Weekend Update - Stopping Chemo to Recover a Bit

Just a quick update to that last posting—I wrote that last week while traveling, but did not get a chance to review and post it until this morning. There is some news to report from the last couple of days, but we were a little occupied by yet another lax tournament. I’ll let you know how that went and then tell you a bit about Sandy.

Hannah had another lax tournament on Friday and Saturday, the Galaxy National Championships, which was held in Malvern, Pennsylvania. The weather was incredible and uncharacteristically nice for this time of year—low humidity, sunshine and in the 80s. Sky Walkers plays in the Galaxy League, which now includes 18 different club programs. Many of the teams are from Maryland and Virginia, as well as New Jersey, Pennsylvania, Delaware, New York/Long Island, Massachusetts, New Hampshire… and there are even a couple of newer clubs from Ohio, and Illinois. The league site has a pretty cool introduction that the girls just love, if you have any interest http://www.galaxylacrosse.com/

Hannah’s team played well and advanced to the semi-finals before losing an exciting and very tight game in sudden death. They call it “sudden victory” now…how cheesy. These kids are great athletes and competitors and expect that each game will result in a winner and a loser…no one is going to suffer any damage by losing a game in “sudden death” overtime. Even the refs shrug their shoulders or giggle when they call it “sudden victory.” Perhaps it is the parents that we’re palliating with all of these friendlier terms, and not the kids at all.

Anyway, Hannah played very well and is feeling great about how she ended the season. She made some big plays in midfield and on defense, and contributed a couple of goals and some assists on attack.

My 2011 team also played in this tournament. We really struggled in our first four games (all on Friday), but improved a bit in each one and finished the day 1-3. It just felt like a real step back after what has been a tremendous season of progress and success. So much of this game is mental and we just didn’t step on the field with the confidence that we should have. It turned out to be a great test for them, emotionally, and they came back out Saturday morning and raised their level of play. Our girls were playing for pride at that point, and fought through a close, tough game to lose by one. They ended the tournament and their season in a way they should make them proud.

Now, to the update on Sandy.

You read on the last posting that things were progressing without event. That is true, but this is a roller coaster ride, after all, and it would just get plain boring here on the blog if there was not some news to report. We’re not sure whether the cold had anything to do with it or if it was simply another week of chemo that beat her up, but her white cell count is very depressed and they pulled her off of the chemotherapy treatment on Friday. She started a course of antibiotics (preventive) and will also take human growth hormone injections starting tomorrow. Sandy will go into the hospital on Monday for a couple of hours to hook up the bags and take some fluids by IV. This should help hydrate her with the right types of fluids. Between the hormones and the fluids, this should put her in a better position to improve her production of white blood cells. It is the mature white blood cells that are so critical in fighting infection, and new cells have to produce and mature quickly enough to replace the older ones. Right now, her body is vulnerable because the count of mature white cells is depressed.

This in turn will make her stronger and better prepared to fight any infections. Hey, this approach seems to work for the wrestlers! You don’t ever see them with any colds….

So, that’s where we are as of today.

Enjoy your Sunday!