share a room with another sick child.

We weren't sure whether Raul Matthew and I would be able to get into the Ronald McDonald House tonight, but just past 7 PM we got a call telling us that a room had opened up.

It's almost 8:30, and Myla's chemo will be starting in a few minutes. She'll get two hour-long infusions, back to back, every 12 hours for the next five days.