Bridget returned to the Oncology Clinic on Friday and, as expected, she needed a platelet transfusion. Her platelets were only 30 (normal is 150-350). They were on the fence about also giving a red blood cell transfusion, since her Hemoglobin was 8.6 and expected to drop over the weekend, but we decided to hold off on that and re-evaluate on Monday. The platelet transfusion went really quickly. The longest part was waiting for the platelets to be sent up from the blood bank. Bridget passed that time by, you guessed it, going to the Great Room. The Great Room has a theme every week and the theme was ROBOTS. Thus Bridget and Scott worked together to make WALL-E and EVE out of Model Magic until we got the call that the platelets had arrived. The platelets are transfused by gravity, meaning they aren’t hooked up to an IV pump. They are just hung and drip in via gravity. All was said and done within 15-20 minutes. On a side note, the platelets are not very appealing to the eye. They are a dull yellow liquid. Bridget said she actually prefers to see the actual blood being transfused.

Despite the low blood counts, Bridget is feeling good! She actually spent all day Thursday playing and crafting. It’s much different than the days after the last two cycles where she was mostly in bed or on the couch. She feels well enough to get up and do things and thus we have the new issue of CABIN FEVER. She can’t wait to get out of the house and do fun things, such as shopping. We did stop at Target, once again, after her visit on Friday to get some prescription refills and allowed her some time to walk around the store and even pick up a few school supplies (masked up, of course!).

Bridget has been asking for steamed crabs. We’ve offered crab cakes, but that’s not what she wanted. We weren’t sure if crabs were doctor approved and so we asked. Turns out she can eat steamed crabs, but she’s not allowed to pick them because of the risk of getting a cut/infection. How convenient for her- haha! We were lucky enough that some friends in our neighborhood invited us over as they had some to share on Saturday. So, Bridget got to spend some time outside and got to have a few piles of steamed crabs. On Sunday, Bridget wanted to go to church. We offered to take her but told her she’d have to wear her mask the whole mass. Again, it was nice to be out and see some church friends and family who were at the mass. Everyone was so glad to see her and can’t wait until she’s well enough to be back as an alter server.

After the low blood counts on Friday, Hopkins wanted to see us again today (Monday) for repeat labs and evaluation. So back we went and this time had to get two transfusions. Her platelets were only 13 and her Hemoglobin was 7.6.   So, first she got a unit of red blood cells (which takes about 2 hours) and then she got another platelet transfusion (another 15 minutes).   Her ANC is also down to only 450, so we’ll be staying home and quiet waiting for her counts to recover. The doctors say the current chemotherapy cycles, while generally better tolerated, are harder on the bone marrow, so the counts are dropping lower than they have in the past and staying lower for longer. They also explained that her bone marrow has also taken a beating from the first two cycles and the effects are cumulative- that every cycle will be a little tougher in terms of count recovery. So, we just have to be patient and wait it out. So, while she is anxious to get out and do some more back to school shopping (or as she told the nurse today- ANY kind of shopping), she is keeping busy at home. She has been teaching herself how to use her cricut, making some stickers for her and her siblings’ school binders.

The plan still stands to return for chemo on Friday. We are anxious to see if her counts will have recovered enough to proceed. We will get there at 8 a.m. and get her blood drawn. If the counts haven’t recovered, we’ll postpone until the day after Labor Day. If her counts are good, she’ll start out with a lumbar puncture in the clinic and be admitted for chemo that afternoon.

We did get to stop one medication- the gabapentin she was taking for nerve pain. Since she has recovered from the nerve pain and the last chemo agents don’t cause nerve pain we were able to wean her off of it over the weekend. I’m counting down the days until we can start discontinuing even more meds.

Until then, thank you for the continued prayers and well wishes as she continues to recover from her 3^rd cycle and prepare for the 4^th and FINAL cycle. We get cards in the mail daily still and Bridget loves opening them. When she is in the hospital, we hang them in her hospital room, and then when we come home, we hang them at home.   I tried to get a picture to show them, but they span across several rooms. At last count we had over 130 cards!