ANC HIGHER (ugh)

Just a bit of an update. We are still kind of in a waiting game situation. Ally ended up going to the clinic at school Friday with a very bad headache. The weeklong headache continued. I drove over to school and gave her some vicodin. She went right back to class without so much as a kiss for her Mom. That is just how she is. Amazing. However, I didn't want to go into the weekend knowing she was still in pain and worrying about the cause of the headache, so I called her Dr. His thinking was that the steroid was not causing the headache...but rather that she might be having an allergic reaction to the IVIG infusion she had gotten the week prior. He wanted me to stop giving the vicodin (said it is bad for her constipation, etc) and to give her benadryl instead. I did this Friday night. Saturday her headache was still there, but lessened and Sunday it was gone. Could be coincidence. I will never know. On the flip side, he said I could go get her counts done again. So we went on Friday. I was wanting the counts to go down and ease my mind. They did the opposite. Her ANC is up close to 6000 now. This in turn worried me more so that whole plan just flopped. It could be high for several reasons (illness, more chemo needed, steroids can even make it jump). So the waiting game continues and we go in again this Friday for more counts. If they don't go down by Friday I will not be happy. I feel a small bit better because she is acting fine again and playing etc, but I still just hate that 6000 number. I have found that cancer moms are VERY picky about what they want that number to be. Not too high, not too low. I have some pictures and a story to post soon....gotta get them all downloaded...but Ally walked in a Relay for Life event over at WSU on Friday night. It was quite amazing to watch her carry the banner saying Relay for Life and walk the survivor lap with a group of other people who appeared to be 5 times her age or more. All of the fraternities and sororities were cheering her on. Thank you ZTAs for all you do for Ally's Army. I promise to get the pictures out here soon. Many days I still get taken aback when I see/hear/read about my child (MY CHILD!!) being the face for cancer research, blood cancer hero, etc...when I see her face on these things...or watch her walking the survior lap and wearing the survivor shirt with a survivor medal around her neck...well I still start to think it is all just a very bad dream. Keep praying. I am holding strong to my faith that we will see lower numbers on Friday. Thank you Barbara for the picture taken while aboard our friends, The Soins, yacht in Florida. You might be seeing this on your Christmas card next year. (although Carly not cooperating with her cheesy grin)