We headed to clinic on Monday morning. Julia’s port was accessed and a blood test was taken. While we waited for results, she was examined by Dr. Julie. Julia made counts and she was able to start the next round of chemo. This round is five days of Cytoxan and Etoposide, requiring hydration before and after the drugs, so clinic days are long.
Monday was an exciting day for Julia, as she was able to “Skype” with her class for the first time. At 1 PM, we logged onto the computer and Julia was able to see her class and join in on the day’s math lesson. She was so excited to see everyone!!! Her face beamed when she first saw Mrs. Russo and then seeing each of her friends as they came up to the camera to say a special hello. Isn’t technology wonderful!! Thanks to everyone at Brooke that worked to make this happen!
The Chemo took over at about 4 AM Tuesday morning. Julia woke from a sound sleep vomiting. We gave Julia another dose of Ativan (she had received a 24 hour dose of Zofran at clinic so we could not give her any more). Julia was able to fall back to sleep until about 6 AM, only to wake up again and grab the “bucket”. She continued to throw up until we were able to get to clinic and the Zofran drip was started.
Julia joined her “Skype” class at 10 AM for phonics. She became very tired towards the end of the lesson and fell asleep soon after 10:30 AM. Julia slept silently for almost two hours, waking to have a small amount of lunch and join the math lesson at 1 o’clock.
Hoping to find a combination of anti-nausea meds that will help Julia, it was decided to split her Zofran dose today. Julia received a 12-hour dose, along with a Dex (a steroid) in the morning. We would give her another dose at 8:30 PM (along with the Dex). Julia also received Ativan at the end of chemo and we can continue to give this to her every 6 hours through the night.
The Zofran announced loud and clear that it wore off at 8 PM – Julia began to vomit again. I gave her the next dose of Zofran with the Dex. Her nausea went away within the hour and Julia was able to fall asleep. We are waiting to give her the Ativan until after 10 PM so that it lasts most of the night and Julia can get some sleep.
We are hoping and praying that we are able to find the right combination of drugs to relieve Julia’s nausea. The combination we used during the last round of Cytoxan and Etoposide does not seem to be working. Just like Julia’s first go around with chemo two years ago, as the treatments progressed, the side effects got worse.