Radiation

3/25/03

Hooray! Erin successfully finished radiation yesterday, with very little disruption to our family life. She sailed through--no side effects, except a slight dip in her blood counts. We will go to Houston a week from today to begin the tumor vaccine program. I will post more about that when I know more.

3/17/03

Erin had scans last Wednesday, Thursday, and Friday down at Texas Children's Hospital. The days were long, usually 8:00 to 2:00, with no food until afterwards, a lot of waiting, and a great deal of lying very still for long periods. We tried to mix in a little fun, too. We went to the zoo, the Butterfly Museum, and the Natural Science Museum, and stayed in a nice hotel that Erin and her friend Nico really enjoyed.

Dr. Heidi Russell, Erin's Houston doctor, called with results this afternoon and was happy to tell us that the results were very good!

The bone scan was completely clear. Unfortunately, the bone scan and the MIBG scan were done too close together, so the bone scan dye muddied the some of the results of the MIBG. This kept Dr. Russell from drawing conclusions about the MIBG scan. Nevertheless, she was quite pleased with the results, and said that there was no reason to believe that the muddied results were hiding any tumor cells. She could see the original tumor site clearly on the MIBG and it was fine. The CT scan was also inconclusive, showing nothing that could be confirmed as tumor activity. There was some thickening of the cells in the original tumor site, but given the clarity of the MIBG scan in that area and the likelihood that there is scar tissue there, neither Dr. Russell nor the original surgeon, Dr. Nuchtern, were too concerned. Dr. Russell will consult with a radiologist (not the one who read the scan last week, who is on vacation) on Wednesday to see if there is any further information to convey. We will probably have the result of the bone marrow aspiration by then as well. All of this is very good news, letting us know that the treatments have worked so far.

Erin started radiation on the primary tumor site this afternoon, as one more step in the mopping up operation. This will take care of any lingering tumor cells at the margins of where her tumor was resected. Radiation will be over next Monday! She won't have to miss any school, since we are doing the treatments locally. We even get to go on Erin's first kindergarten field trip on Thursday--to the Fanthorp Inn in Anderson.

3/03/03

This weekend Erin and I traveled out of town for pleasure for the first time since last July. We went to Dallas to watch Davis play in the state chess championship and to visit my sisters. The weekend had its ups and downs, including three hours in the emergency room early Saturday morning (4:00-7:00) when Erin spiked a fever. The Texas Children's Hospital doctor guided the ER doctor through the process, so things went very smoothly. The fever went away on its own, her chest x-ray was clear (no pneumonia), and her counts were the absolute best they have been in months. They pumped IV antibiotics into her line for about an hour (just to make sure) and sent us home with instructions to return for more antibiotics if the fever came back. Luckily it didn't.

Erin is really between treatments right now and feels quite well. We did not begin the actual radiation treatments last week as I thought we might. We did meet with a local radiation oncologist, Dr. Scott Goble, who will do Erin's radiation to discuss the preliminary plans. She will be marked this Thursday, and begin treatment the week after spring break. I misunderstood how long it takes to get radiation under way. Dr. Goble had to wait on information and films from TCH, then he and his therapists will take Erin's measurements and positioning data. After that Dr. Goble will spend several days making very detailed calculations. We could start the actual radiation next week, but since we have Erin's scans and bone marrow biopsy scheduled for March 12-14, we will wait to begin radiation on the 17th or 18th.