MRI Time Again

Tomorrow is MRI day again.  She will continue to have them every other month until chemo ends.  I never like the anxiety that accompanies MRIs.  She has to be NPO (no food by mouth) from midnight until after the scan at 1:00pm, so it makes it even more difficult.  

We have no reason to think there will be any change from her last scans, but there is always a slight chance...there always will be.  It is nerve-wracking and tense every time until we get the call that it is all clear.  

Her labs today show that her hemoglobin (red blood cells) is rebounding, but her platelets and white cells are still low, so it is likely she will need a transfusion before the weekend.  Her nurse practitioner told me today that most of the babies they have seen on this protocol (a few - they don't get that many) have tolerated the oral chemo well and haven't needed so many transfusions, but that Scarlett's bone marrow seems to be more sluggish to recover, so we will have to play it by ear.

Today I submitted forms to the American Cancer Society for mileage reimbursement for all of Scarlett's appointments since February.  I went through my calendar to get every single trip to either hospital for any appointment; it totaled nearly 2,000 miles.  It is 36 miles round trip to Lucile Packard, where we go most of the time, and 60 miles round trip when we have to go to Children's Hospital Oakland.  And those miles are only those in which Scarlett was in the car, not all the trips we made while she was inpatient and one of us commuted back and forth.  That is a lot of driving!  ACS will give us gas cards for $0.14 per mile driven, so we are looking forward to cringing a little less when we fill up the car.  The money for these gas cards comes from donations made through events like Relay for Life, so THANK YOU to everyone who has participated - families like us greatly appreciate the help!