Caitlin_Update02

12/6/00 - Caitlin had a doctor's appointment 12/4/00 and all went pretty well. She checked out fine, but her ANC has taken a dip. Last month her ANC was 1640 and this month it's 615. The doctor's think it's caused the medicince she's taking being to high of a dosage. They've stopped all of her medicine, except for the Prednisone (Yippy :-) ), for a week to see if her counts recover. Once they recover, we'll start the fine tuning process of dosage to Caitlin's system. Hopefully it won't take too long to get it straightened out. I'll update again next week after Monday's clinic visit.

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1/31/01 - Caitlin has had an adventurous couple of weeks. She has had two visits to the emergency room, 1 for nose bleeds and the other for a fever. The nose bleeds were nothing and the fever was treated with 2 days of antibiotics on an out patient basis. She is doing much better now. She had a regular checkup this past Monday. Her ANC was 2790 and everything else was fine as well. I will post another update soon.

3/27/01 - Caitlin had surgery yesterday to remove her Broviac Catheter. Everything went real well and she's doing great. She also had a spinal tap done while she was under, which was great because she didn't feel a thing. Her ANC is 1445 and showed no signs of any blast cells. Her spinal tap was also clean and showed no white blood cells or blasts either. We're relieved that her surgery is over and that her counts and spinal tap are both good.

4/26/01 - Sorry for not updating in a while. Caitlin had a short hospitalization the early part of April due to a fever and low counts. The doctors told us that she's going to be one of those kids who doesn't handle full doses of her medicine very well. She had a checkup this past Monday, April 23rd and everything was fine. They're going to do a DNA test on her next month to see if she's missing a certain cell that's causing her to be less tolerable of the 6 Mercaptopurine (6-MP) which might explain why her counts keep getting wiped. I'll let you know how that turns out. The visit was her first since having her Broviac removed and she did real well. She received 2 sticks with a needle and handled it pretty well, so we're happy about our decision to have her Broviac removed. Now if we can keep her counts stable. That's all for now. I'll update again soon.

6/29/01 - Again I apologize for not updating sooner. Caitlin has had a couple of checkups since my last update. She did well with both of them and has really adjusted to not having her Broviac. She gets 2 sticks (needle injections) a month and doesn't even cry when she's getting them. She is so brave and so strong and has really made this so much easier on us by being that way. Her ANC seems to have stabalized so the doctors are leaving her medication levels where they are. She's almost up to full dose but since her ANC is at a good level, they're going to leave her where she's at for now. Hopefully no more fevers or hospitalizations. That's about all for now. I'm going to try to add some new pictures soon, so check back for those every so often.

7/20/01 - Caitlin had another checkup this past Monday. Her ANC was 1349 and seems to be holding at a good level. Everything else checked out fine as well. We're down to our 6 months of treatment and can't wait for it to be over with. It's been a long haul, but we've learned a lot and hope to be able to pass on our knowledge to others who find themselves in the same situation that we were in. That's all for now. I'll update again soon.

9/25/01 - Sorry it's been so long since I last posted an update. Caitlin has been doing pretty good since I last updated. She had another bout of dropping counts, but seems to be back on track. She recently had her medication levels increased to full strength, so hopefully she'll be able to handle them better this time. We're down to our last 4 months of treatment, what a day that will be.
Just wanted to mention the events of September 11th. Our heart goes out to everybody affected by this tragedy. As a country, we can overcome this, because, United We Stand, Devided We Fall. Our prayers are with all the victims and their families.

10/10/01 - Caitlin had another regular checkup this Monday and everything went great. Her ANC is 1914, so things are getting back to normal with that. She's back to full dose medication, so hopefully she'll be able to handle it better this time around. No matter what happens though, we'll deal with it until she's through with her treatment. When will that be you ask? January 31, 2002. Her birthday is 2 weeks after that so we're going to be throwing her a huge party. That's all for now. More updated coming soon.