Mission One Accomplished

Originally Posted Jul 10, 2009 12:51pm

I am thrilled to report that after 29 days of intense chemotherapy, Amelia is now in remission. Her bone marrow aspirate last Thursday showed no leukemia cells, and she is now considered to be an “early rapid responder”, which drops her into the “standard risk low” category. This is, of course, the ideal when faced with leukemia, and gives her the best possible odds of cure (which we’ve never doubted anyway).

As for her consolidation phase of treatment, she will begin this coming Monday. Because she has responded so well in induction, her medication will be one nightly, with occasional clinic visits and a series of three more weekly spinal taps (to begin July 20th). Because this plan is relatively light (when compared to induction anyway) Amelia’s blood counts should remain fairly stable and she should continue to feel better every day.

This weekend will be our first big “No Talk of Cancer” family outing! We are going to Freeport to listen to Dan Zanes, who is one of Amelia and Molly’s favorite musicians. We went to his concert last year, and Amelia got to dance on the back of the stage with a bunch of other kids – what fun! Dan Zanes even has a song about Amelia – a ship called Amelia, that is, carrying people from Ireland to America. She has been counting down the days until the concert on Saturday, and the weatherman claims that the sun should make a much needed appearance. All in all, it should be a great day for the girls!