Update

Maggie made it through the Induction stage of chemo last Friday. She had both a lumbar puncture and bone marrow aspiration done in addition to the full run of labs she gets weekly. The treatment team is hoping to have her in remission as she begins Consolidation, which will focus on her spinal fluid. The oncologist will look at her bone marrow on Monday. The draw from her spine was sent to Johns-Hopkins to check its status.

Maggie is glad to see the powerful steroids stopped for now. She took them like a champ (though sometimes a quietly whimpering champ) twice a day for the first 28 days of treatment. They made her face swell, her hair fall out, her trunk puff up and her muscles waste. She became shaky and unsteady, depressed and irritable. Her palms peeled from the stress on her body. But she motored through. Good kid.

On Saturday morning she awoke pretty cheerful. She said to me, "I woke up thinking that there was an unmarked gift left for us. I knew that it was left by the Holy Family."

Surprised I asked, "What could the Holy Family give us that they haven't already?"

"I don't know. It's a secret gift."

Can't say I understand what this was about, but I like the sound of it. I don't want to make too much of such conversations, but it was sweet and faith filled and optimistic. She then asked for a pot sticker, her current favorite all-hours snack. "Mom runs it 15 seconds on high," she reminded me, as if I hadn't done this three times a night for the last week. The week before it was baked ziti.