Below are the 20 most recent journal entries recorded in mhochster's LiveJournal:

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Saturday, March 14th, 2009
9:48 pm	One year off treatment! That's all. (Comment on this)
Monday, September 15th, 2008
3:08 pm	Last day of bactrim Yesterday was Gabriela's last dose of bactrim. No more leukemia-related medicine! (Comment on this)
Monday, March 24th, 2008
2:23 pm	bye bye brovi Gabriela's Broviac came out today (not the 28th, as I said in my previous post). Everything went very well, and she hardly seems to be in any discomfort at all. This is really starting to feel "done." (1 Comment |Comment on this)
Monday, March 17th, 2008
5:29 am	almost done Ellie had her last chemo on Friday 3/14. Her last spinal (not for chemo, just to take measurements) is tomorrow (3/18), and the Broviac comes out on 3/28. Exciting! (Comment on this)
Tuesday, October 30th, 2007
2:52 pm	ANC 1241 Gabriela had a clinic appointment today after being back on meds for a bit. Her ANC is still good. (Comment on this)
Wednesday, October 24th, 2007
6:43 am	ANC 800 Ellie is back in school and back on meds now. (Comment on this)
Thursday, October 18th, 2007
10:20 am	counts up Ellie's ANC is 420 according to today's labs, so still no school, but at least things are moving in the right direction. (Comment on this)
Thursday, October 11th, 2007
1:04 pm	still low Gabriela has not bounced back yet. Her ANC was lower today: 220. Nothing to do about this except wait. (Comment on this)
Monday, October 8th, 2007
5:14 pm	low counts Ellie's blood was drawn today in preparation for going to the dentist today, and it turned out her counts are really low (300s). So we are stopping meds and waiting for them to bounce back. (Comment on this)
Monday, October 9th, 2006
3:10 pm	headache's over Gabriela's headache finally went away yesterday. She's feeling fine now. (Comment on this)
Friday, October 6th, 2006
10:30 am	Bad spinal Ellie has been having headaches since her spinal on Tuesday. While this is a known side effect of spinal taps, it hasn't happened to Gabriela before. The spinal itself went less smoothly than usual; they had to poke her four times instead of the usual one. Probably that's why she's having the headaches. Caffeine is supposed to help, so we've been giving her Coke, which she likes. A lot. If the headaches don't get better there is some procedure they can do that supposedly will cure them, but this involves another spinal (and going under again) so we are going to try to avoid it. (Comment on this)
Thursday, September 14th, 2006
9:04 am	A few things going on this week. Ben turned 6 and just started first grade! Gabriela has also gone back to school and is now attending Ben's old preschool, Benvenue. She was a little skeptical for the first couple of days. When Lani asked her how the first day went, she said "Good. I quit. I hate it." (This may have something to do with the fact that the first week of school coincided with her weekly pulse of Decadron). That soon changed to "I like the things at the school, I just don't like the school," which gave me hope. Now it's been a week and she is pretty well acclimated. She still misses her day care, but she seems happy with the new routine. Her health has been fine. Ellie usually has plenty of energy and rarely seems sick (except for one recent mysterious barfing incident, which must have been a mild flu). Her hair has definitely crossed over the line from bald to very very short. I don't think people notice it much. Occasionally an unobservant person will mistake her for a boy, in spite of the lip gloss, pink skirt and shoes and glitter on her scalp. (Comment on this)
Tuesday, August 15th, 2006
11:42 am	No news is good news Gabriela has been tolerating her medicine really well, and life is going along normally. I probably won't post here much unless something is going on. So if you don't hear from me, be happy. (Comment on this)
Tuesday, July 25th, 2006
3:40 pm	Big ANC Gabriela's ANC is 2800, even on the full dose of 6MP and off decadron for a while. Woohoo! (Comment on this)
Tuesday, July 11th, 2006
2:47 pm	maintenance started today Break's over. Gabriela's ANC did come down quite a bit from the 2000+ I reported before, but it stayed high enough to move on to the maintenance phase. There are no surprises now: the chemo regimen is the same as it was in interim maintenance: 6MP daily, methotrexate weekly, 5-day pulse of decadron once a month, vincristine once a month, and spinal methotrexate once every three months. The first spinal was today, and it went fine. Ellie's hair will grow back now, and she should not be neutropenic too often (though her counts will probably bounce around initially as the dose of 6mp is calibrated). She is on track to go to pre-school in September. Maintenance is the home stretch, but it's a long one. Our estimated date to complete treatment is March 14, 2008. Mark your calendars. (Comment on this)
Wednesday, July 5th, 2006
9:12 pm	through the tunnel DI is finished, and now we're on break from all chemo, waiting for Ellie to bounce back. For the most part, she has. Her ANC is way up there now, over 2000. She's still quite anemic, but you wouldn't know, except for the occasional complaint of being cold. And I'm not sure, but I think her hair is starting to grow back. The little band of fuzz in the front of her head is thickening. Maybe. (Comment on this)
Monday, June 26th, 2006
1:03 pm	much better The mouth sore situation has improved a lot. Gabriela doesn't complain about it at all except when she's eating or brushing teeth, and even then it seems tolerable. She needs to eat slowly and with small bites, but she is eating ok now. Her counts are quite low (ANC around 300 at last check), which is too bad because Lani and I both have colds. Today is the last day of DI. Gabriela gets a long break from chemo starting tomorrow, but she is expected to be neutropenic for a few weeks. After she recovers, we start the next stage: Maintenance. (Comment on this)
Thursday, June 22nd, 2006
9:23 pm	better Ellie was better today, thanks to tylenol with codeine. The sores still hurt, but mainly while eating. She was peppy most of the day. No nap, and we went to see Over The Hedge. (Comment on this)
11:14 am	miserable Yesterday Gabriela was pretty miserable because of mouth sores. When we ran through the long lists of side effects of chemo, I never paid much attention to mouth sores, thinking they would be at worst a minor nuisance. Turns out they are awful: all over the inside of her mouth and very painful. She didn't eat much because of them. We have some medicine: "magic mouthwash" (mylanta + benadryl) which provides temporary relief, and Tylenol with codeine, which relieves the pain but is yet another syrupy concoction that makes Ellie gag. So this part is not fun. (Comment on this)
Monday, June 19th, 2006
9:28 am	so far so good Gabriela's counts were surprisingly high at the last check (ANC about 1800). They may have been elevated because she was fighting a slight infection of the Broviac site, but in any case, she has not been neutropenic. Ellie was in a pretty good mood most of the weekend, and we were able to go out and enjoy ourselves. The cytoxan takes about a week to kick in so we may start seeing the effects in the next couple of days. The only real complaint has been a recurring sore in the back of her mouth which interferes with eating somewhat. Four more days of Ara-C and we will be done (at least with administering) the heavy stuff. (Comment on this)