day 50-54

Happy 2nd Birthday, Christopher, love Uncle Tyler! See you Sunday at the park.

well, this week went very much like clock work, we spent long hours on Monday and Thursday which was my last week of the Consolidation Phase. Monday I start the third phase, Interim Maintenance. I'll explain that phase in just a minute.

As if all of this treatment was not enough, I had an added adventure yesterday, it was called "ingrown BIG toenail surgery" ouch Charlie! My mom has been my podiatrist since I all of this began and she has been doing a great job at restoring the health of my feet. (Only your mom can stand the smell) She was really successful at getting my nails grown out and my feet healthy but despite all of her hard work, she realized that she needed to call in the doctor on one of my toes. My doctor took a look and told us that there is only 1 podiatrist in the clinic and very hard to get time with so she suggested we get it looked at outside COH because she agreed it was not looking good. Mom of course did all the research and wheeling and dealing with a doctor on my insurance plan and managed to get me in on the same day, yesterday. She left me in the car while she filled out all of the much needed paperwork and this was to minimize my exposure to any possible germs in a waiting room. We then waited in the car until it was my turn and as the doctor began to explain what needed to be done, I wanted to get up and run. He said that it wasn't going to get better on its own and that he felt it had to be removed. I wasn't happy and tried to explain that it did hurt that bad. Nobody was listening! So, to any of you who have had this procedure done, you feel my pain and I don't dare put all of the details on here because my brother Kent told me he has the same problem and if he reads the details he will never get his fixed. It was kind of cool though, the doctor gave me the piece of nail that he cut out, along with his card, to take to show Kent at my nephews 2nd birthday party this weekend.  Ü  Anyway, today I am better and mom is doing the aftercare that needs to be done twice a day. Just another thing added to my care plan that she keeps such good track of.

So now the explanation of "Interim Maintenance"

It, like Consolidation , is 56 days (8 weeks). This Monday will be day 1 and I will go in first to have my labs drawn, then the results will go to the Study Guru's to decide is I am able to start this next phase. Meanwhile, I will then be prepped for a Bone Marrow Fluid and bone draw which required as the last procedure of Consolidation. This will tell us if there is any residual of the leukemia. Remember it was what needed to be, less than 1%. It just has to be drawn and the results are not necessary to move on to phase 3. So, after that and any blood products I may need, I should be admitted into the hospital and will be given chemo into my Omaya Port and then the same chemo through my IV for a 24 hour period. I will then stay in the hospital for about 3 or 4 days in order to be given what they call and antidote to this chemo in order to protect my kidneys and to make sure that it gets flushed through my system without causing any other trouble. Along with that comes the input/output checks and various anti nausea meds that I might need. Once I am discharged, I will go home and only come back the next week for labs and blood products if needed, only to go through the same thing 3 more times. So every other Monday I will be admitted into the hospital for 3 or 4 days for the next 8 weeks. 

There you have it...we will keep you updated as often as we can.

I look forward to being with my whole family on Sunday to celebrate Christopher's birthday. Nobody does birthdays better than the Fletchers. I'll be sure to post pictures for all of you to see. So for now, keep praying for my family, words can't express how grateful we are for each one of you.

Here are my last numbers:

WBC: 1.4

RBC: 3.1

ANC: 0.7  UGH!

Hemoglobin: 10.0

Platelets: 199  YEAH!

Neutrophil: 47.6

Fibrinogen: 134

Glucose: 74