What the day brings

Dear Madeline,

Today, we hold our breath. Your have your clinic appointment today and are supposed to receive  chemotherapy (vincristine and doxorubicin). That will all depend on your counts, which were pretty darned low last week. But we hold our breath not just because of your blood work results. We hold our breath because of the doxorubicin, and because of the way it was administered to you last time, because of the way that it burned you and ended up putting you in the hospital for 10 days last time. We hold our breath because we don't know which line they'll use - your PICC, or your port. If all goes well - and really, why shouldn't it? (maybe don't answer that) - we'll be done with all of that before you had a chance to know what was going on.

I'm quite hopeful that the doctors will want to re-access your port. I know that if they do, they will need to inject a medicine to dissolve all the gunk that has built up in there since it was last accessed. That could take a while. If they are successful in doing so, if they can get your primary central line to give a blood return and to flush, that will mean success. It will also mean that we should be able to remove the PICC from your arm, bandage you up, and get you living life like a baby should - without bathing and clothing restrictions (goodbye, long sleeves!) So, we're hunkering down for a long day and keeping hopes high that it is a productive and otherwise uneventful one. Frankly, any clinic visit that does not result in a hospital stay anymore is a good one. So let's hope for the good!

Love,

   Daddy