Home At Last

I just realized it's been almost a week since my last post, and that's after I wrote I'm going to update more often... Shame on me.
Anyway, the best news so far are here: we're out of the hospital and had our first night at home in almost a month! Ida is doing well, although she is going through so much, and having a hard time right now. Both physically and mentally.
The last week was an effort to get her back in the game, after her fever went down and signs of infections were gone. She had stomach pain, constipation and was not really eating or drinking. Ida already lost some weight and has to eat. She eats better now, and also has a new feeding tube in her nose. It seems to work better than last time. Ida still gets bothered by it as soon as we use it. We have a small pump that is used to feed (a high energy special liquid food) very slowly.
We start to experience more and more the side effects of high doses of steroids over a few weeks... Ida have some anger management problems... She is very happy to be at home, though. So happy that she had some poo this morning!!! (That's the first in over 10 days).

Yesterday we were written out of the hospital. The IV needle was taken out. We got some special food and this pump for her and were on the way home.
The first stop was the nearest pharmacy. Here is Ida's cocktail of choice (not her choice but still):
Prednisolone - cortisone, a kind of steroid hormone, Ida gets 10 mg pill 3 times a day.
Diflucan - against fungi in the mouth, 10 mg a day.
Movicol - a powder to mix with liquid, against constipation, 3 doses a day.
Lanzo - protection against stomach ulcer, one pill a day.
Minifom- helps to reduce gas in the stomach, 10 drops 3 times a day.
Alvadon - liquid paracetamol, against pain and fever, when needed.
Once a week Ida gets her chemotherapy, this Monday it's Vincristine and Doxorubicine. Nothing to the spine this time. Last Monday she got some drugs directly to the bone marrow and a biopsy from the marrow was taken. It was an important test, which showed good response to the medication. Ida's bone marrow is almost cancer free. It is, however, nearly free of everything else, too. Ida's white blood cells count is so low, it's safe to say she does not have an immune system right now. The reason is the poisons mentioned above, Ida gets Vincristine once a week, 1 mg (one thousandth of a gram) only! This is enough to posion her body so it barely functions. The maximum amount you can give is 2.5 mg (that's what an adult would get, Ida hardly weights 10 kg...). To cure leukemia a lot of cells, cancer and healthy ones, need die.

All in all - many positive development. Ida's leukemia is under control, the side effects of the treatment are being medicated (they get worse the days directly after treatments) and we're at home!
So let's all have a good weekend...
Shabbat Shalom! (and a picture of Ida from last night)