The Plan for Monday

Today has been a whirlwind! I cannot even tell you the amount of information we have been given in the last 24 hours. I am trying to be positive, but so scared about everything! I just want to do everything right and it seems like so much to do! It's going to take us awhile to find our new "normal." We met with the doctor today for like 2 hours and discussed everything. Her first round of chemo will last 36 days. She will be on 4 different drugs at different times throughout those 36 days. The first few days she will have the most medication. She will lose her hair within the first 3-4 days and have other symptoms, but we will have to find out which symptoms she will display. 2 of the 4 drugs must be taken by iv, 2 by injection and 1 by iv or mouth. When we can go home will be determined by how the first few days go. Cora has to have all of the medicines no matter what, so if she is capable of consistently taking the oral one we may be able to go home by next Friday and just come in day to day to have the drugs administered. If she will not take medication orally, we could be in the hospital throughout those 36 days (worst case scenario). Pray that she will take the meds orally, she has always done that well in the past. They will do bone marrow aspirations again on days 15 and 36 to check her status. If she is in remission on day 36, we will advance onto chemo phase II, if not, we will prolong phase 1. (pray for remission right away) Tomorrow will be a hard day. She will have a portacath put in, a spinal tap and injection into the spinal fluid, and her first chemo treatment. It will be rough on all of us. Right now she is swollen and eating everything in sight (swollen from all the iv fluid), but in great spirits. She had fun seeing lots of visitors today and got to play with her buddies Gatlin and Marshall for a few minutes. She LOVES visitors. We noticed that all day long she didn't ask to go home once until it was quiet and then she started to ask to go home. Visitors are a great distraction. We are however asking that no visitors come tomorrow on Monday. We just don't know what to expect and she will pretty much be in procedures all day long. After that first dose of chemo, she will be more susceptible to everything. The doctor said visitors are fine, but they need to use sanitizer, and not come if they have so much as a runny nose or cough or have been exposed to any type of sickness directly. The doctor also said not to treat her like a girl in a bubble and let her try to be normal while paying attention to germs. After today we would really appreciate if visitors would call first and come only 2 at a time. PLEASE still come. This will just allow us to pay close attention to sanitation.

The details are the things I am stressing about most at this point. Cora's body fluids (all of them) will become toxic and I will have to wear gloves to change her diapers, wipe her nose, and handle her pills. Pray that I can be a quick learner and can remember to pay attention to even the slightest details. One of her medications also usually causes children to become aggressive and pretty mean. This symptom will last throughout the first 36 days so we are going to have to be firm, but patient with her.

Thank you again for your love, prayers, and support! Our room gets fuller and fuller each day and Cora loves it! I have never felt so loved in all of my life!
We love you all!