Julia continues to struggle with a fever, but they're confident she has no infection and it's just the body's response to cancer. It's not consistent, it just spikes randomly. It was up to 104 today, but they've gotten it down to a steady 102 with meds. She's also on a new non-narcotic sedation medication to help keep her comfortable as she's started to develop a tolerance to the other meds. They don't want to keep upping the dose for obvious reasons. So she's been very tired today.
The trach getting scheduled is still being worked on - possibly tomorrow; they're still just trying to find a time for both procedures to take place at once.
The biggest news is chemo starts tonight. I have so many mixed feelings about that, and I feel like it happened all of a sudden. They call it a bridge chemo, and it's a less-intense version in order to just get something going until she's stronger and can take the full treatment. It's an oral chemo, and will be given daily for 3 weeks, and then 1 week off. I believe at that time they will re-asses her strength and whether or not to change the medication.
The most common side effect with this chemo is the typical nausea and hair loss. They've started giving her meds to treat the impending nausea... and I don't know why it even matters in the scheme of things, but thinking about her losing her beautiful hair makes me sick to my stomach =( I'm relieved we're finally starting to fight this... but I'm so not looking forward to this next year. ...Also hoping we HAVE a next year. My feelings are all over the place.
So we're hopeful that the trach surgery is tomorrow - her being mobile is going to really help with her strength during chemo. And we're hopeful she has limited uncomfortable side effects to this round of treatment.
