Tough Little Cookie!

Sadie is handling her treatments incredibly well! She is one tough little girl and I am completely impressed! Today we went to the elementary school to play. (That's where the photos were taken.)

It's about time I try to catch up on this blog. Coming off the steroids was not comfortable. She was achey and needed Tylenol once during the night so she could sleep, and again during the day so she was comfortable. But by Sunday, she was back to her happy cheerful self! It had been a month since we had seen our little Sadie like that! It's so nice to have her off the steroids!

We had one good, happy day, and then Monday the port went in. She had a really hard time coming out of anesthesia to the point they actually had to sedate her again so she'd calm down. But her body's healing around the port really well and they actually accessed it for the first time on Thursday. Monday we also had our consultation with the Oncologists to discuss her next phase. That was a little overwhelming. A few new bits of info I learned:

• Sadie's treatments will continue for about 2.5 years.
• Sadie is classified as Standard Risk. (Not high, not low.) She'll be getting the standard treatments. However, they split the standard risk category into 3 sub categories. Standard risk High, Standard risk Low, and Stand risk. Because they saw Leukemia cells in her blood on day 15, she is classified as Standard Risk High. This means a little more Chemo and treatments than the others. But....better to get a little more than she needs, than not enough. We do not want to repeat this again!
• This middle phase, (after Induction and before maintenance,) is split into 5 phases. Rather than bore you with the details, it seems like in general they alternate between 2 months of intense treatments, then 2 months of less treatments, then intense, then not intense, over the next 10 months.

Thursday was her first day of the "Intensified Consolodation" phase which lasts 8 weeks. Dave took work off and spent the entire day in the hospital with her. I did the mom thing at home with Andrew and Evan. She was given 4 different types of Chemo in four different ways. She was put under again for the I.T. (into her spinal fluid), her port was accessed for Chemo thru there, they placed a subcutaneous catheter in her arm to administer the 3rd form (Dave and I will be giving her this at home,) and we were sent home with a pill form to give her every night.

Every thursday for the next 5 weeks, Sadie will be in the hospital under anesthesia for IT Chemo. Most of the other chemos will be given at home. Every Monday she will be in for a clinic visit. There are other days we will be going in as well...I actually mapped it all out on our calendar, but I'll spare you the details. It's a lot to get our brains wrapped around, but we're getting there. One day and week at a time.

Andrew and Evan have been incredible with her. They make her laugh and feel normal. I think because of the bad days, it makes the good days and happy moments so much more enjoyable. We are thrilled to see her up and walking and playing like nothing was wrong.

She is one tough little cookie!

Side note: The form of Chemo she was given thru her port can be hard on her kidneys and bladder hence the long day at the hospital receiving IV fluids and monitoring. We're supposed to change her diaper every 2 hours to watch for blood or signs of problems. We also have to make sure she is drinking lots of liquids. It's hard to explain or convince a 1.5 year old why she has to drink her bottle.