On to Block 3

Abby is doing the inpatient thing for a few days as she starts the 3rd block of her treatment.  She checked in (no bellhop here!) Tuesday morning early (she and Mark drove to Denver through 14" of snow) and had her bone marrow biopsy and some spinal chemo and is now comfortable in her room getting more chemo and the high-dose steroid we like to call "the grumpy pill".  Teenage hormones and steroids are not a good combo. This week's chemo gives her irritated eyes so they are giving her eyedrops every 4 hours to help.  She may develop an infection in her eyes also and this chemo can give high fevers in addition to the nausea that comes with most chemo.  So far, she doesn't have a fever.  If that continues, she can come home Thursday late afternoon.  If she does get a fever, they will do a blood culture and keep her 24hours after the blood culture stays negative.  Her GI mucositis is just about healed up and the chemo she will get in a couple of weeks that caused it last time is a lower dose so hopefully she won't run into that problem again.  So....that's the medical details. It's always hard to know how much you all want to hear on that front.  The long list of procedures, medicines, and side effects gives you an idea of how she's doing but it doesn't give the full picture, of course.  Abby is a trooper.  The hospital stays are challenging because the sleep isn't great, the food is so-so, and she feels crumby most of the time.  She loves being home, hanging out in her room, reading, playing with legos and her sisters on Minecraft. But we have enjoyed several chunks of time at home with her and we are so thankful.  This month involves a lot of hospital time, most likely, but we are hopefully that there will be a couple of long weekends to enjoy as a family.  My mom is here helping out which is a huge blessing. She is amazing!  We are so grateful to my folks for doing this.  She is planning on staying off and on through the bone marrow transplant.  On that note, we have the consultation probably next week when we are in the hospital again for a repeat of this week's chemo.  We will get lots of information from our new bone marrow doctor, get to ask all our questions, and Abby will get a full exam.  Then, as we understand it, once block 3 is over, we wait for her counts to come up to a certain point and then we start doing scans and tests to check out how her whole body is doing, looking for any possible infection before the bone marrow transplant goes forward.  You can join us in praying for all that this month has in store and for Abby's heart as she processes all of it.  She is weary, we all are.   We need wisdom on how to help her walk through this.  We need strength to care for her, comfort and support her and each other.  Thank you so much for your prayers and support.