What a Difference a Day Makes

May 15, 2008


Erin blasted out of the starting gate this morning like the last two weeks of back pain, barfies, and the down lows were a figment of our imagination. We spent the morning visiting Jane Long Middle School, where Erin will go next fall as a newly minted sixth grader.The biggest problem she can anticipate there is that the desks are built to accommodate the larger end of the spectrum of middle schoolers (some of whom are gianormous). After a morning among the giants and giantesses, we returned to Mary Branch Elementary where everything is just right. PT went equally well, with Erin performing strengthening exercises she hasn't felt up to in two weeks.

PT, you say? You and Walter will continue to torture her with physical therapy even in light of this weeks news? Yes. We plan on Erin sticking around a lot longer, and she definitely has back and core muscle issues that need attention. We want to work on them now, before she turns into a teenager and takes the don'ts and won'ts. Anyway, she needed a good massage to do her best at fifth grade field day tomorrow. She's scheduled to run the 600 meters at 9:25 in the morning and has some other event a couple of hours later.

Erin has done so well to day, you'd think that she had already started chemo instead of stopping it yesterday. That won't happen until next Tuesday. Dr. Russell and I had tossed around a variety of ideas this week. We strongly considered ABT-751, because it can achieve the quality of life with a low personal burden that Erin hopes for, but since it doesn't really hold much promise for tumor shrinkage, we decided to hold that one in our hip pocket for later and go with temador/irinotecan for a few cycles. Lest you think that the trip down to Houston was a complete downer, check out Erin and Katie at the aquarium on Monday evening: