The End of the Induction Phase!!

Thursday was the last day of Sadie's Induction Phase.

The Oncologist called tonight with results from the bone marrow aspirate. No Leukemia cells found!

Here's my take on the Induction phase:

Yes, there was Chemo (four different types). Yes there was anesthesia and the picc-line and many, many blood draws. Yes, there was the long hospital stay, the life-saving units of blood and platelets, the antibiotics and praying for her ANC to go up. But then there were the Steriods! Those nasty steriods and their nasty side-effects! That's what has impacted me the most from the Induction phase. Sadie's ravenous appetite and crazy weight gain. (Honestly, I don't know if her little body could have taken much more!) The doctors keep reassuring us the weight gain is normal and due to the steroids; that she will lose the appetite and the weight during the next phase....but we can't help but worry as we watched her swell up. I hesitated to post the pictures.

Here is Sadie on Day 7.                                 

 Here she is on Day 29.

I hate those steroids.  But because they'll help cure our little girl, we faithfully gave them to her... every. single. dose. (Important note: The steroid's job is to suppress the production of white blood cells, which happen to be what the A.L.L. cells are...bad, fast growing white blood cells. The combination of Chemo killing fast growing cells and the Steroids slowing production of white blood cells is what the Induction Phase was all about.) And it seems to have worked! Thursday morning was her last day of this intense Induction Phase. Hurray!

Now onto the next phase. We're not positive what that has in store, but we'll meet with the Oncologists on Monday to discuss the treatments and the plan. What we do know, is it involves high doses of Chemo, lots of nausea, vomiting, hair loss, and just plain feeling lousy. We can't wait for our Sadie to feel well again.