MERRY CHRISTMAS!

Merry Christmas! 

We did everything we could to be home for Christmas, and we were! Leading up to Christmas week, we were concerned Hutton may not be able to be home for Christmas, since her chemo has been pushed back because her numbers weren’t where they needed to be a few times. 

Her chemo schedule is supposed to be every 3 weeks, but since she started this new chemo, her numbers have been very low, and it has been pushed back because she has needed transfusions almost every week, to try and get her numbers back up to where they need to be. This means we have to drive up to UCLA in the morning and get either a blood transfusion or platelets or both, then drive back in the afternoon. These are the days when we spend 5 hours in the car. It is not fun. 

With Hutton’s new chemo protocol, she has been VERY nauseous. This is all new to us because over this past year she has never been nauseous, she hasn’t thrown up, she hasn’t gotten car sick, she just hasn’t dealt with that. But this new chemo is a BEAST, and she has had a lot of side effects. Her doctor saw that her numbers have been super low and she has needed multiple transfusions and decided to lower her chemo dose by 25%. We did this lower chemo right before Christmas on her 5-day admission, and the side effects seem to be lower.  She developed the rash on her face (again) that we thought we figured out how to get rid of BUT she seems to be a lot less nauseous, which is a HUGE win! After her last chemo, she was so nauseous she didn’t eat for almost a week, this time she still has an appetite and is still in good spirits, which is HUGE! 

Hutton also had a PET-CT scan at the beginning of December, and her Dr. said the results are “excellent”. The tumor in her pelvis is much less active, which is amazing! The tumors in her lungs are shrinking, which is also amazing! 

We are praying that with the new, lower-dose chemo, her numbers stay up and she can stick with the 3-week chemo schedule. We are praying for an uneventful New Year’s and a low-key admission after the new year.