Chemo Cycle #12, Relapse Cycle #4

This week we had cycle #4 of relapse chemo, which we hope is the last cycle of chemotherapy. The doctors had told me during the last cycle of chemo that chances were that she probably wouldn't make counts to start this chemo on time, but they didn't know that Brynlee has never (knock on wood) not made counts. On Thursday of last week, her platelets were just barely high enough to start chemo, so they were a little bit nervous on Monday and drew another CBC before we started, but platelets can recover really quickly, and they were over 300 on Monday.

 

We were scheduled to meet with Dr. Fluchel and Dr. Staddon on Wednesday, so I wasn't expecting to meet with anyone on Monday, but they had us meet with Dr. Bruggers before we started chemo on Monday. I don't know how all of this works, but I think it is policy that you are supposed to meet with a doctor before you start a cycle of chemo, so I think that is why we met with her, but I am not sure. I also don't exactly know how this happened either, but Dr. Bruggers used to be Brynlee's oncologist. She was the first oncologist I met with after Brynlee's diagnosis and the one that we saw clear up until about a year ago. For some reason, we were switched over to Dr. Fluchel. I believe that Dr. Fluchel has more of an interest in neuroblastoma and that Dr. Bruggers' main focus is brain tumors, so maybe that is the reason, but we were never really asked about this or told anything about this, it just kind of happened. I don't know if Dr. Staddon, who is doing his fellowship and following Brynlee, made this switch or exactly how it happened.

 

Anyway, we did still meet with Dr. Fluchel and Dr. Staddon briefly on Wednesday. Dr. Staddon was worried about us being billed for two doctor exams this week since we had already seen Dr. Bruggers. I told him that really the only reason I needed to see them was to make our followup plans for scans and whatnot as we didn't do that with Dr. Bruggers. We decided to try for scans around May 14th and 15th so that we can get our cardiology consult the week before and also to give the chemo enough time to work and do its job. And hopefully, it will, and we can be done with chemo.

 

Overall, there was nothing too exciting about this week. Brynlee has been having a harder time this week. We think that the chemo and treatment has finally caught up to her and she is finally feeling the effects of it. She didn't eat any of the snacks in clinic this week, and she has just been more difficult to please and has wanted to be held a lot more and has just been not herself this week. I hope it is just the chemo finally getting to her and not something else to be concerned about. What a blessing it has been that she has tolerated this treatment and done so well with it. I also was able to briefly meet three other cancer moms this week who I have interacted with online through my cancer support group. It was so great to actually meet a few more friendly faces while in clinic, and I am glad they all recognized me and said hi.

 

Finally, this part is just for me to remember in the future. Every time we go to the hospital Brynlee loves seeing the "fishies" that are in the revolving doors at the entrance. She always says, "Mommy, look! Fishies!" Then she usually says something about them being upside down, but I don't know what she is talking about because they don't look upside down to me. She also loves seeing the "fishies" that you can see in the elevator on the first floor. When we leave for the day and ride back down the elevator she watches for the fish and then when we get out of the elevator she always says, "Bye, bye fishies!" And, of course, then we see the fish in the revolving door again and we usually repeat the conversation that we had on the way in. I love her little personality and the excitement that she has for things even when we are at a not-so-fun place.