This week marks the end of Olivia's first cycle of maintenance. 1 cycle is 3 months and there are 12 cycles overall in maintenance phase. 33 months remaining! Sounds like a long time, but I know it will go by fast.
This friday will be the day 1 of cycle 2. Every cycle will begin with a spinal tap, intrathecal chemo (through her spine) and IV chemo. She will be sedated for this procedure. I remember when she used to do spinal taps weekly like it was just part of our normal routine. Now I get a bit nervous about it but will stay positive for Olivia. The secret to a lot of these situations is to make her feel that it's not a big deal and definitely to show bravery so she will be brave too.
It is still important to have regular spinal taps during maintenance to make sure they don't see leukemia cells in her spinal fluid. At diagnosis, no leukemia cells were found in Olivia's spinal fluid, but there's a possibility that it can show up if she relapses. And that's why she gets regular chemo in her spine even though there's no 'monster' in there. We learned from her doctor that many years ago when survival rate was not as good as where we are now, that they didn't follow the same protocol as far as administering chemo through the spine for this long period of time. That's why a lot of patients relapsed. The 'monster' was actually hiding.
Olivia usually gets groggy and tired for the rest of the day after a spinal tap procedure. Hoping and praying this will not be that bad.
Here she is having fun with her long hair. I bought this wig for her back when her hair started to fall off. I admit that it was more like something to comfort me from my fears. Fears that I thought were part of her fears as well. Olivia didn't really care so much back then about her hair. In a way she taught me how to not sweat about the small stuff. We definitely have learned a lot from each other this past year!
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