Day 4

At this point, Lexi has received 2 doses of chemo (Day 1 and Day 4) and has been getting steroids every day.  They are monitoring her blood count carefully, and giving her blood as needed. So far she is responding to treatment as expected.

She is having some leg pain, but this is probably from a number of factors.  The leukemia itself can cause bone and joint pain.  After spending so many days in bed, she could also be having muscle pain from lack of use.  There could be pain from the bone marrow aspiration.  And there can be never pain from some of the medications she is on.  We are working with a physical therapist to get her moving again.

Attitude wise, Lexi says it best.  "I'm three."

When she is awake, she can be pleasant.  But she is not a fan of the doctors and nurses poking her most of the time.  We get lots of "Don't touch me!", "Don't look at me", and of course, any three year olds favorite word, "NO!".  The worst of it is when she gets woken up, or when she wants to go to sleep.  And right now, those are the two most common times to be poked.

It is very hard to explain what is going on to a three year old.  And why she has to do things.  Getting her to take any oral medication is a huge battle.  When we tell her she has to do something to get better, her response is she doesn't want to get better. She wants the opposite of what ever you want her to do.  As if being three wasn't bad enough, a side effect of the steroids is being irritable and cranky.  By the end of the month, we might need a padded room...for mommy.  Sometimes we coax, sometimes we force.  We will do what we have to to get her healthy again, no mater what she claims she wants.