Round 5 is complete

Its been a while since we posted. Madelyn had round 5 of chemo on 6/5. We had a little issue with that. The physician that wrote the orders for her chemo wrote for the wrong drugs and Sheila didn't catch it until after it was over. Basically, Madelyn has begun Course 2 of chemo. The drugs are the same as Course 1, but the order and combinations change slightly. Sheila received the roadmap for treatment on the 4th and we went in for treatment on the 5th. We didn't figure we needed to check anything as the roadmap states clearly the treatment plan for the entire round, however, from what we understand the physician wrote for the same combination as course 1 round 1, not course 2 round 1. They admitted the error and Madelyn should not have any issues as she was to get this combination in course 2 round (about 6 weeks from now). The trouble is the principle of it all. This is a huge oversight and we have discussed this to some extent with the staff. We have been told an incident report is going to be filed and we plan to follow up on this.

On to better news. Madelyn's vocabulary is growing. She can say:

Da Da (first words)
Na Na
Ma Ma
Ball
Bubble
Dog
Wow
and now....

Uh oh!

She is trying to get crawling, but seems to get frustrated easily, so we'll continue to work on it.

Her first teeth popped through last week. She has two little toofers on the bottom. They came through together and she did not appear to have much pain. There is a white ridge on her upper gum, so it may not be long until the top ones come in.

She is going through a stage now where she doesn't go to bed smoothly. She goes to sleep while nursing, but during transfer to the crib she awakes and is WIDE awake. ON the bad side, this is a problem we need to address quickly. On the other hand, she is so darn cute when she gets back up. Irresistible!

Course 2 Round 2 (or round 6 if you like) is set to begin 6/26. We have altered the roadmap to accommodate the mistake. Basically round 5 and 7 have been reversed. Rounds 6 and 8 stay as is outlined on the roadmap. Her chemo should only be 1 day this time since there is no VP-16 (runs over 3 days). The plan is to go through to the end of course 2 (round 8) and reevaluate.

ERA Mortgage hosted a fundraiser at Sheila's office. In a little over 3 hours, they raised $1600. Many of my BCBSSC colleagues were there. We have expressed our thanks before, but to be clear, we truly appreciate what everyone has done for us.

This has been pretty short and sweet, but hopefully this gets you up to speed.

Thanks to everyone and please keep us in your thoughts and prayers.

The Bell Family