Julia had her weekly doctor’s appointment and labs Monday afternoon. All her labs are great and her counts have rebounded well since last week. Julia also had a chest x-ray in preparation for next week (more about the results later). Julia will be having surgery next Monday or Tuesday (waiting for the surgery scheduler to call) to have a chemo port placed. This will be outpatient surgery at CHOP in Philadelphia. Julia’s new port will remain accessed and she will have round #3 of chemo for the next three days – a new cocktail of Carboplatin and Etoposide (no Cytoxan for this cycle). As usual, her chemo will be at the King of Prussia CHOP clinic.
Julia has been full of energy this week and this did not diminish during her clinic visit. She had big hugs for all, especially Doctor Julie (Stern) who she did not see last week. Dr. Julie was the doctor for the Ronald MacDonald Camp that was held last week. Julia was excited to hear that next year she will be old enough to go to the camp! She sat after her exam and looked at photos from this year’s camp and asked lots of questions (I am sure in preparation for next year’s trip).
Julia also noticed that they painted the clinic walls during the last week. She promptly declared that “this room needs a makeover”. Next week the clinic days will most likely be filled with lots of arts and crafts to decorate the space as Julia’s inner “design diva” takes charge.
Julia’s x-ray was late in the day, so we did not get any results until this afternoon. Dr. Stern called to let us know that the results were better than she anticipated and the tumor has shrunk substantially as a result of the chemo!!!! This news was well worth the wait!!!