New Chemo

So Elle has started her new regimine of chemo drugs. The two she is getting this week are Etoposide and Ifosfamide. Etoposide is different from, but does a similar job, as Irinotecan, which is what Elle had in her very first chemo round. Ifosfamide is related to Cyclophosphamide (part of Elle's old VAC round) but is a step up on the potency scale. She gets these two drugs in limited doses each day in a five-day period.

These are heavier hitters and will hopefully *knocking on wood* start the process of whacking down the tumor once more. So far Elle has handled them well, but we are only into Day 2.

However, since arriving on Tuesday she has received numerous gift bags, goodies, a t-shirt from the Maine Red Claws mascot and a chance to shop with pretend money at a Xmas Store set up by Rite-Aid in the Children's Hospital Atrium. Currently she is singing Christmas songs in the Atrium and I am sure she'll come back with some gift even though there shouldn't be any there. Because that is how Elle does things.

And now a couple of pics.

Here she is taking a well-earned nap yesterday. She had to get up at 6:00 AM for a 7:30 PET scan.

This allowed her to get rested up for the shopping. Will it surprise any of you to find out that Elle got extra shopping money to cover her "expenses"? No, it didn't surprise me either.

And here she is singing Christmas songs in the Atrium today around lunchtime. She is the spitting image of a North Pole Elf, isn't she?