MAINTENANCE BEGINS!
When we arrived at the clinic today Sandy said,"There should be fireworks, bells and whistles!" Yes,there should. I shutter when I think of where we were last year at this very time. Kristin had an LP courtesy of Dr. Hastings and Dr. Lasko with IT methotrexate and an iv push of vincristine.(which has caused the worse neuropathy yet! I am keeping her home from school because it is so bad.) She also began a PO(by mouth) regime of 6MP which will be every day another year and half, DEX for the same duration of time, oral methotrexate once a week for the same time period. Weekend bactrim will continue until the end of maintenance. In a nutshell the goal of Maintenance therapy is as follows. If a patient stays in remission after induction and consolidation therapy,which Kristin has, maintenance therapy begins. I have said many times that is takes a long time to "kill leukemia." The goal is to destroy any disease cells that remain so that the leukemia is completely gone. M...