OFF TO OAKLAND

Kristin and I left for Oakland on Labor Day afternoon. We had anticipated some traffic, but..... holy cow, it took five and a half hours just to get to Vacaville. With all the heavy construction and holiday traffic we averaged 35 mph the entire trip. Kristin ended up car sick just from all the braking I had to do. Our appointment was for 10:00 Tuesday morning. She received methatrexate and vincristine via an iv push and a drip. We drove back to Vacaville and I had the best nap ever! Kristin rested quietly, but ended up feeling very nauseated later in the evening. Wednesday we drove to Alta Bates Hospital in Berkley (actually it is only minutes away from Children's) where we met radiologist Dr. Swift. I had not wanted to go forward with this meeting and honestly it angers me that she has to endure radiation. But, Kristin has three strikes against her that make this arm of the protocol necessary. 1. pretreatment of steroid before diagnosis 2. her age 3. the mll gene rearrangement. As much as we want to avoid radiation, we cannot overlook these factors. I had many questions lined up for him. He looked at Kristin and asked,"Are you an A student. She said "Yes." (most of the time she can be!) He said, "You will still be an A student!" With young children this is never the case. My biggest worry and most of my questions marched right out the door. He explained that her dose would be less than what we thought it would be and that the side effects would be quite minimal. Although she has tested negative for leukemic cells in her cns (central nervous system) this radiation is prophylactic. Meaning that if the cancer returns., the brain is absolutely not where you want it to come back. no kidding.... While we were there we encountered an interesting woman lurking around the front door and roaming the halls. She had some unkind words for us. We kindly let her go her way, but for the rest of the day we had fun teasing each other and making light of the situation.

After our Berkley visit, we returned to Children's and Kristin took her three shots of Peg like a pro. The nurses loved it because she did not tighten her muscles, kick or scream like many of the little ones do. She is amazing. We had to hang around for 2 hours to make sure she did not stop breathing and then we were free to go. We headed right for home so we would not miss Cody's birthday. With the clock ticking, we desperately looked for a bakery when Corrie Hames called. She offered to pick one up and bring it to the house. thanks Corrie!

Kristin tried to go to school on Thursday, but got sick during seminary and came home. She collasped on her bed and slept all day, completely wiped out by the chemo! Friday she was good to go.......Amazing

We love you all and continually count our many beautiful blessings.

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