Alanna's First Cycle of Chemo

Chemo cycle 1 went exactly as planned except for I was not expecting Alanna to bounce back so quickly!  I am so pleasantly  surprised!

We checked into the hospital at 7am on Thursday, July 12 beginning with an  MRI of both Alanna's Brain and Spine.  This was a routine checkup to see how well treatments have been so far.  The scans came out "Great!" as Alanna's Doctor said.  The meningitis has cleared and there is no indication of the tumor.

We didn't get taken to our hospital room until 2pm.  And then before chemo could start she had to pee first.  We waited till pretty late till the little girl finally decided she would go.  She has always held it till impossibly long and pees an impossible amount for a child her size.  After checking her urine samples and starting preemptive nausea medications the Chemo drugs were finally administered at the stroke of Midnight.  Alanna did not lose her shoe, nor her last meal.  For six hours chemo was dripped through her port.  We were told that she would need to remain on fluids and they would have to keep getting urine samples from her for 24 hours before we could leave.

 She was connected to so many lines.  IV fluids, chemo, nausea medications, and more IV fluids.

So we waited to see side effects.  And we waited.  We played games.  We waited.  We watched movies.  And waited.  We did Mad Libs.  Waited.  We took a walk down the hall.  Still waiting.  Still no side effects noticed.  We slept all night except for a bathroom run or two.

And in the morning on Saturday, July 14 our 24 hours were up.  And the doctors told us we could go home whenever we were ready.

And Alanna slept in. . . Till 10am!  So I waited.

Then the pharmacy took their time to get us our medications.  So we waited.  We had a couple of child life volunteers come and ask Alanna if they could play with her.  Which was pretty sweet and she had so much fun.

Finally at noon we had our medications, discharge papers and we left very happily!

The next day, Sunday.  Alanna did experience some nausea and vomiting and medication did help some.  By Monday afternoon all the nausea has gone away.  She is doing very well and is her normal playful and sassy self.  Thank you for your thoughts and prayers she has definitely benefited from them and I know she could not bounce back so quickly without all of you.