Consolodation - 8-16-16

2 year regimen

On Friday August 12th, Mayleigh was admitted to Bay Area Hospital where she had cold symptoms coupled with neutropenic blood levels. She would spend the next 4 days regaining her strength and being sealed off to avoid any more possible infection. She was scheduled on Monday to begin her consolidation phase in Eugene but she unfortunately had to cancel due to being in the hospital.

With no time to delay, we were called today to get her to Eugene within 3 hours for an appointment at 1:15. They want to keep her on schedule and abide by the regimen given by OHSU as much as possible so we really had no option but to drop everything and get ready for a 2 hour drive.

Today we met her doctor who will be administering her treatment for the next 2 years Doctor Jeff Sharman at Willamette Valley Cancer Institute. He specializes in cancers of the blood and has administered this type of regimen several times prior and was very informative about what to expect. We quickly found out (in more thorough detail) why remission is a word to be taken with a grain of salt. If she was to not continue this treatment the leukemia would be back within months and most likely with a vengeance. Being that we tried to kill it off, it sounds like this cancer isn't in the forgiveness business so we would prefer to stay on top of things.

Upon entering the administering room, we quickly realized this was an all too familiar view when watching someone get chemo such as in the movies. You have a plethora of chairs all lined up with IV stations (aka Phillips') pointed out a bay window to allow for staring out into the vast wilderness beyond. You have your reading materials, binoculars and puzzles for when you get bored. You have your mostly over 65 patients scattered throughout and then you have Mayleigh. 20 years old, veteran of the chemo treatment, already aware of what was ahead of her and not letting it effect her. She was getting ready for her 4th and 5th different kinds of chemotherapy without a care in the world. Ain't no cancer gonna mess up her plans..hell nah!~ :D

The first chemo drug is called Cytarabine and is a common treatment for leukemia. The most common side effects are the typical nausea, feeling like crap and blood counts dropping to neutropenic levels. Nothing too out of the ordinary for what we've already experienced. The second chemo is Cyclophosphamide and unfortunately this one has additional long term pitfalls such as infertility. There have been many discussions on this subject and the risks involved with having children when all this is through. Mayleigh has agreed that her health at this point is ultimately the only focus we can have right now and we are going to leave it up to "if it's meant to be" it will happen to guide the future. We of course want grandchildren someday as well but we also agree firmly that we are on the path we need to be and again without further delay.

As her last drip of chemo enters her body and the saline begins to clean things up, her body continues to not show any signs of the damage it's most likely doing on the inside. As cancer cells begin to run for their lives, we can't help but think of what will happen when the effects begin for this new treatment. Will she have any side effects or will it be business as usual? So far she has had little to no symptoms from previous treatments so we hope it continues its course. She also had a new steroid and anti nausea medication added to help her body tolerate the toxic concoction she has received.

Two and a half hours later she is finished. Ready for the 2 hour adventure home. Tomorrow she will be utilizing Trans Link to transport her for most likely the remainder of her treatment with random trips with mom and dad thrown in. I was mistaken on how long Consolidation is and she will have to go to Eugene 4 times a week for the next 6 months instead of 2 months as I thought. After that it drops down to once a week.
This is going to be very grueling for her system and sanity either way. We have had the discussion of allowing a local doctor to administer this treatment and Dr. Sharman was familiar with him and thought he may be able to do it but we will consult with him to see if it will be the right choice. We ultimately want the A Team and if it takes 6 hours a day to make sure she's 100% cured we'll do just that. At this point it's a guarantee she is in Eugene for the next couple months and she's got a lot of miles ahead. We are confident every one of them will be worth while though!