We’re home! Sarah reported as normal to the Bodley Scott Day Unit for her morning blood tests, and it being a Tuesday, she had to wait for the doctors to examine/question her. Inevitably the doctors are always running late so by the time they saw Sarah at 2.30pm her morning blood test results were back.
Sarah’s blood counts had rocketed from the previous day: her neutrophils(a type of white blood cell which forms an early line of defence against bacterial infections) were 12.4 and this brokered the question from Sarah – “Well does that mean I can get ready to go home?” to which she received the flippant reply “You can go home today”. Whoa! Today? Day 18 of cycle 2? But normally you can not expect to be allowed home until at the very earliest Day 21 but who are we to argue? As ever we were prepared for a sting in the tail, surely they wont let us home for the full 7 days – well yes that is the plan.
We are due to go to Southend Hospital on Friday for some blood tests to ensure Sarah’s levels aren’t declining and then if everything is well we are to report back at Barts on Tuesday June 13th . This second cycle of Chemotherapy treatment has been excellent – Sarah spend just 7 days in hospital, 8 days in the hostel and 2 days at home (where she administered her own chemotherapy). I am certain that spending a shorter period as an in-patient has boosted Sarah’s progress through this cycle and we are hopeful that this trend may continue (although cycle 3 of treatment introduces different chemotherapy drugs at higher doses than any of her treatment before).
Unbelievable – Sarah is truly displaying remarkable levels of resilience, courage and determination to beat her battle with AML in record breaking time. It is so easy to get carried away with all this good news, but we know that we need to be mindful of all possibilities but at this stage things are progressing very well.
Sarah was given a top up bag of blood for her journey home, and off we packed to Fenchurch Street for the 8.30pm train home, still disbelieving that Sarah had steamed through cycle 2 of Chemotherapy. The children are coming back from Kent Wednesday to be reunited with their mother for what we hope will be a normal, fun filled week at home and hopefully Sarah might get to see a bit more of Southend than normal(!)
So until next Tuesday, when we report back to the day unit for cycle 3 to start off with a bone marrow test, a CT scan and a parting shot of intrathecal chemotherapy, and then hopefully we will get the all clear to continue with our randomised treatment for stage 3 for the clinical trial AML15.
A tout a l'heure
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