Dear Kate,
Today marks five months since your diagnosis…almost a half a year has passed. You have changed SO much in those five months it’s unreal. I asked the clinic if they were giving you chemo or miracle grow because you are growing so fast and developing so much. Chemo certainly has not slowed you down or stunted any growth, except for the hair on your head!
The only real changes this last month have been with your oral chemo pill, the 6mp. We increased your dosage from 103% to 120% which sent your week 3 ANC tanking down to 180, which was totally expected but terrifying nonetheless. You haven’t been that low since you were inpatient over Labor Day weekend. Grandma, Daddy and I are sanitizing the sanitizer and popping the vitamin C like crazy trying to keep you healthy. We also added a daily dose of marinol to help your appetite. I’m pretty sure it’s working because you are eating much better in week 3 than ever before. We got a good giggle at you the other day; about an hour after your dose, you were munching on pizza and cupcakes. Someday I’ll tell you why this gives us, your straight-as-an-arrow parents, a good giggle. For now, all that matters is you’re eating and it helps with any nausea you may have, too. I’d give you almost anything if it worked.
We’re in the heart of treatment – we’re about to start cycle 5 of 10 next week and we’re past the halfway point on Oncaspar. If everything continues to go well, we’ll be done with this phase in early May and heading straight into maintenance. It’s going to be a long winter being holed up at home so often. Someday I’ll make sure you know why you were held back from so many things you love – friends, library story time, music class and indoor playgrounds. I promise it’s for the best though it’s hard right now. We’ll do as much as we can when your counts are good and when we hit a stride in maintenance, we’ll stretch our legs a bit more and try to get out more. We are doing this now so we can stay as close to on schedule as possible to be DONE as soon as possible. It’s all about the countdown to September 16, 2015.
You are smart as a whip and every day is an adventure around you. I love you more than you will ever know.
My cup runneth over,
Mommy