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.