May 7, 2006

We are still in Iowa City after being admitted Friday for chemotherapy. I wanted to blog days ago, but Leah has the computer pretty well booked up. She loves to email, shop, play games on PBSkids.org and watch DVDs on the laptop, too. I might get a chance every once in a while to have 5 minutes on the computer if I am very lucky.

Friday's admission went smoothly. We saw Tom in the clinic, and since Leah was accessed already he just had to draw some blood and then we met with Mary in the Middle who sent us up to 7th floor. Right away we saw Dr. Ellen who was back from a month in Des Moines, James, Anuba and a lot of other familiar faces. On Friday night Leah spent a good portion of the evening at the nurse's desk with Rebecca-eating popcorn and talking. Dr. Loew came in and tried to steal some popcorn from her and she had a good chuckle when he scared Anuba. Kristi was her nurse and Roshaun was here, too, so we had a lot of people around us that Leah is very comfortable with. Chris was home alone and kind of jealous of all the activity we had in comparison to his own evening. The rest of the weekend has not been nearly as eventful. The floor has very few kids on it right now. That is good for everyone here and the other kids, but it does not make for time to pass quickly. So, Leah has mentioned she is bored several times. We have sat on the roof, visited with the nurses, done a few art projects, watched DVDs, and tried to kill time. Once again Leah appears to be handling chemo. well. She is getting the same drugs as last time- doxirubicin and carboplatin. I feel as though this round is the big test--did her cancer get smart and decide to not respond anymore? We pray quite fervently this is not the case. I should have posted the AFP results on Friday because we were very happy to hear the numbers. As of Friday her AFP was 464. That is a long way from 668,000 in December and even a good drop from 16,000 on April 10 when her last round of chemo. started. That means (if you do the whole half life of 5-7 days) her AFP dropped 5 half-lives in 25 days--16,000, 8,000, 4,000, 2,000, 1,000, 500 (and we are a little below that). Does that mean anyone here is jumping for joy or thinking this is even close to a done deal? No. Lots can happen. More lesions could appear, chemo. could stop working, her AFP could rise with new cancer growth.....not to focus on too many negatives, but that is the reality we are still facing. We are not in remission, Leah is still fighting this and even with remission we know that as a Stage 4 cancer she is at very high risk for recurrence. However, the doctors like how far the AFP has dropped. I don't even want to suppose at the new number her AFP might show when it is checked again in a few weeks. We still need many, many prayers for God to heal Leah and continue to let her AFP drop dramatically.

Right now we are planning on coming home right away in the morning. Leah wants to shop even though Chris has put us on shopping probation since her dresser drawers barely close. Considering she wears the same outfit (or would) for days in a row she really only needs a few things. As it is now she should change clothes every day at noon just to make sure she even wears everything she owns. She is out with the nurses now showing them her Mini Boden catalog.

Suzanne came for a short visit this afternoon. Leah liked having her here even though we did nap during her time here. We fell asleep at 8 PM last night---this has never happened to us at the hospital, and aside from waking up a few times (bathroom, medicine taking, etc.) slept until Dr. Loew "ruined my day" and woke Leah up at 8:30 this morning. She was not amused at him at all. In fact there was a long stretch of screaming that occurred even after he left. The only person who did think this was funny was Dr. Loew.

Other highlights of our trip include James (Leah now calls him her servant) being summoned on Friday to come and help us with our luggage. He chased us all the way from our room to the van. Leah ran the whole way! This may seem like nothing, but she really has not run much, or even had the opportunity to do this. With her incision I can see her start running sometimes and then stop, so for her to go that whole way, giggling as she went, was great to see. The nurses ordered from Olive Garden for lunch on Friday so I ordered spaghetti for Leah, too, making it 3 Olive Garden lunches for her this past week. We were able to see Stuart, the dog, at activity on Friday and have some pictures taken with him. Leah is back up in weight to 33.5 pounds. This makes me chuckle a bit. When she was diagnosed she weighed 3o pounds and Dr. Rahdi thought she was underweight. Now he sees her and thinks she looks pudgy. So, somewhere inbetween 30-33 pounds there is apparently a world of difference. We may try to reduce her megase amount she is getting since she does not appear to need it very much. I know there is some playing around we can do with that to some extent, too.

We are so happy with the AFP numbers right now.....please, please keep praying for this dramatic reduction to continue each time it is tested, and for chemotherapy to be effective-for her cancer cells not to become resistant, and for her continued good spirits and energy.