Platelet Issues

This post is #67 in a year-long series ... Through this series of posts I plan to share our family's experiences during our 17-year-old daughter's year-long battle with brain cancer, which began in February of 2008. My desire is to process through the events of that year from the perspective that a decade of time has brought ... for myself, really. But if you'd like to follow along, you're welcome to join me.

Photo credit: ZEISS Microscopy on Visual Hunt /CC BY-NC-ND

April 21, 2008

By this time, Hannah had been undergoing radiation treatments five days a week and taking an oral chemotherapy drug since mid-March.  These intensity of these ongoing treatments was finally beginning to take a toll, as you can see from the email update I sent on this date ten years ago ...

Today was our weekly blood work day in Little Rock. Once again, thankfully, they were able to draw her blood easily…we’ve found a good nurse, Melinda, who seems to know just how to find Hannah’s elusive veins. The doctor was still very pleased with how well Hannah is doing overall, but her platelet count had dropped pretty dramatically from where it was last week. So … she will not be able to take her Temodar (chemo drug) for the next seven days. They will draw blood again on Thursday to make sure that her platelet count is improving. 

The good news is that she will be able to continue her radiation treatments since she is so close to being finished (four more days!) There was a lot of discussion between the doctors as to whether she could continue the radiation, and we were relieved when they concluded that she could continue. She is really beginning to experience some of the side effects of the radiation treatments (fatigue, nausea, dizziness) and we really don’t want that to have to be prolonged. I think she’s actually a little bit relieved to have a break from the Temodar, though!

Here are some specific prayer requests:

· Fatigue and queasiness have kept Hannah home from school last Friday and today. This week (tomorrow and Wednesday) she has to take her end-of-course Geometry examination. This test is given over two days, for about 3 hours each day. Please pray that she will feel well enough to get through these next two days of testing, and that she will be able to concentrate and do her best on the test.

· Please pray that her platelet counts will improve, and that she’ll be able to continue the Temodar soon (she only has nine more doses that she has to take in this round of treatment).

· Please pray that the radiation and chemotherapy treatments are effectively destroying any possible cancer cells that could be remaining.

Ephesians 3:20-21a – “Now unto Him that is able to do exceedingly abundantly above all that we ask or think, according to the power that worketh in us, to Him be the glory…”

God IS good, all the time!
Jill and Brad