Round 22/Round 7
After a planned extra week off after last round, we're back for more ifosfamide and etoposide chemotherapy at Hotel SCH. During the extra time between sessions, Charlotte was able to play with Clover (and some human friends too), and attend almost a full week of school! Getting those attendance numbers up right at the end of the school year! Jokes aside, it was really nice and dare I say, normal-feeling, to have the extra week without many appointments.
On the flip-side, having an extra week away from the hospital has also made it feel tougher to come back for treatments. Charlotte has had a more challenging time "settling in" for this admission. Of course, she's never really settled - she's got all sorts of tubes connected to her pumping her full of poison and fluids and medicine to make sure the poison only kills the cancer. Plus regular check-ins from nurses and doctors and assistants to check vitals or mess with beeping pumps. It's a stressful environment, and I hate having to put her through it every time.
Looking back, it has been just over a year since the first round of chemo. Given the rockier start, and knowing that we've been at this much longer than hoped, I wanted to do a little recap of treatment so far:
- Port Placement Surgery
- 22 Rounds of Inpatient Chemotherapy
- Total Knee Replacement Surgery
- 2 Courses of Radiation Therapy
- Weekly Physical Therapy
- MRIs, PET Scans, CT Scans, Bone Scans, X-Rays
- Weekly Clinic and Lab Visits (sometimes multiple per week)
- Blood and Platelet Infusions
- Probably something else that I'm missing
We have asked so, so much from Charlotte, and while it definitely hasn't been easy, I'm blown away by her resilience. Adding up all the Inpatient visits for chemo and surgery, Charlotte has spent 72 nights (90-something days including discharge days) in the hospital in the past year! Lauren and I aren't too far behind either, but at least we've started taking shifts for sleeping at home. Add in all the clinic and lab visits, and there's another 91 days that we've had some sort of appointment or visit to SCH. Add that all up, and yeah, almost 50% of our year has involved coming to Children's for something. No wonder she's worn out!
She has weathered so many challenges, and not only does she keep fighting, she has remained her sweet, silly self throughout. I truly could not be more proud of this girl and how she has tackled this challenge. I'm grateful that we are nearing the end of this regimen of chemotherapy before we have more scans and figure out next steps. The fight is not over, but I hope we have put our girl in a position to get some well-deserved rest before picking up the gloves again.