Tuesday, Feb. 5, 2008

Clinic today was quick and painless, but with mixed results. Hannah's counts were up and down. WHAT? Her Platelets went down, her white cells and her ANC went down. The whites could be down because she is fighting some kind of virus that she has had over the weekend. Why the platelets are down is a mystery but not unusual in this case. None of them are in the dangerous range, she can continue to go to school and go out in public. Her hemoglobin and red blood cells went up a bit, still under the normal range that the rest of us are walking around with.

She also lost weight, about a pound since our last appointment. Most of that probably came in the last weekend because she has reverted to eating almost nothing since she has had this stomach virus. She has to start anti-pneumonia drugs by mouth this month for the whole month, probably for the next 4 months or so. I will now set up her next audiogram to test her hearing again, and her next set of MRI's, set for the middle of March. If this MRI is all clear, she will have her port removed. That would be the next milestone for sure.

There is some concern over her morning vomiting, which she has had a couple of times recently. Besides that, the times that she hasn't been sick, she has still felt poorly. This is a classic sign of hydrocephalus (fluid on the brain, usually caused by a tumor blocking the fluid, in the case of brain tumors.) There are other signs too of hydrocephalus or tumor regrowth that she doesn't have. We're going to give it a few more days to let this virus pass, and if she is still exhibiting these symptoms, she will see a neurologist. My question is, why see a neurologist, why not just go straight to an MRI, that would let us know for sure. Doesn't seem like they are quite ready to just move up the MRI yet. We'll see how it goes the next few days.

So all in all, it was a pretty nerve wracking day. I really don't think that she has tumor regrowth, but I never in my wildest dreams thought she had a tumor in the first place. So for now we wait and watch.

Oh, one more thing. We have a dog here up for adoption. Tod chewed the power cord to my computer tonight, so it's no longer working. When the power runs out, this is it (which means I have to buy another cord.) Until then, come and get him :)

xoxo Kim