Katherine's ALL Blog: Delayed Intensificiation

My next phase of chemotherapy was supposed to start on Thursday, but my counts were still too low to qualify for treatment. My immune system took quite a hit during the Delayed Intensification phase, and my bone marrow is still trying to recover. I even had some home nurses come to the house to administer chemotherapy four days in a row, two weeks back to back. I guess that's a good thing, that the meds this last phase really did a good job of killing all the immature cancer cells. They killed some of my good and healthy blood cells too and I needed a blood transfusion. But, that's pretty common with Leukemia. That's why my mom is hosting a blood drive in June. She's going to collect blood for me and kids like me, and grown ups too, undergoing cancer treatments.

Yep, so it's just taking a little longer than my doctors thought for my bone marrow to repopulate. I can't start the new meds until I'm strong enough to handle them.

So in the meantime, I just wait. I wait inside my house because I can't risk catching something in the grocery store or at church. But soon, maybe this summer, I'll be able to go out in public a little more. Plus, cold and flu season is almost over, and spring is almost here in Wisconsin.

Here are a few pictures from my trips to the clinic and things I've been doing the last few weeks to keep busy.