Day 214 – Monday 9 August, 2010
Today Emily had the first of her 14 days of radiation treatment. It was fairly stress free and the actual treatment only took about two minutes. Took longer to get there and back home. The petrol vouchers all the kind people gave to us are definitely being put to good use considering we have to go in to hospital almost every day at the moment. THANKS!!
The radiation goes directly onto the sight where her kidney was removed to target any remaining cancer cells that could be present. It’s apparently fairly low dose and shouldn’t cause too many side effects. Emily takes anti sickness medication prior to treatment to help with any nausea she may experience.
We found out today that Emily is eligible to take part in a clinical trial using antibody therapy. She is eligible because she has responded so well to previous treatments. The aim of the antibody therapy is to attach itself to any remaining neuroblastoma cells and encourage Emily’s own immune system to fight it. This has been shown to improve survival rates of children with high risk Neuroblastoma. The trial is fairly new so the long term benefits of the treatment are unknown. I won’t go into statistics…
This will take place over the next six months commencing mid September. It involves several 5 – 10 day stints in hospital (overnight) to administer the intravenous therapy. Because the antibodies attach to nerve cells the therapy can be very painful, therefore IV morphine will be administered throughout the many infusions. Unfortunately nothing is without horrific side effects for these little ones. BUT if it potentially helps with long term survival then we have to go ahead with it. This should be the last leg of her treatment and at least its not chemo!
On a brighter note, hopefully Emily will be able to attend school in short bursts between treatments. AND her beautiful eyelashes have nearly all grown back! The hair will take a while but it’s a work in progress.
Kath
Unfortunately comments are closed on the blog for the time being while we figure out how to get more space! Please feel free to send Katherine your messages on Facebook where she will check them regularly.