August 2002

August 28, 2002

Hello Everyone,

Erin and I drove home from Houston after rush hour last night. This phantom fever was inconvenient. Once she recorded over 101F in front of nurses in the clinic, they felt compelled to put her into the hospital to track down whether she had a virus or infection. It turns out that she didn't have either (but you still have to stay in the hospital until all the cultures come back negative). Blessedly, she felt pretty good the whole time she was in, and after a whole blood and a platelet transfusion got pretty energetic and feisty.

Yesterday her CD-34 counts (this is a specialized type of blood count) were high enough for the blood center at Methodist Hospital to capture some of her stem cells (for use later). They didn't get quite enough, so we will have to do it again later this morning.

Erin will resume her normal activities this evening. Her next round of chemo is scheduled to begin next Thursday (September 5). She received many uplifting and thoughtful patient messages when she was at Texas Children's. Volunteers deliver the messages printed out, so we don't have an opportunity to reply. We wanted to let everyone how much we appreciated all of them. Thanks also for keeping in touch in other ways. It makes these tough times a lot easier.

August 23, 2002

Erin is back in the hospital at Texas Children's in Houston. She was running a fever and had low blood counts and so when she went to Texas Children's to have her blood checked her doctors decided to check her into the hospital for a few days. We could be home Sunday night, but it may be later depending upon her fever. She will have a transfusion to build up her red blood cell count.

She feels reasonably well, but is upset about having to stay in Houston.

August 19, 2002

Good Morning,

Erin came home from the hospital on Saturday evening and felt up to church and lunch at Gina's on Sunday. Her next scheduled round begins September 5 and should last five days. For now, though, she is feeling quite perky, with few side effects.

Erin will have blood counts done locally tomorrow, but beginning this Friday and continuing Monday, Wednesday, and Friday next week she will have to go to Texas Children's Hospital in Houston for her blood counts. They watch the blood counts carefully this round. As soon as they get to their lowest point and begin recovering, the Houston doctors will take some of her clean stem cells to save them for later (December and January) when they do the autologous bone marrow transplants. When her counts begin to climb, we will probably have to stay in Houston overnight.

Thank you all for your prayers and support.

August 15, 2002

Erin is in room 837 at Texas Children's Hospital. She will be home Saturday evening. She is doing great.

August 13, 2002

Except for being a little thinner and a lot balder, Erin has bounced back from her first round of chemo very well. She visited a friend this morning for a couple of hours and plans to help Davis shop for school supplies this afternoon (after a little nap).

Tomorrow evening we will drive down to Houston. We will check into Texas Children's Hospital Thursday morning (August 15) after clinic. Her next round of chemo will begin immediately, unless some of her lab numbers (blood count, urine, etc.) indicate she needs to wait a bit. Once we check in you can send Erin a greeting by going to the following URL:

http://www.texaschildrenshospital.org/allabout/Volunteer/eCards/eCards.asp

This round is supposed to be a short one (3 days), so we should be home by Saturday or Sunday. We will let you know otherwise.

Thank you all for all the support you are giving us. The doctors are taking care of her body, but everyone else is taking care of her head and her heart.

August 9, 2002

Erin was released from St. Joseph's Hospital this morning around 10:00. She is fever-free, eating successfully, and has rising blood counts. We are all very happy to be at home. Just so you will be prepared if you see her, Erin has begun the process of losing her hair. This makes her unhappy and embarrassed right now. On a positive note, she is feeling better than she has in a couple of weeks.

Thanks for all of your support!

August 6, 2002

Erin checked into St. Joseph's Hospital (776-2479, room 385) late Sunday night. Her blood counts had dropped very low and she was at risk from infection (this is called neutropenia). Also her electrolytes and other blood chemistries were out of whack. Her lab work this morning showed that her counts in almost everything are still lower than the normal range, but headed in the right direction.

Although the hospitalization was not planned, it is fairly typical for patients in Erin's situation to be hospitalized with low blood counts. We don't know yet when we will be discharged, but we will let you know as soon as we are home.

August 2, 2002

Walter and I have put together an email list for Erin's many friends and family members who want to keep up with her progress. We are also in the process of setting up a web site. We will be sure to let you know when that is up and running. Thanks to you all for your many, many messages and very sweet and special thoughts! If you are someone who already receives too much email, just let me know with a reply, and we will take you off this list. (If this email is a shock to you because you have not heard that Erin was sick, email me and I will fill you in)

We got home from Texas Children's on Tuesday evening (July 30). Wednesday and Thursday were kind of rough days with fatigue and vomiting. Erin has lost about 10% of her weight in the last week and a half. Today we seemed to have turned the corner. She is still pretty tired and not too hungry, but at least she is keeping food and drink down. The doctors have been very pleased with the way Erin has tolerated her first round of chemotherapy. They are being very aggressive (so being sick is expected), because they really think they have a chance of getting rid of the tumor and keeping it away.

Erin had blood work done yesterday. All of her counts were in the low normal range, which was a positive sign. That means that Erin's activities are currently not restricted. We expect her blood counts to dip by Tuesday or Wednesday next week. Then she will have to be a lot more careful about who she is around for a week or so (this is normal for someone in this regimen). She takes an injection everyday to help build up her white blood cells.

We go back to the clinic in Houston on Tuesday for a check up and more blood work. Currently, we are scheduled to begin the second round of chemotherapy on Thursday, August 15.