Zometa Done

January 28, 2009

Yesterday went fine logistically. My mom traveled with us so we could use the HOV lane, but having an extra person in the car does nothing to ease the delays caused by road construction and the resulting traffic congestion on the major streets right by the medical center. Davis popped over for a minute (literally), and we saw some of our friends (Mayada/Michael and Athena/Alex. . .did I miss out on an alliterative opportunity when I failed to name my children with something starting with "V," Violet, Vincent, Vera Cruz?) in the waiting area, so the wait time passed fairly quickly. And of course, Erin had her Macbook. She has recently discovered the fun you can have with YouTube and searches like "Funny Cats" or "Crazy Dogs."

On the whole, we didn't have any major hang ups at clinic. Dr. Russell thought Erin looked pretty good, and all her counts were lovely except for the GGT (one measure of liver function).

HGB 10.4 ( a bit low, but fine for Erin)
WBC 8600 (smack dab in the middle of normal)
ANC 7500 (on the high end of normal)
PLT 289,000 (normal)

Last week Erin had elevated AST, ALT and GGT (all part of the liver panel). This week AST had returned to normal, ALT had dropped by half (though still outside high normal), but GGT had continued to climb. When I googled elevated GGT, I discovered that higher numbers imply (unspecified) insult to the liver. I hope that tylenol and stomach upset rather than neuroblastoma has been insulting her liver this week.

The rest of our TCH morning wobbled along. It took a while to find a waitress to take our zometa order, but once served, Erin downed the IV in about twenty minutes (including flush). We made it back to Bryan for the last three periods of the school day. Our heroic effort to return in time for UIL practice was for naught, as cold weather cancelled most afterschool acivities, including UIL. It really was just as well, since by late afternoon the expected side effects from the zometa infusion, plus the early morning dash to Houston, had left Erin feeling exhausted and achy.

That's it for now. I need to run out and find Viactiv chews for Erin to eat for the next week to supplement the calcium that zometa will leach from her. I wanted to scan Erin's school pic, which turned out really well, but I keep getting a message that I can't scan until I unlock my scanner. As if I am so cruel as to keep my scanner jailed.