Sophie's World

1:40 PM: One more treatment down; three to go! Sophie and Randall left early this morning for the clinic. She was scheduled for sedation today (for a spinal tap), so we always try to get there early so she's high up in the queue. Randall said it was a pretty frustrating experience. The first attempt at an IV in her left hand didn't work. He suggested (because the nurses had said in th past that it would help) that they put a warm washcloth on her right hand before attempting again. They seemed very annoyed by the delay but did get a warm cloth (which Sophie described as being on fire--a little too much on the hot side, I guess). A little later, they tried the IV on her right hand, but that wasn't working either. They spent a lot of time trying to flush it with saline, and Randall said Sophie screamed every time they did that. They got it working well enough to administer the propofol (sedation) but didn't feel comfortable pushing chemo through it.

While she was knocked out for the spinal tap, they put an IV in her foot and gave her the vincristine that way. Her doctor said the veins in her feet are really good (just down her foot from the outside ankle) and suggested we try doing future blood draws that way to save the veins in her hands. She seems open to that (especially when Randall mentioned that it meant she could freely suck both thumbs), but I do wonder how we're going to put cream on before we leave and still have her wear shoes for the walk between the parking lot and the clinic. Maybe we can buy some special flip flops or something.

After she recovered from sedation, the doctor told Randall that Sophie's ANC is only .9 (they want it to be at 1.0 or higher). Unfortunately, we don't know whether it's on the way down or on the way up. They want to check her again in two weeks (yet another blood draw--it's no wonder the child's veins are in trouble). Until then, we're going to be extra careful about washing hands, but we aren't going to keep her home from day care (mostly because we both really need to work during the day).