Sophie's World

8:40 PM: Randall and Sophie were together at home today while I went to work (Randall skipped his one class today--too tired for the drive to only be there for an hour). The home health care nurse came today to draw blood and helped Randall change Sophie's dressing (traumatic, as always). The nurse practitioner from the clinic called to say that although most of Sophie's counts are up (so she doesn't need any transfusions), her ANC is still just under where it needs to be to begin the next 28 days of treatment (the level is .6, but it needs to be .75). Because this next phase of treatment doesn't involve any spinal taps (which have to be done in clinic on Tuesdays when the anesthesiologist is there), they want us to bring her in early on Wednesday. They'll do another blood test, and if the ANC is high enough, they will administer the scheduled dose of chemo, and we can begin the injections we give her at home. What they'll be giving her at clinic this week is Cytoxan--this is the one that can cause kidney damage, so we have to be there all day so they can get her hydrated and keep an eye on her (assuming we don't have to turn around and come home because her ANC is still too low).

We took advantage of Sophie's higher ANC count to go out to dinner at Cracker Barrel (if it's above .5, the risk of infection isn't as high). We really enjoyed ourselves and have had a nice evening.