On June 28th 2011 Aly was diagnosed with Acute Lymphoblastic Leukemia, otherwised referred to as ALL. ALL is a cancer of the white blood cells which is characterized by excess lymphoblasts. Aly is currently being treated by the amazing team of doctors and nurses at Kingston General Hospital. The treatment and support that she has received from the team at the Cancer clinic, and the care during our week long stay on the pediatric floor has been amazing.
Wednesday, 22 February 2012
Welcome to Maintenance
Well today is the big day - - we begin the final (yet long) stage of Aly's treatement - - Maintenance". We went to the clinic yesterday for blood work so it would speed up our visit a bit today. Aly is participating in a study that is helping researchers determine the best way to treat this phase of treatment, long term. At this time, the concern is on decreasing the long term side effects of the drugs that she receives. The study looks at the impact of decreasing doses or frequency of chemo. Today will learn what "arm" of the study Aly will fall into. It is all selected randomly, so that process is probably happening as we speak. The day will begin for Aly with a spinal tap followed by chemotherapy. I am not 100% sure yet, however I am pretty sure that I will have to give her oral chemo daily in addition to another chemo ( orally) once a month. It already makes me anxious thinking about how I am going to do that. It is almost impossible to give Aly any medication unless it is camouflaged in honey - - and I can't do that with chemo. I often think that one thing I would never have to worry about with Aly, is her getting into the medicine cabinet. She wouldn't even think about opening up a jar and taking any medication - - she tries to avoid it at all times :) We will also have to deal with my good friend "dexamethasone" - the steroid that I despise. I think she will just have to take it for 7 days each month
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