Reality Check

This last four to five days have provided quite a reality check and a view into just how much the chemotherapy is affecting Katie. Since her next round of chemotherapy was postponed until Monday, she has been nine days without any drugs in her body and she is finally acting like the little girl that we knew before she got sick.

It was impossible to tell how much the drugs were affecting her earlier because when we first brought her to the doctor she was feeling lethargic and yucky from having one cold after another, not getting any sleep at night and being anemic. That general feeling has just sort of stayed with her for the entire duration of her treatment so far with little burst of energy here and there to remind us that she was still the same little girl, she was just struggling.

Now that the chemo is gone she is full of energy (we have to force nap time and bed time now), she is playing all day long, running around the house, dancing, jumping, giggling and just being a kid. This is, of course, a brief respite because the chemo will start up again tomorrow and it has to to continue battling the leukemia in her blood and bone marrow. But it has been nice to have our healthy feeling little girl back for a few days.

This morning, her last day without chemo, we are going to do a slightly brave, probably stupid thing and take her out to breakfast at Parson’s Corner. It is a small, family owned restaurant run by our neighbor and the kids just love eating pancakes there. Her blood counts are all good and she is allowed to have visitors and get out of the house, so we are expecting this to be a positive experience with no negative consequences.

Have a nice day. We will be.