Reinduction: Round Two

I made it through the weekend at home and came in Tuesday morning to begin the second round of chemo. They are using Citarabine and Etoposide this time, and it seems to be a little easier on the system.

The skin rash I mentioned developing over the weekend is still very much a part of me. The dermatologists did a biopsy today, and they think it is probably Sweet's Syndrome. It looks like an acid burn on my hands, to be honest, and feels about like one, too. They should have a diagnosis by tomorrow and be able to treat appropriately from there. I'm looking forward to it.

Other side effects have been better than last week overall. My appetite is still lacking, but I did manage to keep dinner and breakfast down last night and today. I didn't eat lunch, but dinner is here and looks o.k. I've been sticking to baked potatoes. My counts were really low today (platelets around 17, iron around 7, white count is .3 -- I've been neutropenic since yesterday at least) so that made it transfusion day. The platelets went in o.k., but I reacted to the first bag of blood and before I knew it I was receiving a chest x-ray, blood draws, and an antibiotic since my reaction involved a fever. The fever is now gone, and I'm hoping the antibiotics can go soon as well. I still need to receive two units of blood at some point but they're all talking about it right now to see what they want to do. I thought since I am going to be having a transplant that they would be careful to only give me my type, and the unit today was not my type, so they may be trying to get some in. I don't feel good when the fevers hit, and ended up just going downhill and held my teddy bear while they poked and prodded, and cried for Alivia, the little girl we know of with ALL, and how she has to have all of the same stuff done to her and she doesn't even know why, and wants to tell them to just all go away and leave her alone just as much as I do. My heart breaks for her, and for all the other little ones who are suffering from this disease. Somedays it just seems like too much to bear.

All of my siblings had blood drawn yesterday and sent to Barnes in STL for testing. We should know the results next week. For now it's still just a day at a time. I find myself wishing they could just knock you out and wake you up when it's all over, but I suppose this is the race, isn't it?

Thanks to Pastor and Mrs. Preusch for your encouragement yesterday.

"Master, carest thou not that we perish? And he arose, and rebuked the wind, and said unto the sea, Peace, be still. And the wind ceased, and there was a great calm. And he said unto them, Why are ye so fearful? how is it that ye have no faith? And they feared exceedingly, and said one to another, What manner of man is this, that even the wind and the sea obey him?" - Mark 4:38b-41