Stephanie has been doing very well, both today and yesterday. 

Michael’s arm is bothering him very little if any at all…oh no, he’s back to his old self now. He still doesn’t want to climb trees though.

Today was Stephanie’s turn to go to Kingston … just like work: leave here at 7:30 AM and back by 4:00 PM.

The Spinal Tap didn’t go well at all today. Its usually a 5 minute procedure where they insert the needle, drip about 10 drops of fluid out, and then inject some chemotherapy drugs (ARC in this case). Unfortunately this time it took 45 minutes and 4 pokes. They couldn’t get the needle in quite right the first time to get a flow of fluid so they had to poke again and again and again. Of course after the first missed poke, Stephanie started screaming and moving which just made it worse until they were finally able to get it on the fourth poke.

After her required one hour of lying with her head lower than her feet, however, she was back to her old self, albeit quite tired out by the whole ordeal.

The trip back to Trenton was without throwing up this time (last two times had Stephanie throwing up for three hours non-stop after the Spinal Tap). We had arranged that she recieve Ondansatron – a stronger form of Gravol, before the Spinal Tap this time. It seems that it worked. Talk about expensive though, at $18 dollars a pill, we were required to give her a dose of one and one-half pills this evening and another dose tomorrow.

Talked to our doctor about what the next phase is (as today’s Spinal Tap was the last treatment of the CNS Prophylaxis phase). The next phase that Stephanie will under go is called Interim Maintenance Phase. Note that this is not the “long-term” maintenance phase that continues until the end of the 3 year treatment period – that comes later, after a Reinduction phase. Just the same, this upcoming Interim Maintenance phase is fairly relaxed with a Methotrexate (via IV) session every two weeks at the clinic (ie, she doesn’t have to be admitted).

Stephanie had no problems falling asleep tonight – she was exhausted.

I stayed home with Stephanie while Linda brought Michael to his doctor’s appointment in Kingston. This time they took xrays and then wrapped the still split cast in fiberglass – it was still too soon to put his “permanent” cast on – maybe next week. Michael chose black for the fiberglass color: “for Halloween”.

Stephanie is still full of energy … sometimes too much!

Today was Michael’s birthday. He is eight years old now. Linda’s parents and brother (Jacques) came down from Ottawa for the day. We had a special lunch and opened presents. We had originally planned to bring Michael and two of his friends out to a movie on Saturday for his birthday, but decided to postpone because of Stephanie having been in the hospital all week which got further complicated by Michael breaking his elbow. Just the same, we had a great Sunday.

Stephanie threw up this morning. Just the same, she was up to going out to the Family Day at work. She had a lot of fun watching a movie, playing Pin the Tail on the Donkey and decorating her own muffin. She especially liked jumping on a small aerobics trampoline.

Michael was feeling much better today and went over to a friends house for the afternoon.

Michael’s doctor’s appointment in Kingston was pretty anti-climatic. All the doctor did was to wrap tape around his split cast and ask us to come back in on Monday.

Left Kingston late in the afternoon with everybody. Stephanie’s week in the Hospital went fine. She is feeling great as normal. Her next appointment is Tuesday for another Spinal Tap – the last of the CNS Prophylaxis Phase.

Michael didn’t do much today; he’s still pretty sore.

I called Kingston to see if they wanted to see Michael since he had had to get his cast split the night before. They told me to bring him in tomorrow, which works out OK since I will have to go get Stephanie and Linda anyways.