Finally Home!

Okay, so we made it home a day later than we had hoped, and several hours later than we had anticipated today, but we are here!! It was so good to be home. It was an emotional time for me just to be able to have us all together today and knowing Shayla was home with us. We are home.

Jase and I waited until 11:00 p.m. to hear from the doctor with the results of the CT scan done last night. I bet those of you who read the blog yesterday were as anxious as we were for news. We never got any last night! Believe me, I made sure the doctor was aware that he had us quite worried all night because he didn't call. He did apologize and told me if it ever happens again to have the nurse page him, regardless of the hour. I assured him I would do so.

So what did we find out? 1) There is no hemorrage or other new 'life-threatening" development at this time 2) the sinuses are clearing which is good, 3) The eye does not appear to be involved directly with the tumor, but since the tumor is encroaching on the ocular orbit, it is not surprising that there could be swelling associated with the treatment. Shayla will go see an Opthalmologist this week as soon as we can get her in to make sure all is well from an opthalmic point of view (no pun intended!).

Shayla's new sport: Hurdles
Shayla has faced many hurdles this treatment. We now know we need to watch her closely when she has this drug combination for chemo. It seems the tumor really does not like the Doxirubicin/Vincristine/Cyclophosphamide mix, especially the Doxirubicin! The redness in her face lessened in intensity within an hour after her last dose (although it comes and goes still today). So, the hurdles she faced and overcame were:
1) pain (teeth on left side, nose on left side, left eye)
2) swelling of the left eyeball
3) redness, heat of the left side of her face, especially in side the nose at the tumor site and her eye
4) Complete lack of sleep (the fatigue was almost devastating this time. By the time we were finally able to go Shayla just cried because she was so tired and wanted to come home.)
5) Fever: not really high, but rising and falling for a couple of days
6) Having to stay in the hospital a day longer than expected (and mentally prepared for)
7) An unplanned CT which caused worry (delayed longer because we didn't hear back from the doctor until today)
8) Nausea--it's worse now that she is home and all chemo meds are in her system
9) Lack of appetite/weight loss--she has only eaten ice cream and a bagel for the past 2 days
10) What, you think she had more? Nope, no number ten, nine was enough for one event! ;-)

Three down, Eleven to go.