Rough stretch.

Today we received confirmation of Maggie's good test results from Friday--no sign of leukemia in her bone marrow or spinal fluid. We're very grateful for that. I hope that doesn't get too lost in the rest of this post. The troubling thing is that we received the news from Dr. French in person--during a visit that wasn't scheduled. Maggie has been completely transformed by the steroids and it's so hard to witness.

She started her doses on Friday and she was very loud and talkative through Saturday. But Sunday, she started whining/moaning/crying and she hasn't really stopped since. We paged the on-call doctor Sunday evening because we couldn't get Maggie to stop crying after she woke up from a nap. That was very unlike her. We tried to help with some medicines to calm her down, but it didn't work much. Maggie was up almost all night last night--still moaning and crying. The best we could do was to take turns walking laps around our house while cradling her. She slept a few hours total (maybe) and we called the doctor again this morning. We ended up going in to have her looked over to make sure that there isn't anything else causing her to be so miserable. As bad as she was the last time, she's been worse this time and we couldn't figure out why.

Dr. French is confident that what we are seeing is mostly a result of the steroids and the chemo. She is probably a bit more irritated and in pain due to a new enemy--two more new teeth close to busting through. That's the only other problem that was evident in her exam. So that's not helping. But everything we described and what he saw was within what is expected with the drugs that she's on. He encouraged us to increase some of her pain medicines and she has been quite sedated and sleepy most of the evening. She looks so tired.

So, it's been really tough--no one is getting sleep around here. Everything takes such a team effort and it is hard for anyone to get much done. Much more than that, Maggie is absolutely miserable--her body trembles when she is awake. She clutches her face in pain. Her physical appearance has changed again too--dark sunken eyes, and big saggy steroid cheeks. No child should have to go through this.

Sorry to be so dramatic tonight. There's just no sense in trying to describe a rosy household here. This will last a few more days--Tuesday night is her last dose of the steroid and it'll take some time to leave her system. We can't wait. Please think good thoughts and send prayers for Maggie.