Clinic Was A-Okay

February 4, 2009

Not much to complain about clinic yesterday. Erin had decent labs:

HGB 9.4 (dropping, but okay)
WBC 5200 (normal)
ANC 4600 (normal)
PLT 157,000 (barely normal)

Overall, not bad for two weeks deep into chemo. Erin's calcium stayed up, thanks to her cooperation on the nightly supplements (and thank goodness we can stop them!). The best news was that apparently, Erin's liver wasn't feeling as prickly and insulted this week as last week. Her liver panel does still indicate some inflammation, but both her GGT and her ALT headed down, for which I was relieved. Erin's lung has not miraculously drained itself, but Dr. Russell thought it was about the same as last week (not worse being better than worse).

Because her liver numbers had not skyrocketed, Dr. Russell felt comfortable adding another drug with ant-tumor potential to the mix. Erin will start Valproate this evening and over the next few weeks increase the dose so that we might see a therapeutic effect. For those of you keeping score, our made-up cocktail is etoposide, celebrex, zometa, and valproate (all oral, except the one fifteen-minute/month zometa drip). This combination guarantees that I will never know what side effects go with what drugs.

We also got to see Davis for a brief ten minutes. He came over to clinic to pick up his new phone. I didn't remember he had a 3:00 class, so once again it was a kiss and a hug, a quick exchange of instructions, and then goodbye.

For Erin, the day ran smoothly, thanks to many of you. You may not know it, but Mark Dungan tracks every $5 donation you make to Lunch for Life. In addition to hanging an ornament on Erin's virtual Giving Tree, he issues gift cards to Toy R Us every time you fill up her tree. Erin got her gift card recently and put it with the one from the previous year (and a little cash out of her stash), and bought herself a Nintendo DS. This was an unheard of extravagance at our house, and it really made the time pass quickly.

Erin had a big day today, with an INQUIRE Academy field trip to the Presidential library to see the space exhibit and the special show about Buffalo Soliders (so called because of their strength and courage), as well as student council, homework, and her fused-glass jewelry workshop. How she keeps it all going is beyond me. I think fatigue is a side effect on everything she takes, except her multivitamin.