12 down

We switched Ella's chemo day to Tuesday this week so that she'd be recovered and ready to eat birthday cake for her big day on Thursday. It's a good thing we did because this round made her very nauseous and sick, many times yesterday and some nausea today relieved by the Zofran.

She also feels like she has to use the bathroom at least every 20 minutes (but thankfully only about once during the night), we assume this is caused by the Vincristine affecting the nerves to her bladder somehow. She doesn't have a UTI, they checked yesterday just to be sure. The other side effect she's learning to live with is foot drop and loss of deep-tendon reflex (her leg doesn't jump when they hit her under the knee.) She can no longer walk on her heels and her feet just kind of slap down when she walks. When this started about a month ago she was falling a lot, but I think she's getting better at her new gait. They tell us she will recover fully once chemo is done.

This week was her 12th dose, that means in 3 weeks we get her 13th and (hopefully) final dose of chemo!!! 3 weeks after that we will go to the clinic for blood work, chest x-ray and ultrasound. If all looks good they will schedule Ella's surgery for port removal (this will be an outpatient surgery.) We will continue then to have x-rays and ultrasounds every 3 month for a year then every 6 months for a few years.