Olivia had her Vincristine today and her blood counts today showed improved results. Her ANC started to go down a month ago at her last Vincristine chemo. At that time, she was taking 100% dosage of her oral chemo. We now notice the pattern that when her dosage goes back to 100%, that's when her counts go down. When she has an episode of fever and neutropenia, her dosage is taken down by 50% of her usual dosage. However, she cannot start the oral chemo unless her ANC levels are at least 750. I have also noticed a pattern that it usually takes 2 weeks for Olivia to recover from neutropenia and get her counts back up. This month though, it took her 1 month to recover. She began this month with 844 ANC and it plummeted to 80 after a couple weeks. We had to pull her out of school again after 1 1/2 months of being back. Today, her ANC results were at 1700+! She is now back to taking oral chemo (6MP and Methotrexate), but starting with 50% dosage again until her counts show consistent good results.
As Olivia was being examined by her oncologist, I mentioned to him that it was exactly 2 years ago today when Olivia was diagnosed. It's hard not to recall all the things we have been through for 2 years. The doctor had a great point though. He wanted me to look the other direction - that in 3 month's time, Olivia will be done with treatment! It's definitely something we are all looking forward to!