the adventures of brain tumour man and superchuck: still home, but climbing up

Well, we are still home and treatment has been delayed once again. Just when I think we can predict the next step, there is always a change in plans.

If you read the last post, I had kinda hit my breaking point on Sunday. Things started to slowly get better the rest of the week though. My mood has a direct correlation to Charlotte's mood, and when my happy girl started making her appearance, I cheered up.

The blood in her diaper continued to Tuesday and I ended up calling the oncologist again. It wasn't blood accompanied with a bowel movement, but it was a separate discharge with blood that would come out separate from a bowel movement. Charlotte was in obvious pain every time she would have a bowel movement or this discharge. It was a rough couple days watching her go through that and not being able to do anything for her. Talking to the Dr.s when we were in on Thursday they aren't sure what the cause could have been.

Charlotte slowly got back to her normal self this week, each day getting a bit better. It took her about 2.5 weeks to recoup from this last dose of methotrexate. This has me on edge in anticipation of her next dose.

She was supposed to get her last dose on Thursday (I had previously said Wednesday, but we ended up getting an extra day off so we could have some family time with our favorite travel family). And since her blood levels were all okay on Friday when I had taken her in, we really weren't expecting any interruptions. So, we were very surprised when we found out her neutrophils weren't high enough to start treatment. They had been 1.46 on Friday, which is the highest they have been since she was diagnosed, and were 0.40 on Thursday. They said that's pretty normal, and I guess it might explain the pooping issue. I'm pretty thankful for the extra break, as I just got my happy girl back, and would like to enjoy that for a couple days! We are back in for blood work Monday for a possible start Tuesday.

We had Michelle, Ben and their adorable kiddies here for a couple nights. They helped brighten up things around here! We don't let too many people into the bubble, but they are like family! Charlotte had tons of fun with Nick, and Nathan loved flirting with little Emmie! Nick has a lot of empathy for a 3 year old and was really great (read: patient) with Charlotte. Michelle and Nick even joined us at the hospital and got to check out the cool playroom and see how brave Charlotte is. I can't tell you how nice it was to hear Charlotte's laughs throughout the house as she was finally feeling better and had a couple of her favorite playmates here!

A couple pics....