Clinic Update

We went to Augusta yesterday for the day for the ribbon-cutting ceremony for the newly remodeled hem/onc clinic.   We were so happy to see the familiar faces of the doctors, nurses, friends, and staff that have helped us along this journey.   The new clinic is a vast improvement, but the staff are really the ones who make the clinic.

Mollie and Dr. V at the ribbon cutting.  He diagnosed her leukemia in 2008.

Side note:  I  won't be making that CLT-Augusta round-trip in one day any time soon again.  It is such a long drive (Michelle, sorry we didn't drop by.  There was just no time!!).  We checked on our house- depressing to see it sitting there empty.  It smells stale and closed up.  Not our home any more.

Mollie had clinic today in Charlotte.  It feels strange to be starting up at a new clinic for follow-up, but Dr. J and his nurse, Jackie, are very sweet.  The nurse is great with Mollie, finding her the foamy stickers and shiny band-aids that she requests!  The port access was swift and it worked perfectly.  Mollie's counts are good-  WBC 8.2 and ANC 5100.  Wow!  I am learning a little bit about what kind of CBC numbers to expect after treatment, but it still looks weird to me.  Her platelets are down a lot from last month, but well within the normal range, and her hemoglobin is about the same as last month.  She also had a palpable lymph node in her neck, which they will watch.  I am happy her counts are great, but I just can't let my guard down.  Matt and I know how quickly things can go from fine to critical.  Any little thing, like the lymph node, really gets me worried!  However, we got the go ahead to schedule Mollie's port removal surgery (will have that done in Augusta) for mid-November. 

I feel like I should be really pleased with how Mollie is doing, but instead I am just uneasy.  With treatment, there were clear benchmarks and we knew when to worry and when to breathe easy.  Now, things like the lymph node and skin irritation, make me want to request a bone marrow biopsy right away!!  PTSD is putting it mildly.