Amanda's Week in Review

Looking back, it is hard to believe how quickly time has passed, and yet how busy this past week has been. I apologize for the delay in updating you on Amanda's battle, but I must admit this is one of the first times that I have had time to sit down and catch you up.

Larry kept you up on the details of our first trip to Denver. But there are some day to day differences that Amanda and I have been working to adjust to. Some of these are as follows...

1) The chemo that Amanda received here in Columbia was very strong. And yet, they chose to use an even higher level of it in her drip in Denver. And so there were precautions that needed to be made ready as her body dealt with this new chemical level.

Amanda was able to be released so quickly after her procedure only if she wore a portable backpack. It carried a pump which accessed her port-a-cath and kept her on IV fluids necessary to protect her organs. Because we were traveling, a visiting nurse taught us how to flush and seal off her port-a-cath, change fluid bags and re-set the pump. My first "bag change" occurred around midnight under the car dome light as Larry headed east on I-70. After completing the change it occurred to me that if we could successfully change IV bags there, home would be a breeze! :-0

2) A second aspect of the higher drug level is that they needed to watch Amanda's counts even more closely for a sharp drop. Upon returning from Denver, Amanda and I now found ourselves scheduled at the University for blood draws every other day. We kept Amanda home from school until after her first lab work on Friday. Levels showed that her counts were still high and so she was "freed" from the portable pump system & excited to know that she could return to classes on Monday. Monday's counts were also still high. Now this began to cause an issue. It is actually vital that Amanda's counts drop. If this high dosage of chemo is not able to cause an effect to Amanda's system, then the doctors were concerned that it would then not have an effect on Amanda's tumor. For the first time, we were actually praying for a reaction to occur...

3) Wednesday's counts showed the drop we were waiting for. Counts went low, not low enough to keep her home from school or isolated, but still a drop that the doctors were pleased with. On the home front, Amanda and I added another new experience to our ever growing list. A home nursing service came that same afternoon and taught me how to give Amanda the daily injection that she would now need to receive in order to quickly boost the count back up. (First we needed it to go down, but they definitely did not want it to stay there!) Amanda was very patient, very trusting and thankfully, we are doing well with them.

4) Today's lab work proved a conflict for Amanda. She really wanted to be able to travel to Kansas City with her classmates for the Christian school music/math state competition that our school competes in each year. The nurses at the hospital were more than wonderful. Melissa & Shannon met us at 5:40 a.m. and did the draw so that I could get Amanda & Caleb back to the school in order to catch a 6:15 a.m. bus. How thankful we were. (Little did we know then that due to a slip with the vial we would be back to the hospital at 5:00 p.m. after she returned to the school to do another draw!) I am very happy to report that her late afternoon lab results show that her counts are already on the rise and that no transfusion was necessary.

During all of this week Amanda has felt well, she is steadily regaining her energy level and she easily jumped back into all of the activities of a typical high school freshman. We are so very, very thankful.

For each of you who check this site and pray for Amanda (even when this update was slow in coming) we are also very thankful for you. This battle, this experience, is both emotionally and physically wearing on Amanda and each member of our family. Your prayers and support help renew the strength & the joy that we use each day as we continue the battle on behalf of our precious daughter.

Continually grateful for each day of grace,

denise