I received another email from Stevo with more positive news...
(She) had her first chemo shot Wednesday and at the same time we had our weekly meeting with Dr and he outlined the protocol; she will have infusions Wednesday, Thursday and Friday this week. It will be different chemicals to before and they will have different effects on different parts of the body. The doctor says as she has tolerated the stuff so well in the past we may get the same results again although everyones reaction is different.
The wife will still have to give the white cell booster beginning next week if (the cancer patients) white cells drop, which is likely. If the red cells go down they will give a transfusion. The doctor says not to get scared about the term as it's a normal way to proceed here and it's a quick way to get the patients blood back to normal. They will do a blood test next Wednesday to see where we are.
The actual chemo yesterday took a couple of hours, we had a cube on the chemo ward and she was hooked up to a mobile drip stand so we could go and do stuff in the area they have for playing games. Volunteers run all kinds of stuff to keep the kids occupied. She (the patient) was not in the least bit fazed, I think she trusts the doctor as he has been explaining things real clearly and understandable for an 11 year old. The nursing staff are 100% kiddies cancer nurses and know exactly what to say and do. She was so comfortable with it all she ate pizza, fries, salad and jello (Note from GZ Expat...Expat Daughter says 'eewwww' to jello) for lunch.
Yesterday was a longer process than normal as we had to see the Dr, get the drugs brought up and get other information together, subsequent chemo days should be a couple of hours max so if we kick off at nine we can be done way before lunch.
Once again, things are proceeding smoothly and realtively positive in nature.
As a side note, Expat Daughter shared an article with me about the lead singer of her favorite band, Something Corporate, being stricken with leukemia and actually putting together his latest album (with a different band) while undergoing treatment.
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