Standard Interim Maintenance

My pregnancy has taken my attention away from blogging recently. I will be induced in about 4-5 weeks which has triggered frantic nesting, contracting, and not feeling the best from running on empty. Fortunately Amanda is doing well enough that I have the chance to focus on other things. She started standard interim maintenance therapy without any problems. So far she is having fewer than normal side effects, but this will change as the month goes on. Her bowel and eating habits are changing. She told me the other day that she "HATES pickles." It made me laugh compared to our earlier drama about not having enough pickles. Now it's cereal and chicken legs. At least she can eat. The objective of this round of treatment is to get her blood counts as low as possible, but to keep her healthy. This ensures that the leukemia cells are destroyed. So far this round of treatment feels like a bit of a break compared to the others. I really think she's doing better because of fewer lumbar punctures. Physically she is making a lot of progress. She's participating in more activities rather than just vegging on the couch. And she's returning back to her normal chatter box self, asking all kinds of inquisitive questions. She is still struggling emotionally coping with all of this. The tantrums and mood swings were getting more and more frequent, and we can't blame it on steroids this time. Scott and I decided it was time to take the risk and let her play with somebody again. Her doctor has made it clear that she needs to just be a kid to get through this. She played with two cousins this past week. Watching her play and laugh was so encouraging. As you can see below, this smile was not faked. We took the picture after I told her when she'd see her cousins again.



Amanda is also smiling out of excitement for the new hat. We have to send a thank you to Kristen for it. Amanda has enjoyed putting various flowers on it. Kristen has gone through cancer three times. You have to check out her blog and some of the links they have to other people going through tremendous things. http://sheisourangel.blogspot.com When I think of somebody going through leukemia three times it makes it easier to think that we can handle once!