Yesterday, Julia began her radiation treatments. There will be six in all (one each morning this week and one next Monday). She is having general anesthesia with each treatment since she needs to lie completely still for the treatment and no one can be in the room with her. Although the actual radiation treatment is only 5 minutes, we are at the hospital for at least 3-1/2 hours while she gets anesthesia and wakes up after the treatment. Julia was very tired last night and went to bed at 7:30 PM (early for her). We think this was partly due to getting up so early in the morning.
Today was a very long day. Radiation began at 8:30 AM. When Julia came back to recovery from the treatment, the nurse took her labs while she was sleeping off the effects of the anesthesia. The labs were then sent via courier to CHOP (the radiation treatment is done across the street at the Pearlman Center). Once Julia woke up, we walked across the street to the Oncology Clinic at CHOP. Since we are staying in the city for radiation, it was easier to have her chemo done at CHOP this week. This way we didn’t need to drive to the clinic in King of Prussia where she usually gets chemo.
Julia’s labs came back and her counts were low this week. Since she is having radiation, they do not like to see the Hemoglobin go below 10. Julia was a 9.4, so she needed to have a blood transfusion before her chemo. The transfusion and her chemo took until 5 PM.
Chemo was only VinCristine this week, so she shouldn’t have any rough side effects. We think it will be enough just dealing with the radiation. It seems to be wiping her out and she is very tired. She really doesn’t feel like playing, but wants to cuddle and quietly watch a movie (thanks Laura, you have a great collection!). Her body is just healing from the surgery, so the radiation is really taking its toll. The doctors have said that the effects of the radiation have a cummulative effect and will build as the week goes on. We can’t imagine what the end of the week will be like. Just need to give her lots of hugs and cuddle time.