Last week was the final step in Phase 3, a bone marrow biopsy. This was done in a clinic and was quick.This was the fifth biopsy Rachana had. The first two were in North hills hospital where the leukemia was diagnosed. The second one was needed because they couldn’t get a good sample in the first. The… Read More Waiting for test results
Last week was the last chemo of Phase 3. Rachana will undergo a bone marrow biopsy next week to make sure there are no traces of Leukemia and she is still in remission. The bone marrow biopsy marks the end of Phase 3. Phase 4 (the last phase) will start the week after next, if her blood counts… Read More Phase 3 chemos end
Moms are generally tough but have a weakness for their kids. This week, Rachana was emotionally quite beaten up because of Shubh. On Sunday Aug 21st, Shubh woke up complaining about itches. We gave him benadryl but things escalated quickly and he was itching all over with red bumps throughout this body. I took him… Read More Mother’s Love
This has been a rough week for Rachana . Chemo, tired, aching, nausea, low counts and finally a blood transfusion to stabilize things. On Monday she received chemo intravenously (IV) and also intrathecally (IT) i.e. in the spine. The IT procedure is never pleasant; they first inject a numbing medicine in the muscles around the spine, which… Read More Rough week
Our 900 sqft condo in Toronto was just right until we moved to a 1200 sqft apartment in Fort Worth and now the current 3500 sqft house seems just right. Humans are fantastically adaptive and our ‘new normal’ get defined and redefined quickly. This week Rachana’s blood counts were good but she did have a few incidents of… Read More The new normal
Rachana’s PICC line was removed from her arm about three weeks ago and the nurses are now using the port in her chest to draw blood for tests and give any IV transfusions, including chemo. Accessing the port is essentially a procedure of firmly pushing a 1-1.5 inch needle into her chest i.e. into the port which was surgically placed… Read More A good week
Ya, it happened again. Fever, Emergency, Hospital, Tests, All Clear, Home. On Monday 25th, Rachana’s temperature hit 101 after a few days of hovering around 99. The usual protocol is to go to the ER at 100.5 but we had an appointment at the clinic and so were told to go to the clinic instead. At the… Read More Few days in the hospital
In an earlier blog post I spoke about how the first doctor who diagnosed Rachana assured us that cancers, which were terminal a few years ago, can now be cured with predictable results. After a full diagnosis at the end of March, our Oncologist suggested a 80-90% chance for Rachana to make a full recovery. We know that… Read More Personalized Medicine
Phase 3 started on July 11th 2016 and things are going great till now. This phase has chemos on Day 1, 2, 11, 21, 22, 31, and 41. As the chemos as essentially 10 days apart our thinking is she will not drop her counts too low and feel beaten; there is enough time between the… Read More Phase 3 has an easy start
Rachana's recovery from Leukemia 