Fever better, another dressing change required

Had to change Mina Brigitta's dressing on her catheter exit site for the third day in a row. She absolutely hates it, because it requires pulling off a 6 square-inch piece of really sticky tape, and then cleaning the site with an alcohol-like substance. Normally they would only have to do it once a week, but the problem is that she's so active that the line starts pulling out of the dressing. When it comes out far enough and there's no more slack underneath the tape, any further pulling would tug at the site, causing discomfort, bleeding, infection, line failure, or other bad things. We're trying a new technique tonight with a second piece of tape, so maybe this one will be more secure.

Her fevers were gone today, so whatever it was that caused the spike yesterday seems to be gone too. This is great news, let's just hope they stay away. She had kind of a rough day today. She took an early nap that was too short. On top of that, she's very low on red blood, so that makes her tired and cranky. And she's back on all of the antibiotics which probably doesn't help. She's right at the edge of needing a transfusion of both red blood and platelets. But they didn't drop much from yesterday, and her white cells actually increased a little (though white counts are notoriously volatile). That may be a sign that she's starting to recover, so they held off in the hopes of being able to avoid the transfusions altogether. It's better not to get them if possible, because there's some chance her body could develop a chronic allergic reaction, which would be bad going into the transplant.

Speaking of the transplant, no firm news about the date or the donor yet. Maybe we'll hear something from them tomorrow. For now, we're just assuming that the 27th will be the date and really hoping it won't be any later.

Another fever

Well, it probably couldn't last forever. Mina Brigitta spiked a fever of 38.7 around 2:00 PM today and had to go back on the antibiotics. Don't know if it's related to recent troubles we've had with her central line being tugged at. Today they had to change her dressing for the second day in a row because of the stress loop being pulled out, and the site where the line exits her chest is red and irritated again. They took a chest X-ray today just to make sure the line was still placed properly. It appears to be fine. So now we just hope the antibiotics will take care of the fever. She's been below 38 all evening and seems to be sleeping soundly, so maybe they're already doing their work.

Cough worse, temperature better

Mina Brigitta's cough has worsened to where it sometimes wakes her up at night. However, after hovering with a low grade fever for several days, today she was very cool all day long. She had been in a fine mood, but was a bit whiny over the last few days. Today she woke up in a different kind of mood. Not totally like herself, but much closer.

Cousin Kendra arrived today. She's the 15 year-old daughter of Keri's older sister Kristy. She gets to spend her spring break in California -- in a hospital room! Actually, she volunteered for this duty and it's very sweet of her to do so. We're going to try to see that she has some fun while she's here. Today she and Grandma took Isaac for a walk down to Haight Street where all the grungy hippy kids hang out. This weekend Teri and Brent and the kids are driving down for their spring break, and Keri's stepmother and husband are driving up from LA, so there will be a houseful at the Berkeley house. It'll be awesome to see everyone, just too bad Mina and I won't get to be home with them.

Mina's really beginning to blossom with her talking. She now knows how to ask for some of her toys by name. Today she was asking for "tee" (her tea set) or "awk" (a toy Noah's arc with lots of animals). She listens more intently and mimics sometimes when you tell her a new word, and she's much more insistent and direct about asking the names of things. It's really fun to watch.

Holding Pattern

More of the same today for Mina Brigitta -- still holding steady with the low-grade fever, still a bit puckish but doing well overall. After not really napping much for several days, she napped for 3 and a half hours today. Must have been saving it up. She's been restless at night, so that probably contributes.

Mina Brigitta has learned a new word here at the hospital. The nursing staff here makes a special diaper cream from a mixture of various over-the-counter products. They call it "butt balm". Not sure what exactly they put in it, but it really works. And it must be very soothing too; in January and February when Mina Brigitta had a horrible diaper rash from all the drugs, we would ask if she wanted the cream and she would say, very enthusiastically, "Yeah!". Many times it was the only way we could get her to hold still for the change, as uncomfortable as she must have been. Now, you guessed it, she's learned to ask for it by name: "bu-bal!"

Happy Easter!

Keri and Grandma made a really nice Easter basket for Mina and Isaac, complete with plastic grass and plastic eggs filled with goldfish crackers. Keri also brought some festive Easter cookies from the local grocery store. Mina was napping when they arrived, but sat right up as soon as she spied the basket. Then we spent an hour and a half in the playroom by ourselves. Mina had a ball again, playing with the balls and the little kitchen set and the easter stickers. She asked to paint again; they have a setup with thick paints, a brush, and paper hung vertically. But everything had been put away for the day and we didn't feel like dragging it all out again. Then Lyn bought us takeout Indian food from our favorite local restaurant. Not your traditional Easter dinner, but it felt festive enough.

Mina Brigitta is still hanging in there with a low-grade fever around 37.5 (99.5). She still has plenty of energy and a reasonably good appetite. Her cough has definitely gotten worse, and the doctors and nurses have started paying attention to it. Her lungs sound just fine, so it doesn't look like it's going to develop into anything serious. But with all of her counts low, even her lymphocytes, she's very vulnerable. My biggest fear, apart from a serious infection, is that her fever will drift across the magic 38 mark and won't respond to antibiotics because it's being caused by a low-grade virus. They would then quickly prescribe an antifungal, which I think is what made her so nauseous last time around. Would be nice to be able to avoid the big guns this time around and keep her strong going into the transplant. We'll be holding our breath the next few days.

Napless wonder again

Mina Brigitta skipped her nap for the second day in a row. It's a great sign that she has so much energy, but she really does better when she naps. I was a bit worried about her this morning -- she felt warm to me in the middle of the night, and her temperature was 37.5 this morning, which is warmer than usual and just below the official fever mark of 38.0. She was a bit warm all day today, but seemed in fine spirits. Let's hope she's not brewing anything.

Today we spent an hour and a half in the playroom with our friends Walt and Blair and their 6-week old baby Devon. We had a great time doing all kinds of stuff, but the activity that seemed to excite Mina Brigitta the most was picking up these light plastic balls and stuffing them into a soft hoop that we set up for her. I'd pegged her for a softball player because she already has a good throwing arm, but maybe she'll be a basketball player instead. Hopefully she'll keep most of her height.

A day of eating

Mina Brigitta hasn't spiked any fevers yet, and apparently the antibiotic she's on is effective against Gram negative bacteria, so hopefully that means the Broviac repair isn't anything to worry about. She had a good day today, seems to be recovering her energy and especially her appetite. Today she ate breakfast, a mid-morning snack, lunch and dinner, and then about 8:00 wanted my dinner too. We couldn't give her that, but Grandma made her a packet of mac & cheese and she ate the whole thing. She' s also drinking a lot of milk and orange juice these days. She used to be able to say "oh-nge juice", but now she just makes an "O" with her fingers when she asks for "juice".

She didn't take a nap today either. They walked down the hall and back a few times, and they had a neutropenic hour in the playroom for her from 12:00 to 1:00. When I got back she told me everything she'd done: painted, threw balls, played with the babies, and played with the little kitchen set ("num-num"). It's really good for her to get out of the room, and doing so seems to have a positive feedback effect on her energy level.

We finally got word back from the donor's treatment center. No word yet on whether he's passed his physical, but he's asking for a 4/27 for his donation. He would donate in the morning, and then I think the cells would be infused that same night. That means we would probably get a week to 10 days at home before going back in to begin the conditioning on the 19th or so. It would be kind of a drag, but then again kind of fitting and poignant to start this process on her birthday.

A new hitch

Hopefully this lead to anything serious, but Mina Brigitta had to have her Broviac catheter replaced today. The other night she woke up screaming and thrashing around, and it took amost half an hour to calm her down. Somehow her line must have gotten cracked a little bit near the cap, because two nights she woke up with some blood on her shirt. Nurse Stacey spotted the small crack today during a dressing change. To repair the line, they had to sever it above the crack and glue a new end onto it. The glue needs 48 hours to dry completely, but it can be used four hours after the repair, which is a good thing because tonight she needs platelets and antibiotics.

The real danger, of course, is infection. Mina Brigitta had to have her line repaired last year, and ended up with an antibiotic resistant Gram negative infection. But last year it happened while we were at home and she had some white blood cells. Right now she has nothing, so we'll have a couple of nervous days waiting to see if she develops a fever.

Other than that, Mina Brigitta actually had a fine day. I could tell when she woke up this morning that she felt better, and that carried over throughout the day. She and Grandma walked me to the elevator when I left for work, and then walked the halls a bit before going back to the room for lunch. The days (and nights) are always so much easier when she's feeling well. She's taken to calling men "Uncle", so today she said hello to an "Uncle" in the hallway. She's also been referring to people she sees in pictures as "momma", "dadda", "bubba", "sissy" or just "baby". The uncle thing seems to fit the pattern, but her nurse on Wednesday was "Michael", so I think that may have helped cement it in her mind. She still only uses "Anta" to refer to Teri or Kari, though.

Another low-energy day

Not sure why Mina Brigitta has been so low on energy the last couple of days. Her red blood counts are still very good after the transfusion Sunday. Maybe the chemo is still having some lingering effects. Whatever the cause, she's been pretty whiny and clingy the last couple of days, hasn't wanted to walk around at all, and hasn't wanted to each much. Today she just had a few bites of various things throughout the day. But then when Dadda brought up his spaghetti and meatballs from the cafeteria she all of a sudden wanted "num-num". Then she sat on my lap and ate half my dinner, and I was happy to keep giving it to her.

There was a 4-yr. old girl here, Mckayla, who liked to walk the halls and kind of made friends with Mina Brigitta. Mckayla made Mina Brigitta a picture frame with seashells and little beads spelling out "Brigitta", and also did the same thing with a can. She went home on Monday, but before she went she gave Brigitta a little black baby doll she'd been playing with for the two weeks she was here. Turns out it was the same doll that Mina Brigitta found in the playroom at 9 mos. and wouldn't put down, which kicked off her whole fascination with baby dolls. (When we saw her with that doll last year, Keri and I just looked at each other and said, "Oh yeah, we have a girl baby," and felt kind of stupid for not having known how much she would love a baby doll.) The doll got the same reaction this time. It pretty much hasn't left Mina Brigitta's hands since it came in the room, and it's been in the bed with us the last three nights. She calls it "other baby", and has named it "Sissy".

A mellow day

Mina Brigitta was a little low on energy today. Maybe she wore herself out yesterday, but today she slept for nearly four hours and didn't want to leave the room at all. I would have thought getting all that blood on Sunday would have a longer-lasting effect. Her rash seems to be better, so that's good news, and she hasn't had any more fevers so they've stopped two of three antibiotics she was on. She'll probably go back on them at some point, but it's nice to be able to give her body a rest now.

Mina is having a great time getting reaquainted with Grandma Lyn, who has a knack of making Mina just crack up laughing. On a sadder note, Amber leaves Thursday for a three week "walkabout" to New Zealand and Australia. Next time we'll see her will be on Mina Brigitta's birthday. She'll be sorely missed.

Much much better

Mina Brigitta seems fully recovered from her fevers and chemo. She had lots of energy today. They walked around the hallways, and went to neutropenic hour at the playroom. Grandma said she chattered non-stop all day long and ate like a horse. She was still going strong when I got here around 7:00, and didn't go to bed until 9:30. But when she went down she crashed hard, and now she's totally sawing logs. It's so nice to see her like this, and for the fevers to be gone. We were pretty sure it had to be the chemo, and didn't want to go overboard on drugs that can cause additional fevers, but at the same time her counts have been dropping quickly and the doctors wanted to be very cautious. It's all out of her system now, and she's not getting anymore eyedrops. Now all she gets is a daily poke in the leg to help stimulate her white cell production.

The only health issue that cropped up today was a rash. It may have been caused by one of the anti-biotics, or it's possible it's from the platelet transfusion she received today. Doesn't seem to be much to worry about. Hopefully they'll be able to start dropping the antibiotics over the next few days.

Mina Brigitta had a better day than yesterday, but she still spiked a fever over 102 tonight. She was really tired with puffy eyes this morning, but after a late morning nap and some Tylenol and Benedryl she was almost herself this afternoon. But when they wore off in the evening her fever spiked back up. She hasn't thrown up yet, so hopefully the worst is behind her. She received her last chemo today at around 4 pm, so hopefully she'll be feeling better by Tuesday.

She needed the drugs as a preventive measure because she received a transfusion this afternoon. This was her first "directed donation", most likely from our friend Awais, aka "emma's dadda", who is also O+, CMV negative. The other really cool thing from today is that Mina Brigitta seems to have gotten used to the eyedrops a bit. I noticed this morning she wasn't reacting quite so violently, and by this afternoon Amber had her lying down voluntarily. Amber gives her the cap to the eyedrop bottle to hold and lets her wipe her own eyes. Maybe that gives her some sense of control and participation. Tonight she didn't even really wake up.

Also, Sam Rosen came by this afternoon. In case you didn't catch the comments yesterday, Sam is training for a truly impressive bike ride this summer as part of Team in Training, raising money for the Leukemia and Lymphoma Foundation, and is riding in honor of Mina Brigitta. You can find out more information about his fundraiser at his blog: http://www.active.com/donations/fundraise_public.cfm?key=SRosenTNT. This is a great way to help out for people who can't be here to support us in person. Sam was here for an hour or so and read some books and drew some babies for Mina. She enjoyed herself; it's nice for her to have one-on-one interactions with other adults. I'm glad she was feeling well. Another Team in Training member, Brian Conrad, has also added Mina to his list of honorees. Brian is the husband of my old friend Christy Kvech (now Conrad). I know his info is in a comment on this blog somewhere, but I can't find it and it's getting late. Brian, if you're reading, send your info again and I'll post it in a visible spot. I'll try to figure out how to post these kinds of things as permanent links that don't keep getting bumped down.

Keri's mom comes in tomorrow for a nice long stint. She's coming just in time, because both Keri and I are going a bit stir crazy after having no one around all weekend, especially with Mina Brigitta not feeling well. I spent a lot of time with her asleep on my chest, and definitely got my fill of NCAA basketball.

Sick again! :-(

Well, I don't know if it's this place or just the chemo, but Mina Brigitta was feverish yesterday and went back on the antibiotics. She slept most of the day, didn't eat, etc. The Ara-C is known to cause fevers, but she hasn't reacted this strongly in the past. Hopefully that's all it is, and the fevers will be gone by Monday when the chemo is out of her system.

Back in for another round

Seems the donor isn't scheduled for a physical until next week, and we won't know anything for certain until after that happens. The donor needs a physical to make sure he's fit enough that it won't be a risk for him to donate. Assuming he passes, it will then take a couple of weeks to schedule everything.

So with the April 12 date up in the air, the decision was made to finish the round of high-dose chemo she was set to receive. She'll receive four intravenous doses of cytarabine between now and Sunday, which requires the administration of eye drops every three hours, and a shot of asparaginase on Sunday. Then they'll give her daily shots of G-CSF to stimulate white cell production. We'll probably be in for three weeks, and with any luck will get a few days at home before the transplant. Hopefully this will knock back her leukemia a bit from where it was a couple of weeks ago. We just have to pray that she doesn't get a fungal infection or something else that might compromise her ability to survive the transplant.

Mina Brigitta was very cute at the hospital tonight, pushing her stroller all over the hallway and talking to everyone. She can be kind of shy, especially when she's not feeling well, so this is fun to see. It's also nice that she doesn't associate this place with horrible things. She seems to be quite in her element here, which is a good thing because we'll be spending a lot of time here over the next few months.

Still not sure where we'll be this weekend

We're still waiting to find out if the April 12 date is going to work out for the donor. If we get that date, Mina Brigitta won't get any more chemo until her conditioning starts on April 4. They'll be content to let her recover from the round she got last weekend, and they would let us stay at home as long as she doesn't have any fevers. However, we need to know by Friday because she's due for another round of chemo starting Friday afternoon. So if the date is pushed back to the 19th, or even if we don't know yet, they'll go ahead and give her the chemo and hope nothing happens. So we still don't know if we're going back into the hospital Friday or not.

Mina Brigitta had kind of a tough day today, and by extension so did Keri, who was alone with both kids all day. She woke up at 4 am with a poop and didn't go back to sleep until 9:30. She slept for an hour and a half, but then was tired and cranky all day. She had another 2 and a half hour nap in the late afternoon, then had a light dinner and went to bed early. No fevers or anything, but she does look very pale. She's going into the clinic and getting blood work done tomorrow for the first time since last Friday; I wouldn't be surprised if she ended up getting a blood transfusion. She probably has some mucositis going as well, since her poops have seemed kind of uncomfortable the last day or two.

Good news on the donor!

They've completed the high-resolution HLA-typing on the potential donor, and he's a match! Or in more detailed terms, he's a 9/10 match with a mismatch at the B antigen. They've asked for a transplant date of 4/12 and are waiting to hear back whether that date would be acceptable. Keri and I are wondering whether Mina Brigitta will have recovered from this round of chemo yet; if last year is any guide, she might need another week. It's also not yet clear to me whether the donor has passed all the medical tests. I presume he's agreed to do it, because I think they needed another blood sample to complete the typing.

Mina Brigitta is still enjoying being home, even though she was a bit tired today because she's still been waking up in the middle of the night. Dadda spent an hour or so sitting with her in the chair. They went for a walk in Marin and had lunch at an outdoor cafe. Mina scarfed a whole helping of salmon and avocado. Auntie leaves tomorrow night, so that will be a drag, and then we go back into the hospital on Thursday. Thankfully there are no tests scheduled this week, but we may have to repeat some because the transplant was delayed.

A brief home respite

Discharged from the hospital today with no chemo scheduled until Friday and counts still reasonable. We'll be home until Thursday when they'll bring us back for another two days of chemo. We'll probably be in for another three weeks or so after that, waiting for her counts to recover.

Mina Brigitta is happy to be home, but the hospital stay wasn't as bad as I had been expecting. She's gotten into the habit of going for a walk around the floor every morning after breakfast, and then the playroom is open from 10:00-12:00. When we go back in, we were figuring we'll just have to put a mask and gloves on her and keep walking her around. It's good for her muscles, and for her sanity, if not necessarily for her immune system. This morning she wasn't getting anything more from her IV, so I had them unhook her before the walk. She looked back from the door and saw the pole still in the room, and ran over to it and said "Dadda, pole". I tried to tell her we didn't need it because she was unhooked, but didn't get anywhere. So I ended up pushing the IV pole behind her down the corridor even though it was unplugged and turned off.

Tonight at home she was running around the house shrieking, waiting for her momma to chase her. It's really good to see her with so much energy, especially considering the chemo just stopped this morning. She just loves having her "Anta" Teri here too. Between Momma and Anta, Dadda hardly gets any time at all.

Day One of the next chemo round

Mina Brigitta did just fine today. She woke up and wanted to read a book, then we had a nice breakfast and she pushed her stroller up and down the corridor. Then we went to the playroom at about 10:30, and Keri's cousin Shannon came and spent the rest of the day here. She was surprisingly energetic; she didn't have a nap all day today, yet was up and in a reasonable mood until almost 9:00. It's nice that this place doesn't seem to hold such awful memories for her.

It's all real vague, but Dr. Loh and Dr. Cowan, the BMT director, think the donor already responded. They're still finishing the detailed typing, but in the meantime are negotiating for an early transplant date. With how aggressively her disease is growing, they won't want to take any more chances with a delay. Dr. Cowan also mentioned that they may have found another possible donor. He would be happy to have a backup in case the first guy falls through.

Back in the slammer again

Well, it was kind of an eventful day. Mina Brigitta had yet another test today (pretty much every day this week and last), this time a brain MRI and another chest CT. She couldn't eat beforehand, and her 11:30 appointment didn't happen until 2:30. Keri was furious once again, because she had to drag Mina kicking and screaming from the park to get to the appointment on time.

Afterwards, Dr. Loh had planned to admit us to start another round of chemo. However, she was waiting for the numbers to come back from the bone marrow aspiration she ordered for Tuesday. Those numbers hadn't come in late afternoon, so Keri and the kids headed home to Berkeley and I left work to go home as well. But Dr. Loh had called before I got home -- the numbers had come back, and they're a bit sobering. Her cancerous cells went from 0.02% of white blood cells in her bone marrow to 0.7% in two weeks. She's still very much in remission, but this is a big change in a small period of time, and the 0.7% number would be enough to put her at higher risk of relapse even after the transplant. So instead of a lighter dose of chemo, she's now planning a more intensive dose to knock that number back a bit before the transplant. We'll get the scoop from her at 9 AM.

Mina Brigitta was asleep when I brought her into the hospital. She woke up briefly when Amber (fitting that she's the nurse tonight) was messing with her lines. We told her we were going to the hospital, and said goodbye everything in the house. She was very calm about it. Hopefully that means she understands and is OK with it, but I have a feeling she's going to expect to go back home tomorrow. We'll see how she reacts when she wakes up.

How quickly things change

It seems they found another donor, a 36 year-old male in the U.S., who is very likely to be a 9/10 match. There are still some ifs -- if he responds to the call, and if his detailed blood work shows he is indeed a match, then they'll schedule the transplant as soon as he is ready. That could be as early as next week, but it probably won't happen that fast. We probably won't even know whether he's a match until next week. This is very good news; while the outcomes from cord blood transplants look like they're nearly as good as marrow transplants, cord blood transplants are definitely riskier. So please send up prayers and vibes to get this guy into his blood center quickly!

Because the transplant is now being delayed, Dr. Loh wants to bring Mina Brigitta in for another round of chemo, so we'll likely be checking back into the hospital on Thursday. She has to try to concoct a regimen that is intensive enough to keep the leukemia cells down but not so intensive that she ends up with a fungal infection that compromises her ability to make it through transplant. We'll probably be able to come home over the weekend while her counts are dropping, but my guess is that there won't be a break between this round of chemo and the transplant. So we'll be in-patient basically from now until probably sometime in May. Ugh, Mina Brigitta is going to be very unhappy.

Out and about over the weekend

Mina Brigitta had a nice weekend. Saturday we went for a walk with her friends Emma, Emmasmomma and Emmasdadda. We took a bit of a chance and invited them over here afterwards, but Emma wasn't sick and doesn't go to daycare, and we wiped off everything she touched. And they had such a good time together. Today was a mellow day, hanging at home getting ready for the next phase and going for a walk at the "agua park". From my perspective, Mina Brigitta seemed totally like herself again today.

Can't resist telling this story: Saturday we received a package from the women who run Mina Brigitta's daycare with some "get well soon" cards they drew and pictures of all the kids. Mina Brigitta would not let go of those pictures all afternoon. She kept looking at them over and over again and dragging them with her wherever she went. I think we also figured out where she learned her favorite song "Baa Baa Black Sheep". I had always thought it was from a book that Eric and Astrid got us where we sing the song, but yesterday she was pointing to one of the pictures singing "baa baa ...," so now we figure she must have first learned it at daycare.

First trip to the dentist

Mina Brigitta just needed a quick checkup to make sure she didn't need any teeth extracted before the BMT. The good news is that her teeth all look just fine. The bad news is that all four of her remaining molars are starting to come in, and they could take up to six months. This is bad because the teeth breaking through the gum is a major potential source of infection. It would have been nice if they'd held off for a few months, but I'm sure they've dealt with kids getting teeth before. I guess we'll see what the BMT team has to say.

No news, just pics

Keri was exhausted from her trip yesterday and both kids being up in the middle of the night, so they pretty much stayed in the house all day. It was a rainy day anyway, and I'm sure the house feels palatial to Mina Brigitta compared to the hospital room. So with no news to report, this is as good a time as any to finally unveil the photo album I've been working on for weeks. Here's the link:

http://www.mendozabaseball.com/minabrigitta/index.html

Pic from Mina's day with Amber. Did she have fun? Oh, maybe.

A fun day with Amber

With Keri and Isaac up in Seattle, Amber agreed to watch Mina for the day. Sounds like they had a great day -- drawing babies, watching the ducks in the park (from a safe distance, Amber assures us). Amber says that Mina kept pointing to her painted toenails all day, until Amber finally agreed to paint Mina's toes hot pink. After that, she refused to put her shoes back on, saying "no, dadda!" because she wanted to show her dad.

Keri will arrive home any minute, sounds like the visit was useful. I was able to attend her meeting with the transplant doctor by speaker phone. It seems that Fred Hutch would want to do total body irradiation as a conditioning regimen. We just hate that thought, but the doctor referred to the alternative chemo regimen as "liquid radiation", and Dr. Cowan here at UCSF also said he thought the side effects were just as bad. Ugh.

A long day at the clinic

Mina Brigitta's lumbar puncture was scheduled for 12 pm, but due to a delay in the OR didn't happen until almost 3:00. She was tired and hadn't had anything to eat or drink all day, so she was cranky with a capital C. We also had an appointment with Dr. Loh, which went just fine. Blood counts continue to improve, but slowly. Dr. Loh gave us a prescription for a light regimen of maintenance chemo. This will just make sure she stays where she's at for the next few weeks until we can get the BMT process started.

Dr. Cowan of the UCSF BMT team wanted to bring us in next Monday, but there's no way we'll be ready by then. Mina Brigitta will need a whole battery of tests: hearing test, pulmonary (lung) function test, brain MRI, chest CT scan, complete dental workup, kidney test, and I'm sure some others I'm forgetting. This is all to establish a baseline so they can measure how match damage they've done to her when this is all over. The unfortunate thing is that many of these tests require her to be sedated, which means she can't eat or drink that day until after the test. The maintenance chemo will buy us some time to get all this done and allow Mina Brigitta to regain some strength, not to mention allow Keri and me to make sure we're making the right decisions for her.

Keri and Isaac flew up to Seattle tonight, so it's just me and Mina B in the house. They arrive back late tomorrow night.