July 12, 1997

Once again it has been a long time since my last update (Friday June 6), but again, not much has been going on.

Darien finished her fifth chemo treatment on June 3, went back to the hospital from June 10 to June 15 because she was running a fever, and began her sixth chemo treatment on July 7. This is a little longer between chemo treatments than the doctors would like to see, but her blood counts are not rebounding very fast. Among other things, they particularly monitor her platelets and white blood counts. If these values are not high enough, she cannot begin another chemo treatment.

While Darien is at home, between chemo treatments, other than the week she ran fever, she feels great. During June, Darien took a few classes at summer school. These were craft type classes and she had a lot of fun. Also, the first week in July, she took swimming lessons. Other than that, Darien swims a lot and was able to spend a weekend with her grandparents on Lake Conroe.

Darien began her sixth Chemo treatment (Chemo 6) on Monday, July 7. We took Darien to the Scott & White Clinic in College Station for a blood test on Monday morning, then dropped her off at a dance camp. The results showed that her counts were high enough to begin chemo. I picked her up from dance camp and took her to the Scott & White hospital in Temple. She was supposed to attend a dance camp the whole week of July 11. She was really disappointed about missing this camp, but she was ready to get the chemo over with. For the past week and a half or so, we had been getting blood tests to see if her counts were high enough to begin chemo. Each time, Darien had her bags packed thinking she was going to the hospital to stay. So, after a while, she was getting a little on edge about it. I stayed with her all week; it was an uneventful week. Chemo 6 is the same set of drugs as Chemo 3. Darien did great while in the hospital. She didn't get sick and maintained her appetite the whole week. She was released on Friday July 11.

While in the hospital for Chemo 6, they ran another chest x-ray (no CAT scan) looking for metastatic tumors on her lungs. They didn't see anything, in fact, they have never seen anything positive from a chest x-ray. They also ran a base-line hearing test. Some of the drugs Darien takes may eventually begin to affect her hearing. So far, her hearing is normal. In addition, the tumor marker that we are using to monitor tumor activity continues to decline.

Overall, Darien is doing very well. She is very energetic and I would say she has a normal appetite. She has lost almost all of her hair, but it doesn't seem to bother her at all. And, she has gained back most of her weight - she currently weighs about 60 lbs.