Emalee completed cycle 1 of her 3f8 treatment at Sloan Kettering in NYC during the first week of Oct. It had to be the most horrific of all the treatments she has had so far! The pain was so intense and awful, she had bad allergic reactions to it with lots of swelling and hives….it was just terrible to physically watch her going through it! It was literally like taking the whole week of the CH1418 antibody treatment she had a year ago and packing it into a 30 minute drip….meaning she just had a lot of the same symptoms that happened over a weeks time with the ch1418 antibody happen in 5 minutes flat with the 3F8 antibody! It was very scary to watch her go through it! Needless to say she managed to finish the week of 3f8 and come home on Saturday! She continued to have residual pain in her arms, legs and belly throughout the whole week when she came home. They say its like a peripheral neuropathy that their body is feeling! Then she had a bad attack of hives covering her entire body from Tues. through Fri.that week as well. And she has had constant diareah since we finished the antibody too! So really, the past two weeks have been pretty rough on her poor little body! God Bless her!

Now the plan is to test her blood for a HAMA level 10 days after the end of the 3f8 treatment. This will determine whether or not she can begin cycle 2 or not! We went back to Sloan on Oct. 17th for the HAMA test and found out on Oct.19th that her HAMA blood work test came back positive so she had to stop the 3f8 antibody for now until the blood comes back negative! Now this means she will start a new antibody called rituxan which will be infused over one day, 14 days later she will get another infusion of the rituxan infused over one day and then on the very next day she will be getting a low dose chemo infusion. This will hopefully reverse the positive results of the HAMA for her to be able to restart the 3f8 again. They will wait a little while and retest her blood for the HAMA level. If it comes down she can continue with the 3f8 antibody again, if it doesn’t we wait again another month and retest the blood again…..continuing until it goes down under 1000. Her level right now is at 11025….so they said it may take awhile to come down under a 1000. She will also begin to take accutane 2x a day for 2 weeks on and then 2 weeks off…repeated over the next several months too! Man i dread that one again, she was very nasty & mean on that stuff before!!! So now we are going back to Sloan this Tues to have her temporary broviac line removed, discuss when she will be starting the next part of the treatment with the docs and pick up her new meds!

Right now she is finally feeling a little better pain wise from the 3f8 and all of the hives are gone, but she still continues to have this horrible diarrhea! When I finally talked to someone at the hospital on Thursday, they said it is probably coming from C-Diff…some type of bacterial infection, not as a result of the 3f8 since it has lasted so long! I had to take her for a test to check it yesterday and we will get the results on Mon. They called in the prescription and told us to start just in case….i really hope it helps….she has been going to the bathroom about 6 to 10 times a day, its crazy!

On a happier note……Emalee decided few months ago that she wanted to make her “Make-A-Wish” Wish….she wants to go to Disney for Halloween! We decided to let her do it since this has been the first time she has been NED since last Feb. 2010 when she was diagnosed! So what better way to celebrate the good news that she is currently cancer free but to take her to Disney! We officially leave on Oct. 30th for her make a wish trip and are staying at Give Kids the World!!!! I cant wait for all of us to have a much needed break from hospital life and let Emalee have some well deserved fun and enjoy being a kid for once!!! It will be nice too that she will have her broviac out too and can even get to swim while we are there!!! So look for lots of pictures to come when we get back!

Please continue to keep her in your prayers and I will let you know when she will be starting her new treatment and post some pictures from her Make-A-Wish trip when we get home!

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