April 17, 1997

Time has been going by fast. I've been trying to write an update after Darien's chemo treatments, but this time...

Since my last update (Monday 3/17), I would have to classify Darien's outward condition as being stable. She is continuing to eat well enough to maintain her weight and her spirits and energy appear to be relatively normal. It doesn't appear that Darien has lost much more hair since my last update; she is still pretty bald (thin) on top, but she does have hair that hangs over her ears and down to her collar in the back. She has not worn her wig out in public yet, though she will wear a hat.

Darien began to run fever about 1 week after her second chemo treatment (Sunday 3/23) and Valerie had to take her back to the hospital in Temple. Her temp got quite high (over 104), but they never really found out that caused it. They treated her with anti-biotics and kept her their until her blood counts began to rebound so that she could fight off infections on her own (she came home on Friday 3/28). Except for her week of never, Darien felt pretty good while she was at home and was able to attend school all day.

Darien's was scheduled to be in the hospital for her third chemo on her birthday (4/3), so we celebrated the weekend before at her grandparents in Walden. Also, when Mr. Gatti's Pizza (GattiLand in Bryan) heard that Darien was a big Tweety bird fan and that she was saving game tickets to "buy" the LARGE Tweety from their gift shop, they wanted to give Darien a pizza party and present the Tweety bird to her. (At the rate Darien was collecting tickets, I figured it would have taken her 2 to 3 years to save enough tickets.) The party was originally scheduled for one of the days she was in the hospital with fever, but we were able to get it rescheduled to the day before her third chemo (Tuesday 4/1). Mr. Gatti's brought the party to Darien's class at school (pizza, balloons, etc.) and presented the bird to her. It was a complete surprise for her; she grinned from ear to ear. A picture of her entire class with Darien holding Tweety made it in The Press newspaper. The party was put together by Darrel Lynn Sherrill at Mr. Gatti's - many thank to her!

Darien began her third chemo treatment on Wednesday (4/2) and celebrated her 8th birthday on Thursday. Everyone in the hospital made it a special day for her. This chemo treatment was supposed to be the most toxic of the three she has had so far, but she handled it about the same as the others - relatively no nausea and a fairly normal appetite. I started out with Darien in the hospital and Valerie finished it up and brought Darien home late Sunday (4/6) in time for school on Monday.

Darien felt fine most of the week following chemo (she even went to her dance class on Wednesday - they're preparing for their recital in May), but on Friday (4/11) her temperature began to flucuate - when her temp gets above 101, we are supposed to take her to the hospital. Well, her temp began to climb Saturday afternoon and around midnight we finally called her doctor who told us to bring her in immediately.

Although Darien felt o.k., the dotcors still want chemo kids in the hospital when they run a fever so they ran undergo anti-biotic treatments. As I understand it, this is a precautionary measure to try to head off more serious bacterial infections. Apparently, it is easier to treat bacterial infections if you can catch them early enough, but if bacterial infections go untreated for a while, then they are harder to get rid of. Darien was able to come home Wednesday (4/16).

Also, on Wednesday 4/6, Scott & White sponsored a blood drive for Darien and another little boy from College Station who has leukemia. Valerie worked registration for a few hours in the afternoon and Darien went in the evening to say hello to people giving blood. They won't let Valerie or I give blood for Darien, because they want us available to give her platelets when she needs them. Although Darien doesn't need a lot of blood, she has had 3 transfusions so far and it looks like she may get one in between each chemo treatment (depending on how her blood looks). Valerie heard that they collected about 58 units of blood yesterday, even though there were many people turned away for various reasons, the most popular was taking allergy medicine with the last 48 hours. Many thank to Bird Sherry for organizing this, to all who gave blood, and to all who tried or wanted to give blood.

While I was in the hospital this last time, I counted the number of days Darien has been in the hospital. Since she was diagnosed on 1/27, through 4/16 (a total of 80 days), Darien has spent 38 days/nights in the hospital and has had various checkups, etc. another 7 days. We seem to be settling into a routine, if you can call it that, consisting of (1) chemo 3 to 6 days, (2) about a week at home, (3) back in the hospital with fever 2 to 6 days, (4) back home for a few days, and (5) starting over with chemo. As long as we are fighting the effects of chemo, this routine ain't so bad. Darien got her report card yesterday and she was so excited to see that she was actually in school more days this 6-week period than she was absent.

In between chemo 2 and chemo 3, while Darien was in the hospital with a fever, they did another CAT scan (3/26) of her pelvic area and mid-section. Her pelvic area looked clean, but they still saw the same two shadows on her liver that they saw previously (mentioned in Darien Update3). This CAT scan was done too close to the other one, so they can't tell if the shadows have changed in size.

There is still good news, however, with the tumor marker. They have measured it a couple of more times and it continues to slowly decrease. The most recent measurement is about 250 times lower that the high, but still about 400 times higher than the norm. Although the CAT scan ranges from puzzling to discouraging, we are pleased and encouraged with the tumor marker numbers.