INTENSIFICATION

Haley has successfully completed her two-month round of inpatient chemo treatments ... whew... Next up is “Intensification” starting January 3, 2012.  Eight weeks where they break out the big guns. High doses of weekly chemo treatments where scary sounding drugs will be administered like Doxarubesin, Pegasparagine and Vincristine... the sprint at the end of a marathon before the finish line.  In our case, we are looking forward to reaching “maintenance” where life should resume to somewhat normal.  Treatments will be reduced to monthly... there will be fewer times of rock bottom counts and no immune system and a curling iron and blow dryer may prove useful again. :) Stay tuned for updates.  For now, we will enjoy the calm before the storm... We hope you all have a very Merry Christmas!! 

Inpatient Chemo

Haley has now completed 3 of her 4 inpatient chemo treatments . . . so far so good.  She was supposed to go into Primary’s the Friday before Thanksgiving but due to low platelet counts, they postponed her treatment for three days.  The worst we have seen so far from these treatments are the “never-ending nosebleeds.”  The doctors have assured us that she will not bleed to death but they are disturbing nonetheless.  One occurrence did land us in the ER for about five hours after one lasting about 1½ hours.  Doctors entertained the idea of cauterization and “packing” but ended up leaving the blood clot in place to allow whatever blood vessel she broke in her nose to heal on its own. If any of you have seen the movie “She’s The Man,” we have gotten some very creative ideas of how to stop these nosebleeds from that movie . . . :) . . . We will let you watch the movie if you haven’t already so you can get a visual . . . oh my . . . it works surprisingly well! 

Dari was unavailable that week so Jessica accompanied Haley for her weekly stay.  Thanks Jess!!  She was supposed to be inpatient on Thanksgiving Day, but the doctors allowed us to take her home and set us up with an IV fluid kit so she could be home for Thanksgiving . . yay!!  We did decide to decorate for Christmas early and despite her low blood counts, Haley was unbelievably energetic.  At the crack of dawn she was packing bins up the stairs and spent nearly all day decorating.  We can thank her now for our very festive and winter wonderland of holiday cheer she has spread through the house, elaborately decorating several rooms of our house.

Dr. Spraker would not be happy with us if she knew we took Haley to Breaking Dawn . . . .  We were very careful to bundle her up and did bring the Clorox wipes but our race to see the movie trailers and Haley’s refusal to miss them . . . needless to say we left the Clorox wipes behind. 

One more inpatient chemo treatment until we move on to a two-month phase of weekly treatments similar to the induction phase . . . stay tuned and we hope you all had a very Happy Thanksgiving!!!

Month Five

We are half way through inpatient chemo. Yay!  Haley wants to share her thoughts on this phase in her own words.  Let me just say that she designed her own Halloween costume and I loved it!  Haley (Dr. Death) and Dari (Dr. Doom) gave the little trick-or-treaters quite a scare (hehe).  No Cancer was going to spoil her favorite holiday! 

I (Haley) have finished my second round of Methotrexate, which is this bright yellow Chemo treatment that I make fun of with Dari. Curiously, this chemo has given me different side effects both times. The first go around I had extreme nausea... which I don't exactly remember since the nurses had me pretty much sedated. Apparently I was throwing up a whole lot, but I don't remember that Saturday at all. This week hasn't shown much. It did make me really tired at the hospital. It knocked me out. I remember up to five dreams I had in one night. I will have to do two more in-patient stays and get Methotrexate, which I am kind of nervous since it could give me any of the side effects, but they don't last long. Each time I know I will get the mouth sores. I've gotten them both times before, but they don't last long either. They also won't be as bad as they were in July because they aren't part of the cold sore virus that I had. It’s just a little gum irritation . . . stay tuned . . .

Month Four

It has been over three months now since Haley was diagnosed with A.L.L.  We are getting the key terms down and are pretty familiar with the process of things including weekly clinic visits that consist of usually a blood transfusion, chemo treatment plus a spinal tap.  These weekly visit have pretty much dominated our Fridays for the last two months.  We had a bit of a scare last weekend.  Haley’s little sister Aysia, was diagnosed with Strep Throat. Trying to keep a five-year-old secluded from Haley and the family and keep a mask on her when she is not, was quite an ordeal.  Two days after Aysia was diagnosed, Haley started to get feverish and was not feeling well at all... at three in the morning when her fever started to rise, we had keep a close watch over her the rest of the night checking her temperature often.  By mid-afternoon the following day with no signs that she would fight this fever on her own, we packed for an inpatient stay at Primary’s.  Best Friend/Sister and Life Saver of all Dare Bear was there to keep Haley company at Primary’s.  Yay! Dari you are the absolute best . . . /cry cry. 

I would have to say that we have handled all that has been thrown at us quite well but I (mom) experienced my first panic attack on Friday terrified that Haley had caught Strep or pneumonia which is running rapid at Hayden Peak where all of her siblings attend . . . ugh.  Luckily her fever was a result of dehydration and quickly came down at Primary’s after Tylenol and fluids (so only a three-day stay . . . yay again). 

The next 8-week-block will consist of 4 four-day inpatient treatments every other week including a 24-hour IV treatment.  Side effects include more mouth sores which Haley is not looking forward to.. ugh... hope she doesn’t lose more weight she is holding at 94 lbs. We are told lots and lots of popsicles help to keep the mouth cold to restrict the blood vessels keeping less IV treatment from entering the mouth.  That’s the theory so that’s what we shall do.. Stay tuned. 

Consolidation

   We are now into the third week of “Consolidation Phase” of Chemo.  Apparently this stage will last approximately 8 weeks and heavy doses of chemo are given much like “induction phase”.  The side affects from this stage are starting to rear their ugly head.  Nausea is setting in in full force.  Haley had already lost a startling 33 lbs during the “induction phase”, which we now refer to as the dark days, so it is difficult for her to gain weight when she can’t keep anything down.  (She fits into Kayla’s jeans, crazy, I know, Kayla just turned 11 last month . . .eek . . .)  This is still nothing compared to the dark days . . . but then again we are only into week 3 of consolidation . . . stay tuned . . .

Haley's Family

The best and most beautiful things 

in the world cannot be seen or

even touched.  They must be 

felt with the heart.

Phase 2 Begins

After 28 brutal days of chemo treatments and every side effect you can image, Haley has successful completed the ”Induction” phase of her treatment. It is unbelievable that we have made it over a week without having to go to the ER  . . . yay!  It has been a rough road at home though.  She is on an IV antibiotic that we hook up every 8 hours and it runs for about two hours.  The whole thing is quite a process . . . a sterile process . . . and it is a little bit nerve racking having to sanitize the lines and syringes and making sure the tips never touch anything and stopping her IV as soon as it is done to prevent air getting in the line and her port clotting.  It has been very stressful to say the least . . . whew . . . now we know why they call it a marathon.  I feel like I run one every single day.  When we brought Haley home from the hospital on Thursday her ANC was 400 she needs 750 to start phase 2.  This morning the nurse came and drew her labs and we just received a call from the doctor a few minutes ago.  They are shocked . . . Haley’s ANC is an unbelievable 3100 . . . wow!!! Normal is 1500-7000 so she is midrange normal.  Doctors can’t believe it.  So she will start phase 2 full board tomorrow.  We are not sure what phase two entails.  More details to come . . .