Yesterday was clinic day and Ashtyn’s last day of chemo for this round. My friends from home, Holly and Kathy, are in Seattle visiting and decided to come to the hospital with us. Ashtyn woke up, after a restless night of sleep, with so much nerve pain in her legs that it was obvious she was unsafe to walk. We wheel-chaired her to the car and then wheeled her to clinic. After getting blood labs drawn we talked with her oncologist Adam Lamble for over an hour. I’m sure the conversation could have been condensed and rushed, but Adam’s heart is too big to do that. We discussed pain. The decision was made to hold her last dose of the chemo drug Vincristine with the thought that the risks of the drug outweighed the benefits. We talked about the plan in one week. A bone marrow aspirate and biopsy will be done on June 29th to find out if she has 0.0% leukemia cells which would allow her to receive a bone marrow transplant on July 27th. We also talked about blood lab results and general health. Other than pain and the weight gain caused by steroids, she really is doing well. After four hours at the hospital we decided to take it easy the remainder of the day. Ashtyn was miserable and still had minimal ability to walk. We got her settled in bed at the Ronald McDonald House. Surprisingly five hours after taking a pain medication, she began feeling more comfort and relief than she had in several days. Medically it doesn’t make sense why she felt significantly less pain several hours after taking medications but when it comes to Ashtyn, I do not question the unusual. Throughout the evening she enjoyed pain relief while we all enjoyed each other’s company. On July 1st we are going to have a special fast and petition to God for Ashtyn to be in a deep remission with 0.0% leukemia results on July 2nd. Will you start helping us spread the word? We would love if as many people as possible would join us.
