The Plan

Andy gave me a "break" yesterday by taking Maggie to her monthly clinic visit.  You would think with each month, it would get easier, but it has not.  I still awaited anxiously for Maggie's counts and once I found out that "they looked great," I felt like a weight had been taken off of my shoulders.  This will most likely occur again next month, as there is no guarantee, but for this week we can feel relief.

Unfortunately for us, it doesn't take much to get our minds wandering/wondering.  A spot here, a bump there, a change of behavior...  It is a process that we are continually working through.  We will be doing so well and then we have a weak moment where fear creeps back in.  Will it ever get easier?

Dr. French came into the room yesterday with another plan.  Maggie had her last infusion of the anti-pneumonia drug, Pentamadine, yesterday.  She will continue through the month of April with IVIG's to help give her body time to continue healing from her critical illness.  They will give her a break in the month of May and then check her IGG level (immune system function) in June.  If her levels look good, they will take her port out in June.  Of course with her port coming out, she will also have a scope to check her stomach and a CT scan to check her lungs.  That's the plan for now, but we know it can always change, as it has so many times already.

Another remarkable number we received yesterday was Maggie's weight.  She weighed 31 lbs. 1 oz. last month and this month she weighs 32 lbs. 10 oz.-- a pound and a half in a month and 6 pounds since her critical illness began.  Throughout treatment we struggled so much with getting Maggie to eat and gain weight.  I'm so happy to say that she is such a good eater (though she does tend to wander around the room eating during the second half of the meal).  Her foot has also grown 4 sizes since February.  She is making up for all the lack of growing that she did during treatment.  She's a healthy little girl!

Like I said in the previous post, the end of this month marks 11 months off treatment.  Next month will be a milestone in the cancer world, including our own.  We hope to meet every milestone possible in this cancer journey.

Last week we had our first big snow storm.  Maggie got snow clothes for Christmas and had the chance to use them with Andy.  This was her first real snow experience--being able to walk in the snow (though challenging at first) and pull her new sled.  She had such fun that she didn't want to come in.