Avoidance

I've always had a great avoidance technique. Lately, I've been trying to avoid the topic of Olivia's pre-leukemia. I don't know why. My best guess, is that it is because I'm tired of the whole: "Olivia has cancer, oh wait, it went away." "Olivia's cancer is back. Well, sort of. Not, really." You get the idea. I don't even know what to believe anymore. Regardless, we've made a plan regarding her "pre-leukemia."
We decided that if she was transfusion dependent, it would be wise to begin chemo treatments sooner than later. That's obviously been the case, but Zac and I had requested that we wait until March 24. It's Macomb's Spring Break next week and we had planned a trip to Chicago with the kids and then a waterpark weekend up in the Dells on Saturday with the extended Chatterton/Trent families. Sort of a last hurrah.
After her most recent antics, Dr. Al thinks it would be beneficial to start chemo as soon as she gets over this little hump. She will need another line put in for chemo. We've requested that Dr. Fortuna place this line. After all, he knows her heart better than anyone. As soon as she is more stable, he will most likely place the line. Dr. Al gave us all the information on her chemo regimen. It was very helpful to look at, giving a list of each medication, the likely, less likely, and rare side effects. I'm still trying to grasp the whole process, but will definitely share little by little so it's not too overwhelming.
Dr. Al did say he had some anxiety about the whole chemo process with Olivia. She's not your "typical" cancer patient. It's going to be a fine line balancing her fluid so she's not getting too much or too little. It's also going to be difficult managing her blood thinner. They don't want her blood too thin along with low platelets, because it could cause spontaneous bleeding. They don't want her blood too "thick" because it could clot her mitral valve. She'll be in the best hands, regardless.
Anyway, I just wanted to pass along the info to give you something new to pray for. We're feeling them every day.