October 2002

October 27, 2002

Here is a milestone to celebrate: Erin finished her fifth and last chemo trip to Houston yesterday at 3:00! We were home by about 5:00. It was a full three days and we are very glad to be home!

During the first two weeks of November Erin will have a bunch of tests and surgery to remove her tumor.

Tests to check on the status of the tumor:

CT scan (Nov. 4)
bone scan (Nov. 4)
bone marrow aspiration (during surgery)
MIBG (a very sensitive scan)

Tests to check on Erin's overall health and the effect of chemo on her body:

EKG
kidney function test
vision
hearing
dental
pulmonary function test

The first two tests (the CT and bone scans) are the most important. They will be on November 4. The will tell us about the tumor and will provide the deciding information about the surgery. We will be in Bryan until that Monday. Right now we are scheduled to have outpatient tests every day that week. Some of these tests will be rescheduled to inpatient once we find out about surgery.

October 21, 2002

Erin had a schedule set back today. She had her blood counts checked locally in prepartion for going to Houston. Her white blood and her hemoglobin were good, but her platelets were not quite where they needed to be to start chemo tomorrow. We will have them checked again on Wednesday (tomorrow would be too quick to see much change) and will start chemo on Thursday if everything checks out.

In the meantime, Erin is feeling well and going to school. She had dancing today and was in fine form. She also saw the Wizard of Oz yesterday and really enjoyed the munchkins and the witches.

http://users3.ev1.net/~erinbuenger

October 19, 2002

It's been awhile since our last report. We have been waiting to get some information back from Erin's doctors about scheduling tests and surgery following chemo. Unfortunately, Texas Children's Hospital experienced a computer virus that has affected email and other computer applications for
the last ten days. Communications have almost ground to a halt, so we are still in the dark about much of our early November schedule. We do know for sure that Erin will have a CT scan and Bone scan on November 4. These are important tests because they sill show the effect the chemo has had on the tumor (hopefully, alot!).

As it stands now Erin is scheduled to begin the fifth and final round of chemo this Tuesday (October 22). It is scheduled to last three days. This date is not firm, however. The fourth round has not too many side effects. Erin was able to attend nine of the twelve school days since our return from Houston. The main effect has been on her hemoglobin and platelets. She had one whole blood transfusion on October 10 and another one last night. She also had a platelet transfusion last Monday. It could be that last night's transfusion will dilute her platelets enough to throw
off the schedule next week. I will let you know.

Remember that Erin has a web site. Please share it with anyone who might be interested.

http://users3.ev1.net/~erinbuenger

October 10, 2002

Erin has had a very good week since the last status report. She attended school last Thursday and Friday and every day this week until today. She saw the performance of Ferdinand the Bull last Sunday, and had her friend Nico over last Saturday. She has been bothered a little by the sniffles (like everyone else in the Brazos Valley), but so far, it has not developed into an ear infection (or anything else).

Her counts had fallen by today, however. Erin had a transfusion of whole blood this afternoon at St. Joseph's Hospital here in Bryan. That went smoothly, and we were back home before 7:00. We'll probably have restricted activities for the weekend. I'll let you know when she's ready to get going again.

October 2, 2002

Erin cleared another hurdle today. She finished round 4 of her chemo about 11:00 this morning and we were back to Bryan before 2:00. She was a little barfy on Monday night, but has felt well since. This round will have the hardest effect on her platelets, so in a week or so we will have to go easy on the karate kicks and WWF supermoves.

Erin will be at school tomorrow and will resume her normal activities for a few days until her blood counts start to slide.

The final round of chemo is scheduled to begin October 21 and will also last three days. Two weeks later we will do the first set of scans (CT and bone) since her tumor was diagnosed. We are hoping that all these chemicals have been doing their work and that her tumor will show up as smaller than it had been before we started all of this. If the tumor is smaller, then the next step will be surgery to resect it. We will keep you posted on the details as we learn them.