Day “-4” vs. Day “-3”
Chemotherapy cycles or rounds as Christine refers to them begin on day “minus five” and then progress to day 1 which is the day of infusion of Catie’s stem cells back in to her system. Yesterday was day “-4”, and while it had its difficulties and Catie went from “herself” to a faint replica of herself in about 2 minutes as the nurse injected what looked to be a fairly insubstantial amount of an innocuous looking clear fluid, it could have been substantially worse than it was. On the scope of possible reactions to the 3 toxic compounds designed to kill any cancerous cells and the 3 drugs designed to help her cope with them were, 1.critical drop in blood pressure, 2.renal failure, 3.severe nausea and vomiting, (never leaving the bathroom for 12 hours), 4. Hearing loss, 5. Fever or chills. She experienced only nausea and vomiting, and it was fairly well mitigated by the trio of medications given. The theory is that day “-4” is the worst day, and that day “-4” of cycle (or round) one is the worst of the worst. If that proves to be true, then it is just another loving answer to all of your prayers. Thank you prayer warriors, the storming of heaven continues to produce fruit in our daily life.
Since last night’s update, Catie slept a wonderfully peaceful 11 hours and woke only once to get sick at which point she informed me that I was to sleep with her instead of in the next room with Christine. Listen to “the wife” or the 7 year old???? I slept in Catie’s room. When she awoke this morning, I was pleasantly surprised to find the REAL Catie, personality fully intact. We had a good morning of bathing, changing bed linens and all of her clothes in an attempt to avoid any infection and a new round of different meds including the last of the chemo meds. This one Cyclophosphamide has the possible side effect of shutting down the bladder, as well as the normal “may cause severe nausea and vomiting”. Catie avoided both of these and by 11am was unbelievably playing Wii on the television in her room and under Christine’s careful and protective guidance was doing so with such competitive drive that while bowling, she caught her I.V. lines on the game controller as she arched her arm skyward and spun herself around, almost fell to the ground, and yanked on the central line running into her heart. Why? Because Christine told her that if she really wanted to knock down all of the pins, she should get out of the chair she was sitting in and stand up and really “throw the ball, like you mean it!”
Once I put her to bed and admonished them both, she went back to sleep and is currently resting comfortably with no signs of nausea, (though still heavily medicated to keep it at bay), and no renal or bladder difficulties. Tonight’s activities include a bath, and EKG to make sure that her heart has not been impacted by the toxicity of the chemicals over the last 36 hours, and hopefully continued rest. If they both promise to behave, there is a chance that they will play Wii again as well. Tomorrow should be a copy of today, and then we start the period of recovery in preparation for round 2. Some of the kids here have such a poor reaction to round 1 that they suspend treatment, thankfully, Catie avoided that fate as “day -3” was very much a success, not only therapeutically, but in her reaction to it as well.
Thank you all for your continued prayers, THEY ARE WORKING!
Love and God bless from St. Jude’s
Christine, Kevin, Catie and Maggie, Max, Mia, Molly, and M.E.
P.S. – After I wrote this, Catie received a visitor, Jackie Zachman who was driving across from Texas to New Jersey and detoured to St. Jude to see Catie. Catie was able to get out of bed and visit with Mrs. Z/Aunt Jackie, and after the visit was over Catie and Christine renewed their full contact bowling game on the Wii. Catie bowled her highest score yet and recorded 3 strikes.
