We had our last clinic visit before the transplant yesterday. It was all together fairly uneventful, which of course these days is a good thing.

Zoe had her last dose of VP-16 or Etoposide, and had already taken her last dose of the steroid, Dexamethasone, on Wednesday. This brings her med count way down, since she has been able to cut one of her 2 blood pressure meds and the Zantac she was taking to prevent the steroid from tearing up her stomach. Morning is 3 meds, evenings 2, down from 9 in the morning and 7 in the evening at her peak.

She will of course have to take other medications post transplant, but it’s nice to see her have a break. She is such a good baby, so calm and rarely fusses much, usually in a great mood and prone to smiles and laughs whenever it’s not clinic day. Letting her just be is really wonderful.

Vitals:

  • WBC: 4.9 (slightly low)
  • Platelet: 474k
  • SEG Neutrophil: 1000
  • Sodium: 130 (up a bit finally)
  • Ferritin: 443 (best count since before the disease became active! Normal in healthy children is 100-200)

Generally looking really good going into the transplant countdown. WBC could be higher and was last week, but she had a bit of a cold or allergies last week, so perhaps the change is due to that.

Next week we start the pre-transplant work up at Duke.