BSO / L-PAM

Thankfully, Shayne wonderful cousins- Corrinne and Tony, arrived safely. When I called last night Christi had talked Corrinne into playing, "Herd Your Horses". (I doubt Christi knows these two awesome individuals used to both be Officers in the U.S. Navy!! I wonder who will be in charge and giving the orders this week, hee hee!)

Earlier when I called, she was being whisked off for a chest X-ray to set a baseline. In order to start the trial, she needed to have a Hgb. of "10". Christi's was only 8.1 so they tranfused her with packed red blood cells last night. (Thank you, once again, blood donors.) Her other counts were low, but okay at: 47 platelets, 4.4 white with an ANC of 2,552.

Dr. Maris is back from the conference and he'll be tending to Christi daily- including giving her her stem cells back on Friday. At this point in time, we do not believe she's not going to be going ahead with the BSO/L-PAM attempt; therefore, I'll share info regarding it. This will be the harshest chemo attempt she's ever seen:

One drug she'll be infused with is buthionine sulfoximine (BSO), which sensitizes the cells to alkylating chemo agents (melphalan). They are exploring the molecular mechanisms by which BSO kills neuroblastoma and the mechanisms by which BSO enhances alkylating agent efficacy. Based on the pre-clinical studies they have carried out a clinical trial of BSO and melphalan for neuroblastoma and they saw some remarkable responses in that trial, which has led them to conduct other clinical studies to understand how this unique drug improves cancer cell killing. We know she will not go into remission as a result of these drugs; however, we hope and pray that it really destroys most of the neuroblastoma cells while not being as hard on her as we are preparing for.

On Saturday, I went on my first waterslides ever. Christi wanted me to go and how could I say no? Before getting in line, she went over my fears with me:

C-Exactly what are you afraid of, Mom?
A-Dying.
C-How?
A-Drowning.
C-Let's watch the others. See! They barely get wet when they land. Anything else?
A-Going too fast down the slide and flying out.
C-Look! There are people bigger and smaller than you and no one flies out.

Well, off we went - three big water slides, one water rollercoaster, one happy child checking on me (What do you think, Mom? Isn't this fun?) and one scared mama.....so happy I now have those memories to treasure! Thank you, dear Lord!

Although extremely anxious to return to Philly on Friday and although with a heavy heart this morning with anxiety about what is to come this week, Shayla and I are now heading off for a day of school. Here's wishing you and yours a great day!!