4th Chemo Treatment Done!

On Monday, September 9, Stella completed her fourth chemo treatment.  She did great, but the chemo is getting to her a bit.  Her ANC was down to 1000 and it was harder to keep her happy for the many hours we were there.  Overall though, she did awesome, and Stella's oncologist says her numbers are exactly where she wants them to be.  The ANC is a way to measure her immune system, and a normal ANC is around 3000.  When it gets below 500 we have to keep Stella away from most people because she is at serious risk of getting sick and having to go to the hospital. 

Thankfully, the next two weeks of treatment will give her a bit of a break.  She will only get the Vincristine drug, which is quick to administer.  After those two weeks we will be back to the four hour long infusion for four weeks to finish out this initial 10 week cycle. During those four weeks she gets both Vincristine and Carboplatin.  The reason it takes so long is because the Carbo can harm the kidneys and liver.  To avoid that, they do a one hour IV fluid flush before they give her the drug, then the drug takes an hour, then they do a two hour IV fluid flush after the carbo - four fun hours of being attached to an IV.  Stella's next MRI is on October 11, and we are anxious to see if there has been any change in the tumor.

Below are a few pics of Stella during this treatment.  As you can see from the pics below, she does not like it when the nurses have to touch the IV tubing for any reason!  She does great though with her blood pressure, temperature, and other vitals checks.  :-)

Stella likes her nurses, but NOT when they do anything related to her port, or the IV tubes going into the port. 

Not a happy camper. 

Checking blood pressure?  No problem!

 

Still smiling through all of this.  My tough girl.