June 6, 1997

It's been a long time since my last update (Friday May 2), but not a lot has been going on with Darien. Since Darien ended Chemo 4 on April 29, she's been at home. Her next scheduled chemo treatment (chemo 5) was to be 21 days after April 28 or on May 19, but her blood counts (particularly platelets) were too low. Since her platelets were low and it didn't look like they were climbing very fast, Valerie and I managed to convince the doctors to wait to begin Chemo 5 until after school ended. Darien was looking forward to the end of year parties and saying good-bye to everyone. Having Darien home for a month almost seemed as if nothing had ever happened.

Between Chemo 4 and Chemo 5, Darien had another CAT scan. The spot on her lung is still present (same size though) and the shadows on her liver seem to have reduced a bit. We are very encouraged by this CAT scan (no new spots nor did the ones they were watching get any bigger), but the doctors prefer that we not get too encouraged yet. CAT scans are sometimes difficult to read.

The tumor marker that we are using to monitor tumor growth continues to decline, although not at the accelerated pace it once was.

Darien began her fifth chemo treatment (Chemo 5) on Thursday May 29. Valerie picked her up from school (last day of school) and took her to the hospital. Chemo 5 is the same as Chemo 2. This is the one that made her pretty sick about 1 week after Chemo 2 was finished. While taking Chemo 5, this time, Darien got pretty sick at her stomach. More so than any other chemo treatments; she didn't eat much while in the hospital and threwup quit often. Once they finished chemo, Tuesday June 3, she seemed to rebound fairly quickly. She's at home now and is attending half-day summer school.

Once a year, the Children's Miracle Network (CMN) holds a national telethon to raise money. This years' telethon was held on Saturday and Sunday (5/31 - 6/1). KCEN TV sponsored a local telecast at Scott & White in Temple as well as at Bryan High School. A few months ago, while I was in the hospital with Darien, a television crew came through filming segments that they could possibly use during the telethon; Darien was included in some of the footage. Some time before the telethon possible a few week, KCEN made a commercial advertising the telethon and used the segment with Darien. Also, during the telethon, Darien was interviewed once and gave a tour of the part of the hospital where she stays. It was exciting for her and she got pretty tired trying to be "up" for television. I called the local programming director to see if they could get a copy of the segments to show locally, but he either didn't have the equipment to get a feed from Temple, or he ran out of time. I haven't seen her TV debut yet, but we have ordered a copy of the tapes.