Medical Updates

The doctors and nurses have spent a lot of time with us the past couple days explaining more about Olivia's case. I learned about Neutrophil today. It's a type of white blood cell that form an essential part the immune system. Without it, the body has no ability to fight infection. A normal Absolute Neutrophil Count (ANC) is 1,500. When we got admitted, she had 0. That explains why she had fever that lasted more than usual.

Her current blood counts are as follows:

White Blood Count 1.4 (Normal is 5-10)

With her Neutrophil at 4%, her ANC is at 56 (Improved from the day we got admitted!). Anything less than 500 is considered severely neutropenic. This means she cannot fight infection at all.

Hemoglobin 7.8 (Normal is 12-14)

Platelets 20,000 (Normal is 150,000-450,000)


Some of you might ask me why I have been reporting that she is heading the right direction but her blood counts are still way below normal. Chemotherapy actually gets rid of cancer cells, but also gets rid of good blood cells at the same time. What we expect from chemo is that her body start to produce more good blood cells at a faster rate while eliminating the cancer cells. Her current blood counts are where the doctors expect it to be at this stage of chemotherapy. It will be a while until we see her counts close to normal.

That being said, we are being very cautious with her exposure to other people so as to not compromise her immune system. We were advised not to bring her to public places. Playdates are fine as long as everyone is well. Hopefully we get used to our new normal fairly quickly.

Olivia will be getting her 4th blood transfusion tomorrow (platelets), Friday morning, in preparation for her 2nd spinal tap. She will be given 2 chemotherapy medications tomorrow. One through her spine and the other through her port.

Time for some reading

I started to read about Leukemia maybe on our 3rd day here in the hospital. We were in denial at first (I still am...but I know that we need to be smart about this). I find that the more we know about the disease, the more comforted we are and hopeful that we will beat this with the help of prayers and great medical staff.

I bought a binder to store all important documents throughout this journey. It helps to be organized!

Olivia Meets Elsa

The other day Olivia saw a Princess Elsa doll on YouTube and it brought the biggest smile on her face. Now she gets to meet the Elsa doll in person! Thank you Lola! She loved it!

Daddy's Girl

Olivia was extra affectionate to her Daddy today. Here she is upon seeing Daddy walk in the room (he spent the night at home with Kuya).

Here's a bonus track for all our viewers!  Click here to watch -> Daddy singing to Livi

Chill day

Today was a relaxing day for all of us. Started the day with our morning skype routine with Kuya. Kuya Gabe definitely brightens up Olivia's day. They played lego blocks through skype.

Olivia was also in the mood to open up and sort her candies from Halloween!

Here's more pictures of her playing with her gifts.

Today we received our medication/ treatment calendar for the next 30 days. The amount of daily medication is not that bad, at least for our first month. We will be visiting the hospital once a week after we get discharged for her chemotherapy.

It's Playtime!

Olivia was so happy the morning after her 3rd chemotherapy. Such a relief to see her in good spirits again. Everytime we see her happy, we make sure we take advantage of it. I took out some presents she received the past couple days and it brought so much smile and laughter. Thank you family and friends for all the presents! You know who you are =)

She was goofing around with the DVD's too...

 

I found out that she likes getting tickled in the ear. Here she is showing Mommy how to do it..

 

Doctor said that Olivia's heading the right direction. They took her off the medication called Allipurinol - medication to reduce uric acid for cancer patients. They also stopped her IV antibiotics which she has been taking for a couple days because of her fever. She has been fever free for about 3 days now and so she was able to go to the playroom today. The blood tests will now just be once a day instead of 3! What a happy day!

More visitors

Olivia had her third set of visitors at the hospital today. Lolo and Fr. Gerry came to visit on Monday afternoon while she was undergoing chemo treatment. Olivia was so excited to see Lolo! She hasn't seen lolo in a long time!

It was nice of Fr. Gerry to come pray with us and give us blessings. Thank you Father!