Mom & Dad... " I can't swallow"

These were the words Emily said to us at 4:00 am on Wednesday, October 31.  Much has happened since Em's last post and now.  

She did her last in patient Dox IV treatment on October 23.  It went well and clearly, it is working, as she has experienced all of the effects to the maximum degree.  

As expected, about Day 8 to 11 from this dose, her blood is depleted.  So, this week, the timing of her treatment has produced some challenges.

Em had her stop in visit to S20 on Monday 10.29.12 to check her levels and they were low, again, as expected.  She was neutropenic, which means she has low resistance, and the "silver lining" in this is the fact the treatment and therapy is working.  She was given a flu shot at that visit and we spoke to the nurses about this with her ANC at only .35.    The risk of contracting the live flu was explained to be greater.  We knew that she was still on the way down in her numbers, so it was ride it out, and be careful.  We were not sure the timing was great this week for Emily as her body would be challenged enough without layering on another "thing".

We secured the house for Sandy storm, got candles ready and nestled in.  The rain came hard and lasted.  Em starting feeling bad on Tuesday, sore throat, tired.. the usual for these kind of days, so we started our Halloween with a scary announcement.  

Todd and Emily made there way to S20 to get going with pain management and check in with her numbers.  Her blood counts were lower, well and in some cateorgies... ZERO.  Yep, that therapy is working.

The toll it has taken is scary and we are still in the care of the doctors and team on M50.  Since she has had fever off and on, the full rotation of hard core antibiotics have been administered.  She has been in terrible pain... in her throat.  She has not been able to swallow.   She had three rotations of narcotics, none have which have provided great relief, just looped her.   Her time in the hospital has been to lay low, be sure an infection is not brewing anywhere, and get her jump started again in the white blood count column.

SO, we are here and rotating our time with her, enjoying RED the new T.Swift CD and movies.  Today is the first moment we have had to make a post to her blog and we have just learned that her ANC number has finally moved from the 0.0 position.... she is on the way back at .16.  This is not enough, but it is great news and provides us the proof that the body can heal itself.  Rest is HUGE right now and Em is losing patience with just "laying here".  The up tick in numbers mean Emily can finally get going in the healing department ... amen.

We know that this round of challenges has sent us back a few days in "THE PLAN".   Her doctors have said what we have repeated... It is far more important to get thru the final two treatments safely vs. what day of the week or month it is.   We are so close to the finish line, we can see it, but we are in slow motion. 

We have been so wrapped up in our own storm, that we have not seen too much of the Sandy coverage.  We did see the story on the NYU neonatal nurses and docs moving premature babies, 9 flights of steps, 6 people per baby, step by step, manually ventilating them in power outage, storm conditions.  Thank you to all of the doctors, Nurses and caregivers around the world....  the lasting effects of Sandy will be with us for some time, as even folks in CLEVELAND are still without power. The week has been interesting... a challenge to many... in many different ways.  

Em is sipping herbal tea...