Sarah's Cancer: The plan

Sorry for the delay in the update.  I spent the morning at home and when I got the hospital, I have been helping with Sarah.  We just took a field trip to the playroom on the 3rd floor.  Sarah had to wear a mask but she enjoyed getting out of her room.  She didn't want to walk due to the pain in her back, so she got a wheelchair and used that to get her to and from the playroom.

So Jess got a visit from the oncologist this morning and we learned what the plan is for the next month.  We also got all the information on the drugs that Sarah will have to take.  I will split out the details to later in this post.  She falls into the high risk group because of her white blood cell count when she was admitted to the hospital.

The first round of treatment will last 29 days.  There are two portions.  First is induction, which is the set of drugs that go into her blood.  The second is Intrathecal, which are the drugs that get administered into the spine.  This started yesterday when she was under anaesthesia.  The found white blood cells in the spinal fluid yesterday so she will get more treatments to make sure they get all the cancer cells there as well.

She will get the chemo drugs later today in her port.  They will watch her in the hospital for at least 5 days, depending on how she responds to the medicine.  If she does well she can go home but needs to stay quarantined to the house.  She will be back on days 8, 15, 22, and 29 to have drugs administered.  She will have another shot in the spine on the 8th and 29th days.  If there are still white blood cells on the 8th day, she will also have a shot on the 15th day.  These will all be while she is under anaesthesia.

Thanks for all the support and love.

Details on the drugs below:

She will be on antinausea medicines to help during the chemo.  They will start on Zophen and if needed use Benedryl, Adivan, or Phenergan.  The drug the use for the spinal tap is Intrathecal Cytarabine (IT ARAC).  She will have Dexamethasone (DEX) for the first 14 days.  This will be taken by mouth 2x a day.  The drugs that will be administered during the chemo treatments are VinCRIStine (VCR), and DAUNOrubicon (DAUN).  The DAUN is the drug that will most likely cause her to lose her hair.  These will be given on days 1, 8, 15, and 22.  She also gets PEG-asparaginase (PEG-ASP) on either day 4, 5, or 6.  The plan is to give this on Sat.

There are side effects for each of the drugs.  VCR can cause problems walking and picking up toes.  She most likely will have leg pain, the day of the dose.  DEX can cause mood swings.  (fun for us, :( ).  To help with tummy issues, they are going to give her some Zantac.  DAUN can effect the heart, hence the Echo Cardiogram that she had yesterday.  PEG-ASP has the possibility of having an allergic reaction.