Moving in the Right Direction

Round three of chemo was thankfully uneventful. In a lot of ways, I thought round three was easier than round one/two...Jordan's infusions were only for three or four hours per day instead of around the clock plus the appetite suppression and vomiting seemed less (although cisplatin is known for delayed reactions so we will see how the week goes). The only bad thing about round three was that it required five days in the hospital instead of three, and I think both Jordan and I were going stir-crazy by the end of the stay. Jordan is wanting to constantly cruise and being hooked up to IV fluids somewhat impedes that...but not completely as the pictures below show. During this hospitalization, we were fortunate to get visits from Aunt Cheryl, Aunt Suzette, Uncle Joe, and we also got a good luck New Year's dinner from MomMom and PopPop.

And now for the big news...We received the results of the bone marrow biopsies earlier this week and they showed no neuroblastoma cells!! So it appears that we are moving in the right direction as Jordan went from having 70% of her bone marrow biopsies filled with neuroblastoma to 0%. Our oncologists did warn us that this doesn't mean her body is rid of the cancer. Neuroblastoma can clump in the bone marrow so it could still be there, just not in the places that were sampled. We also don't know how the cancer in her bones is responding (bone marrow and bone are two separate things, as I've learned). We have read so many sad stories about neuroblastoma patients with certain spots being resistent or initial responses that relapse so right now I would say we are cautiously optimistic.

The rest of this month is going to be very busy for us. Jordan has CT, MRI, and bone scans set for the end of next week. I think these scans are to monitor Jordan's progress and also, at Sloan-Kettering's (SK) request, to ensure a second surgery is not needed to remove any residual tumor (of which our oncologists don't think there is any). And then the third week of January Jordan will go through stem cell harvest at SK. We are hopeful that Jordan will not need any medical treatments that require stem cells but we are having them harvested just in case.

Getting some blood (and a nap) in clinic while waiting for our hospital room

Craig, Jordan, and Aunt Cheryl

Uncle Joe, Aunt Suzette, Craig, and Jordan

Jordan LOVES the computer...but sesamestreet.org is the only website she knows

Pushing her IV pole around the room

Pushing the chair around the room

Jordan enjoying the car in the playroom

Jordan never liked a pacifier but loves Baby Elmo's pacifer...she also pushes this baby stroller all around the house but never wants a baby to sit inside it

Helping Mommy with the dishwasher