Phase 2, waiting to start Phase 3

The second round of treatment she no longer had to be on steroids but continued the weekly trips to SLC. This phase lasted two months. So by the end of May we made 11 trips to SLC. (It would've been 13 but we actually got two weeks off!) Two weeks of every month this phase we also had to have chemo at home through home health. This month Meg felt really pretty good but did throw up twice. (The first time she threw up was kind of a "funny" story. I'll share that another day!) Other than her bald little head, you really wouldn't even know she is sick. She really is amazing!

Right now we are waiting to start her third phase. The start date of this phase is count dependent. Meaning all her blood counts have to be at a certain spot to begin treatment. Two weeks ago her numbers were the highest they had ever been and we were just sure she'd start the next week. But as we are quickly learning, you never guess or assume with cancer because you'll probbaly be wrong. And wrong we were. Last Thursday Meg had her CBC (complete blood count) and her ANC (absolute neutrophil count) was actually the lowest it had ever been. Sooooo, we wait. Tomorrow morning we will have a CBC again and see where her numbers are.

We are anxious to begin this new phase because it's a biggie. Meg will be admitted to the hospital and have high does Methotrexate (chemo) that will run for 24 hours. The longest chemo she's had yet has been two hours. So, we are nervous to see how this goes. We will be in the hospital for an average of 3-4 days. While there they will run another MDR test and see what percentage of cancer is still remaining. Again, it needs to be below 0.01%. If not, the next step will be moving towards a bone marrow transplant. BUT....we have all decided we just aren't going that route. We're going to remain positive just as absolutely long as we can.