Kate was admitted back to the hospital on Tuesday, September 23. She had a bone marrow aspirate and a lumbar puncture. The doctors took bone marrow to test Kate's Minimal Residual Disease. This is a test to show how many leukemic cells are left after Kate's first treatment. It gives us a good idea on how she is responding to the treatment and is a good prediction on the possibility of her needing a bone marrow transplant in the future. The test came back negative. This is a incredible miracle. It is very rare to see a patient with no MRD after only one treatment. This also means that Kate will not be getting a bone marrow transplant. (Hurray!) Unfortunately, the cancer cells like to hide out and there is no possible way to test with 100% certainty that all her leukemia cells are gone. In past studies, if a patient doesn't continue with the full treatment (even with good MRD numbers) the cancer almost always returns. Kate will continue with the full two years of chemotherpy, but we are moving forward with confidence to our goal of full remission.
Kate is currently in the hospital receiving her second round of chemotherapy. One of the chemotherapy drugs administered during the "Induction Intesification" phase is a high dose of Methotrexate. This runs through IV for 24 hours, and is followed up with a rescue drug to clear the chemo from her body as fast as possible. If it doesn't clear quickly, she will get burns and blisters on her hands and feet. Another infamous side effect of Methotrexate is Mucositis, inflammation and sores in the mouth and digestive tract. So far, she's been able to clear the Methotrexate and we haven't seen any signs of Mucositis.
Kate continues to be a little, happy soldier. She hasn't been in too much pain during the past two weeks, and we are hoping she will get through round two without too many major side effects. She's starting to roll around and wants to be on the move more and more each day, which is fun to see but a challenge keeping her entertained in a little hospital room all day. The hospital is currently on Winter Alert because of respiratory virus, and no visitors under 14 years old are allowed. Maren is anxious to see Kate, and Kate adores her sister. We are hopeful to be together soon.
