A Weekly Update...

That's what became of this blog - one update a week... What a shame... But I'm not going to apologize this time, it's not because I'm lazy, I was very busy since coming back home and even better - there was not much to report. We were home the whole time, beside a couple of hospital visits to take a blood test, Ida was happy for the most part and all was almost normal. Sure, she still gets some medication and at time she is less than great but nothing too bad.
Her latest biopsy (last Monday) showed no sign of leukemia (less than 0.1%). This is called remission, it means there are no visible cancer in her blood right now. It absolutely does not mean that she is cured. It still good news, and the treatment goes as planed.

Let's go back in time for a second. Until about 35 years ago there was no treatment to leukemia. All children who had it did not survive. The introduction of chemotherapy, in the late 60s changed that. Those of you who are interested can read this good Wikipedia article about the history of chemotherapy.
Today leukemia is treated according to a protocol in which different drugs are given over different periods in combination. Experience showed that combination is the key for long lasting remissions and eventually curing the disease. In Sweden the Nordic Protocol is used, there are other protocols which are pretty similar. The medication is given according to a strict scheme, tests (blood and bone marrow) are taken to determine if any adjustments are necessary.
The first period (or block) is called induction, that's the most aggressive treatment, aimed to kill as many cancer cells as possible and achieve remission. Ida is done with that. She started today the second block called consolidation therapy. The goal here is to further reduce cancer cells (even those undetected by tests) and achieve complete remission. The final stage in called maintenance therapy.
So Ida is in the hospital right now, with Camilla, I just got home. She gets different drugs than the ones she got before. Right now, for example, she is getting Methotrexate. It's the same drug she gets directly in her spine (and had it this morning, under anesthesia). Ida gets it also intravenously, in drops, over a period of 24 hours. She then gets glucose infusion (or water with some sugar) until the drug is completely washed from her body, after additional 3-4 days. So she would be hospitalized until the end of the week. But as for one hour ago she feels pretty good.

Ida is going to be a part of a new study for cancer treatment. It's an experiment in which one medicine (called puri-nethol) is given in higher doses than the ones stated in the protocol. The initial dose is 25 mg, that's what all children get, if all go well Ida would get 50 mg and than 75 mg. I'm not sure exactly what does mean, beside the fact that as a part of the study many extra tests are taken and Ida's state is monitored much closer than normal. What I do understand is that research shows that children who respond well to this specific drug have a lower chance for relapse (return of the cancer following remission). They don't know why that happens but by giving a higher dose they (and by they I mean doctors) hope to reduce relapses.

In other news - we got the key to our new apartment, so i'll be busy fixing in there before we move, in a couple of weeks.

And back to the good news from the begining of the post. During the time Ida was sick we almost forgot how cute and charming she was before. Really, those of you who met her would back me up here, she have always been so social, bright and happy baby. Now it's starting to come back - doctors, nurses and actually everyone who meets her in the hospital can't get enough of her... :-)
It doesn't get much easier yet, but we have Ida.