The start of month 2 on our maintenance phase

Today was Day 29 (of 84 days) of round 1 of our long term maintenance. So basically this means that we started month 2 of our first round of maintenance. We waited quite long at the hospital this morning because they were really busy. Bianca didn't even cry when they put her wiggle in, they then drew blood, gave her her Vincristine (chemo) through her port and then took the wiggle out again. We then went home. Jo said that she would phone me with the results and also fax the script for our medicines to our pharmacy (dosage dependent on blood test results).

On the way home we had to stop by the shop to get some stuff for supper. Bianca then asked "where did my wiggle go?", she didn't even realise they took it out after the chemo and she must have thought it stayed in.

Eventually at around 3pm I phoned the pharmacy to ask when I could expect the medicines to be ready and they then casually said that the script arrived after their cut off time, "but that's okay the medicines will be ready tomorrow". And I said "no, it can't wait until tomorrow it is chemo, we need it for today". So I had to phone the hospital (they confirmed that it was faxed a while back already, so I'm not too sure what the cut-off time is for this pharmacy) and they then ordered the medicines from another pharmacy close to the hospital.

So basically that meant I drove 110km today. So now in future I guess I will only work with the pharmacy close to the hospital. I was a bit concerned that our pharmacy didn't seem in the least concerned that Bianca would have missed her daily dose of chemo.

So Bianca's results are:

• Haemoglobin - 111
• Platelets - 187
• White Cell count - 2.83
• Neutrophils - 1.82
  

They try to keep the neutrophils at 1.5 so they increased Bianca's dosage and this then means in two weeks we will need to be back at the hospital for a blood test.

Bianca has a smallish red spot on the side of her face. We will need to keep an eye on it to see if it goes bigger or if she gets more spots. I am pretty confident she hasn't been in contact with anybody with chicken pox. So now on Monday morning we will go back to the hospital and they will possibly treat it with oral antibiotics if it is still there.

So we have now also started the Dexamethasone for this month and so it will be interesting to see if Bianca will have minimal side-effects from this drug again. I sure hope so!

Bianca has been pretty happy and is looking good. She seems to have lots of energy, is interested in playing and her hair is coming back!!! The only concern is her eating. She hasn't been too keen on eating (she is willing to eat, but not always keen on what we offer), but I understand the 6-MP can do this and at least Bianca's weight isn't a concern at the moment.

Medicines today:

• Vincristine (chemo through Bianca's port) (this is once a month)
  
• Mercaptopurine (chemo) - 2 tablets a night (this is taken every single night)
  
• Methotrexate (chemo) - 3 tablets once a week at night (this is taken once a week, except Day 1)
  
• Dexamethasone (steroid) - 2 tablets twice a day (this is taken 5 days every month)