Round 3, Day 11

This is turning out to be a rough week for our little Myla (and Melissa). The week started with us struggling with whether to treat the redness in Myla's eyes (chemical conjunctivitis) with saline eye drops or the more potent steroid drops. The redness has largely passed, so we're thinking that our idea to persuade the medical staff to give Myla the steroid drops was probably a good one. In even the recent past, steroid drops were given by default to all patients taking high doses of the chemo drug called Ara-C (or cytarabine), but Riley Hospital backed off giving steroids after the potential of long-term eye damage was brought to their attention by an ophthalmologist who warned of the increased potential for getting cataracts and glaucoma later in life. Working through how to treat Myla's conjunctivitis was largely the preoccupation of Monday and Tuesday. (Oh, and we also celebrated Melissa's birthday on Tuesday). :)

Yesterday, Melissa was awoken first thing in the morning to be informed by our nurse that the doctors plan to put Myla on a regimen of supplemental nutrition. Although Myla has gained weight overall during this trip, her eating times and "output" have both declined this week. She also threw up a good portion of what she had eaten last night, so that didn't help matters either.

Myla's condition got more serious this morning when she spiked a fever--the bane of all patients on chemo. Myla's ANC is also now at zero, which means she can't fight an infection, and it's probably an infection causing the fever. Therein lies the problem. Myla is now hooked up to the IV pole again. She had been "free" for the last few days, but she'll be back on during the next few days for the antibiotic treatments.

I'll update this as I get a chance.