Nom Nom Nom...

Are there things in your life that are really good that you don't want to talk about, don't want to reference, don't want to jinx?

Yeah, for the last 10 days, we've been in the middle of one of those periods, and we didn't want to talk about it until we were really sure that it is was really happening.  Well, it has, and I'll now trumpet it.

Amelie is eating again, and is eating way, way more than she normally would.  This is, of course, a good thing.  We're attributing it to the change in the chemo regimen that happened when we went in last week.

So, a bit of history.  Rounds 1-3 Amelie was given doses of Etopicide, Cisplatin, Vincristine and Cytoxan.  She was given them in varying amounts for 3 days, and then hydration for one, and then sent us home.

Amelie was then given booster doses of Vincristine at the infusion clinic on Wednesdays as well.

Once the chemo started in round 1, she pretty much lost all her appetite.  She was ingesting maybe 100 calories a day from the small bites she was eating.  As you can imagine, she's lost a lot of weight.

Round 4 saw two switches in the chemo regimen.  They stopped giving her vincristine totally, and switched the Cisplatin for Carboplatin.  But actually, they had stopped giving her the updates of Vincristine a bit before that, so her appetite returned for real on Christmas Day.

So, throughout the entire hospital stay last week, she ate.  She came home, and she ate.

How much are we talking about?  Here's what she's eaten today, in order of what she's eaten:

6am:

• 1.5 cups of cooked pasta with spaghetti sauce, liberally sprinkled with fresh parmesan.
• 6 mini-tater tots.

11am:

• 1 scoop ultra-scoop ice cream
• 2 cups of cooked pasta with spaghetti sauce, liberally sprinkled with fresh parmesan.

3pm:

• 1 cup Kraft Mac and Cheese made with Half and Half and a LOT of butter.
• .25 scoop ultra-good ice cream.

4pm:

• Several Handfuls of popcorn
• Several handfuls of animal crackers
• 1/2 cup milk

Now I imagine that some of you are saying that it isn't that much, but the above list of food was more than she ate for the entire month of November.  Shelley will say that I'm exaggerating (as she claims I'm prone to do....whatever.), but its so shocking to us.

She has gained a full pound in a full week.  Now, once again, some of you are going to say...who cares.  At diagnosis, she was nearly 29 lbs.  Her lowest point was her at 24.4 lbs.  She weighed in at 25.6 the other day.

So....we can keep doing what we're doing, hopefully, and avoid the specter of the feeding tube.  At least for now.


yay for eating!

There's a ton more I need to write about, but I'm really enjoying doing nothing for this break.  School starts back on Monday, and so does my discipline.  

For now?  

SLACKING IS KING!