Hello, everyone. Chelsea went back to the hospital last Thursday(7/2) and has begun her third chemo treatment. With the induction stages of chemo over(the first two rounds), the intensity of the chemo has been increased. As a result, Chelsea, who experienced minimal side effects the first two rounds, has had a rough couple of days. She had a high fever(which ended on Sunday morning) and was very nauseous(which lasted until Saturday morning). In addition, she has developed a rash on her chest which makes her uncomfortable. She is taking Benadryl for it and the rash should go away once chemo(for this round) stops, which will be tomorrow night(7/7). Again, none of the above are uncommon but it does not make it much easier for Mom and Dad as Chelsea goes through them. She is in good spirits but a little cranky do to inconsistent sleep. She needs to take eye drops after 6 hours. One of the doses normally fall between the hours of 12pm-1am and she does not fall back asleep immediately and wakes up frequently. The drops stop once the chemo does so hopefully she can fall back into a normal sleeping pattern for her sake AND for Mom's and Dad's!!!
We received the results of Christopher's bone marrow testing and he is NOT a match. At ths time, she will not be receiving a bone marrow transplant, unless the the leukemia resurfaces. Liz and I go back and forth on this one. Obviously, we want Chelsea to be leukemia-free for the rest of the her life and, while a successful bone marrow transplant is the best solution, there is also risk involved. At the same time, we(and, more importantly, the doctors) feel that she has been very receptive to the chemo treatments this far.
***SPECIAL NOTE***Mom would also like to add something about donating bone marrow. There's a sweet young boy on Chelsea's floor who is 12 and has to have a bone marrow transplant since he has high risk leukemia. His brother was also not a match, so now there is a nationwide search to find him a donor. I've never before this experience thought of donating bone marrow, but now of course, I've already been tested. It is a day procedure for the donor that is virtually painless, but obviously life saving for the recipient. Please, please, please, if your schedule allows, think of this beautiful act of kindness. If you are intestered in receiving a free kit (it's just a cheek swab), please contact Betty Kelly at 860-334-6983 and you will be placed on the National Registry. Thank you so so much for reading this. If you met this sweet young boy Kyle, your heart would melt and you'd want to do anything you could to help him. He likes baseball, playing video games and being with his friends and it broke my heart on his last day of school when he was in the hospital while his friends got to celebrate the end of another year and the beginning of summer. He comes to the playroom every day at 3 PM with Chelsea and they've helped each other through this ordeal as Chelsea looks forward to seeing her buddy "Kiyal" and talked about him every day when she was home (which made Chris slightly jealous :). People have offered to get tested for Chelsea - if you're still willing, please consider being tested for Kyle as well. Like I said before, if you'd met this boy, you'd fall instantly in love. he's sweet, respectful, kind, smart, helpful, wants to be an architect.
Remember...the word for this week is SLEEP. Hope everyone enjoyed the Holiday weekend and thank you. My apologies for the lack of updates. My wife has addressed the issue with me and it will not happen again :)
