Abbey Update

First of all, let me say thank you so much for giving your favorite recipes!  I printed them all out and can't wait to start making them!  I will be going grocery shopping within the next couple days (actually Jim will be going.... he's our grocery shopper :) and once we get the stuff, I will get cooking!  Hopefully you all got some new recipes too!  Thanks for participating :)

So things here have been pretty good overall.  We went to the clinic on Thursday and her numbers dropped significantly from the week before.  A week ago Thursday, her ANC was over 5,000 and yesterday it went all the way down to 400.  Since this is the last intense phase, they continue to give her the chemo no matter where her numbers are so even though she is very susceptible to infection right now, she was hit again with some strong medications.  They expect her numbers to fall even more this week from the chemo yesterday.  We are just praying for no fevers or infections and for her ANC to make a comeback soon. 

She also started up on the steroids again today and will be on them for the next seven days.  She handled the first round of steroids like a champ so we are praying that her body does as well this week.  The difference is that her numbers are so much lower this week and I still feel that she has some built up in her body from the first week so we don't really know what to expect.  We are just taking it one day at a time and knowing that once we get past this phase, things will get easier.

Next Thursday we will go back to the clinic, but not for chemo.  They will just check her numbers and see if she needs a blood or platelet transfusion.  It's been a while since her ANC has been so low or since they talked to us about transfusions so it's hard to be back in this boat.  We knew this phase would be tough, and overall she is acting normal and continues to play and be happy, but oh how we just want her body to be strong and healthy again.  She will get there and in the meantime we will continue to trust that God has a perfect plan in this and is carrying her and the rest of us through.

So in a nutshell, we are praising God that she continues to be active and happy.  She isn't complaining about much pain or feeling sick so overall you wouldn't be able to tell that her numbers are low and that she's on so much heavy medications.  We are praying that she has no infections or fevers.  That she handles the steroids as good as the first week.  That this week would go fast and that her bone marrow would recover quickly and her numbers would go up. Please pray that her ANC would be higher this coming Thursday than it was last Thursday.  And most importantly, that every last leukemia cell would be killed and would never come back.  Thanks for checking in.  We will keep you posted as this week goes on as to how she continues to do.