Phase 4 is Done!

Well, Kayleigh is officially finished with phase 4.  Wow, these past 6 months have flown by!  Thank goodness!  She did well with all of her weekend chemo doses.  She seems a little tired, but that's pretty much it.  If I understood the doctor correctly, it could take up to 10 days for counts to drop and us to see side effects.  They expect her counts to bottom out from these past four days of chemo.  That means her ANC (immune) level could be 0!  Yikes!  I'm not sure though the counts will drop too drastically since she did receive a red blood transfusion on Friday.  So, now that she's at the end of this phase, she will have to go every 3-4 days to have a CBC (complete blood count) done.  Her counts have to be at or above a certain number, 750 for her ANC and 75,000 for her platelets, in order to begin the fifth and final phase, Maintenance.  This is the longest of the phases, a year and a half to two years, but less intense than the others.  It will begin with a lumbar puncture and chemo at the Almost Home unit.  She will return to the clinic once a month for chemo, except for every third month, then she'll be at Almost Home for a lumbar puncture and chemo.  She will also take I believe 3 different medications at home, all varying in amount of days she'll need to take them.  The doctor said after a couple of months, she'll seem like a "normal" kid again. :)  I have to say though, she's always seemed pretty much like herself, except with the steroids in her system causing her to have quite an attitude and not be so nice to everyone.  I guess you can't blame her!  If I were going through all she is, I may not be so nice all of the time either.