This is Consolidation

Phase two. Treatment for ALL is so complex and long term that doctors typically deliver the road map to parents in bits and pieces. We really only knew what our first five weeks would look like, but after that was anyone's guess. Honestly, I don't think I would have been able to retain much more information beyond the induction phase, it was so rigorous. So, Brooklyn and I went into Children's on Friday where she had a routine lumbar puncture (watching my child get sedated and have a needle placed in her spine is now routine. I may need my empathy dial reset.) and we received her next treatment protocol. This is the consolidation phase:

1 pill per day
Antibiotics on the weekend
Once weekly lumbar punctures

It actually sounds pretty simple considering the shit storm we just came out of.  But of course, as with all things in life, if something sounds too good to be true it probably is. So naturally this daily pill is a colossal pain in the ass to deliver. First off it's a pill, a real effing pill the size of an aspirin. I thought it might be chewable, but it's not. So instead I have to crush that sucker up and place it in a syringe with  a little something. I've tried a number of suspensions, from apple juice to honey. So far grenadine seems to be the big winner. Additionally you can't give it with citrus or dairy for some unearthly reason. Lastly and most dauntingly, it must be given on an empty stomach. Which means at some point in the evening I need to cut her off from snacks.

Actually, that last bit might be okay. Because you see, Brooklyn has stopped eating almost entirely. The two weeks following her induction were fairly normal by two year old standards, but immediately following her first dose of 6MP, her eating came to a halt. I freaked out and began obsessively taking her temperature, praying it wasn't an infection. She seemed really happy, just reluctant to eat anything. I finally called her doctor and the charge nurse informed me that its pretty common for kids to go on hunger strikes following induction and to just try giving her a high calorie shake. Well, okay then.

So our next four weeks will hopefully stay relatively uneventful. It sounds like we don't even need to see the oncologist until the next phase, which makes me a little uneasy. I find comfort in the weekly reassurance I get from our doctor that things are going smoothly. Anyway, the next phase is interim maintenance aka the calm before the storm. We'll see what that brings.