Chemo Delay

This week was supposed to be our first outpatient chemo experience, but we learned yesterday that Charlotte's platelets were too low to administer the doxorubicin. She was at 64 and they needed to be at 75 to move forward. While none of us were complaining about our day at the hospital being cut short, it does push everything on our schedule out. Ultimately not the end of the world, but if chemo keeps getting delayed, the finish line gets further away. And it goes without saying that we are all ready to cross that damn line.

Although chemo was held for this week, it didn't keep us away from the hospital. Sadly, another spot was detected in Charlotte's last MRI: a one-centimeter deposit in her right pubic bone. In my conversation with Dr. Brittany, she let me know that the way this area is behaving on the scans is in line with how osteosarcoma reacts to chemotherapy: it calcifies, or turns into bone. This leads her to believe that this has been there the entire time. While there is some comfort in her belief, it is a gut punch nonetheless.

Finding this spot now brings up the question: is it anywhere else? In looking through old scans, nothing was noted in the full body PET scans (aside from the left knee), but more recent MRIs have been focused to the lower body. Today, Charlotte did a full body bone scan, which will hopefully tell us that the left knee and pubic bone are the only places of concern. Tomorrow she will have a full body MRI just to make sure we're using all the tools available.

If these two spots are all there is, we have a general idea of what surgery will look like and when it will happen. Like we expected, surgery will be much less intense than what Charlotte already went through on the right knee. If more spots are found, well, those are different conversations to be had.

We are doing our best to maintain hope while also allowing ourselves to feel sad, angry, and anxious. As always, prayers are welcome & appreciated as we wait for more information.