Watching water boil!

Sinatra getting a transfusion at OPI
enjoying some Frozen

We are so excited that Sinatra made it through her Delayed Intensification phase and got some well deserved time off from the chemo.  Originally we were supposed to have about 14 days off in between phases which seemed like a perfect break and enough time for Sinatra to build her counts back. At the end of the hospital stay the other week Sinatra's ANC went up to 100 which is extremely low and risky but it was enough to get us released from the hospital.  To our surprise when we went back for labs the next week to see if we had a 750 ANC which is required to start our next round, she was still below 100 and required a transfusion. To us as parents it worries us because Sinatra was originally diagnosed when her body couldn't produce blood anymore, and now we are seeing the same trend. In fact we have come to the conclusion that for the rest of our lives every sickness, fever, bruise or lethargic moment will have us worried about a relapse.  Luckily the Doctors talked us off the ledge and made us realize that her low count was expected and the chemo worked.  It was the chemos job to get rid of the 'Blood Factory' in Sinatra's body, because that is where the Leukemia is produced as well. So after the low count Sinatra was  delayed and we would get labs again the next week. This time she was up just over a 100 and  after a few more weeks of the counts not going up we would be delayed for a full  month before her counts went up to 750.  We actually had one lab result where Sinatra had an ANC of 738.....uggghhhhhh. All that we can say is that it is nice to have a break and we know Sinatra needs it, but when you are focused on continuing treatment and getting to the 2 year promise land of maintenance, this time off is like watching paint dry.

Siena reading to Sinatra on the long
break from treatment

Sinatra has gained some weight but is still pretty inconsistent when it comes to her eating patterns. All we can tell you is that she loves mini pancakes. She will not eat anything for lunch and dinner and then when she wakes up in the morning she will down about 15 eggo mini pancakes.  Its like cookie monster but with mini pancakes.  

It is official though we are starting our interim Maintenance II next week. Then it is 56 more days until maintenance which means that we are scheduled to do enter day 1 of maintenance on Thanksgiving Day.

Sinatra and Siena getting ready for
football