Day 1 - The Battle Begins

In some ways today, the day after D-day, is better than the day before. The day before we had no idea what was going on inside Courtney's body. There was the dread that whatever it was it was bad, and she was getting treated. It was like being bombed without knowing where they were coming from, how destructive they were or how to fight back. A horrible feeling! Now, armed with knowledge, we can begin to fight back!

We have some updates: (borrowed from Courtney's brother, Chris)

Todays blood work results:
There was improvement. Big drops in white blood cell counts and her blast counts
WBC count dropped from 90,000 to 64,000. Yesterday they were over 100,000. Normal is 3,000 to 11,000
Blasts dropped from 84 to 56. Yesterday they were 94. Normal is 0.
RBC and Platelets remained the same, kinda low.
Dr. said that these improvements could be from the fluids, the steriods, and the effects of vitamin A (the chemo drug) working. Either way a good sign.
Also from Chris:
"Chemo terms I learned today: Blasts are immature white blood cells. These are bad because they don't do anything. (0 - 5 blasts are normal) First round of chemo is called induction - 7 days for first drug and 3 days for second drug - what she is in now, starts remission. Second round of chemo is called consolidation (keeps you in remission) 3-5 days in hospital. Probably she'll have at least 2 rounds of consolidation. She's waiting on the results of CT scan and for the PICC line. They are going to give her something for nausea so she can eat and take her pills - in my last email I said she took second dose of chemo at 10:45. She didn't actually take it because she had to get CT. Sooooo - now she's waiting for her tummy to feel a bit better before she takes her pills. There are 11 pills! More good news just in: CT results are totally normal!!!"

Her PICC (peripherally inserted central catheter) line didn't go in so well. It kinda got stuck, so now were waiting for a specialist to come in to finish the job. It's a fairly routine procedure that has these small complications from time to time. FYI, the PICC line is an intravaneous catheter that goes from inside of her bicep to the Supeior Vena Cava (SVC). It will be used to give her the chemo and to draw blood. The chemo is too harsh to have it injected through a normal IV.

Relatively speaking Courtney is doing well today. She's been able to rest a lot. They've given her anti-nausea medication (including the deep sea fishing patch) to make sure none of the important medication comes back up. She did have a small bout of nausea earlier today. Right now, we're just waiting for someone to finish the PICC.