Yesterday we were in the clinic till about 8 am to 520 pm . So we got home at like 1045 pm. We were in the clinic so long because my parents are in a study group. There are two groups one has extra medicine and one doesn't. I got picked for the group with extra medicine. The extra medicine can damage my kidney. So they gave me 4 hours of fluids! That is why we got home so late. But my hemoglobin went up but thats probably because I had a transfusion and I hadn't eaten yet either. They said my blood counts would be going down a lot in the next few weeks.
Love,
Julia
We did decide to let Julia participate in the clinical trial and as she stated, she did get picked to be on the study arm , which basically means that they will treat her as if she was not a rapid responder. This is all in hopes that the relapse rate will be reduced for rapid responders with the more aggressive treatment (hopefully as much as 6%). The doctors say that the main side effect will be that her blood counts will bottom out a couple of weeks from now. The risk of infection, etc. will be greatly increased so we will have to be on our toes for a while. This phase, consolidation, will last for 8 weeks and after that she will have somewhat of a slowdown before going into the delayed intensification phase in which the medications will pick up again. Julia's spirits remain high as she was singing and laughing nearly all the way (yes, 4 1/2 hours) back from Atlanta on Monday. We thank all of you again for all your prayers and hope to continue with the good reports as this new phase of treatment begins.
Love,
Jeff & Sharon
.JPG)