Waiting

Hey everyone,

I've titled this post "Waiting" because it's what we've all been doing. You have been patiently waiting for over a month for a post from me (sorry!) and we've been waiting for Victoria's treatment to continue.
Not much has been going on around here lately. We have settled into our new day to day life. Jeff take's Victoria to CHEO, usually 2-3 times per week, for treatments. Things have been going as planned and she continues to respond well to the treatments. At home, we have our regular routine of medications memorized. Victoria's last phase of treatment ended over a week ago. In order for her to begin then next one, her white blood cell count needs to come up a bit more. She was tested last week and it was too low. In a way I think we were a bit relieved. While we want her treatments to be over with as soon as possible, it was a nice break.  This past week was the first time since the beginning that Victoria had a week without chemo. Again yesterday, her counts were too low.
Tomorrow, she returns for more blood work. If her counts are high enough, she will be admitted to the hospital on Thursday. This next phase of treatment includes the only planned admissions into the hospital for treatments. She will have to stay for 3-4 days and this will repeat itself for 3 more times over the next 2 months. It includes some high dose chemo that needs to be given over 24 hrs as well as a lumbar puncture. After that, the next couple of years are all supposed to be outpatient treatment. That is unless she gets sick. Any fever still means an automatic admission at this point.

Victoria continues to amaze us. She has never once said she didn't want to go to the hospital. When she is there, she definitely does not enjoy the treatments. It's the playroom, the volunteers, the great nurses and the Barney DVDs that keep her very happy. I am sure that her positive personality and also her lack of knowledge of the seriousness of the situation help to keep our thoughts so positive as well. She does not think she is sick. She tells us she is all better. I'd like to think she knows more than we do :)

The oncology floor at CHEO was recently renovated. They put out a video to showcase the new ward. If you want to have a peek at what our home away from home looks like, take a look. It's a bit long and might make you shed a tear or two ;) Some of our new friends are in the video. There is also a little girl that walks by that, for a split second, had Jeff and I both wondering if it was Tori. It's not, just  in case any of you think the same.

http://youtu.be/LwfjMUiFfD4?a

I'll let you all know when she get admitted to start the next phase.
Love Jess