Tuesday, November 23, 2010

Clinic Day and Change to Protocol

Monday was clinic day for Karlee and another sick day for Ryley.  Clinic day started out normal enough with everyone running around trying to get Karlee and Mom out the door with everything they need.  Once again we had to put on the Amitop as they were leaving to numb the skin over Karlee's port.  They were out of the house at 7:40 as we knew it would take longer to get up there due to the snowy roads and the cold weather.  Mom called home at 9am and was only on 14th Street at Heritage (not even half way there).  There were a couple of accidents that backed up the entire south end of the city.  Finally at 10:00 they made it to the hospital, an hour late for their appointment.


Fortunately it was a slow clinic day so they still had a bed left for Karlee.  When they saw Dr. Singh he had some interesting news for us.  They have changed the protocol for standard risk acute lymphoblastic leukemia.  Through clinical trials and research they have determined that an additional 2 month of interim maintenance is beneficial.  So instead of a 6 month treatment protocol and 2 years of maintenance we will now have 8 months of treatment and 2 years of maintenance.  Hopefully this will decrease the chance of a relapse once she is done treatment.  At first Dad was a little disappointed in the extra time, but once it sunk in that this was all for Karlee's benefit he realized it was for the best.  An extra 2 months of treatment is nothing compared to a lifetime of health.


Jennifer made sure the paintings and beads that were donated got to the correct people at the hospital.  They will use the beads for the kids in unit 1 and the clinic to do crafts and to make jewelry and they will hang the paintings somewhere in the hospital.


Karlee had a very routine clinic day and was out of there about 1:30pm.  Of course the drive home was another experience with another accident backing up Crowchild Trail.  The trip home was a little better, but was still well over an hour.


Ryley was home sick both Monday and Tuesday.  He seems to have a headache and some body pains and just not feel good.  He needs to get healthy and stay there for a while.


Tuesday we called and got Karlee a dental appointment since her counts were still good.  Dad took her down and she was incredible.  She behaved so well and did everything the assistant asked her to do.  Of course the fact that Treehouse was on right above her head might have helped.  Her teeth are in great shape with very little plaque on them.  She got to pick out 2 toys since she was so good.  The dentist office has been great to us allowing us to call when her counts are good and they will try and get her in the same day and allowing us to cancel with no notice when she isn't feeling good.


This weekend is a craft fair disaster.  We are booked into Turner Valley on Friday night and Saturday and another one at Willow Ridge on Saturday too.  Still trying to work out how that is going to work with hockey and everything else, but I'm sure we will figure something out.

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