I often receive questions about if or why I am still taking chemo, because my leukemia (and Ewing’s!) are in remission. The simple reason is the chemo is preventative. We have seen how aggressive the leukemia was and the chemo is (one of) our ways to try and keep it at bay.

This will be my 8th consecutive (9th total) round of this particular drug, Decitabine. For this drug, I am able to receive it in clinic and go in five days in a row for this infusion.

I take this drug every 4-5 weeks, depending on when my labs recover. My platelets and white blood cells drop some with this chemo and have to rebuild before we can knock them down with another round of chemo.

After this round, I will have another round (likely mid-January when class starts back), then a (fourth) dose of my donor lymphocyte infusions, three more rounds of this chemo, then we will test my marrow and regroup. This sets us at regrouping around June.

I have plans for aproximately another 6 months of chemo, but I also have plans for another semester of school.

I hope you each are enjoying the Christmas season! PaPaw is staying with me for a couple days to take me to chemo and will swap shifts mid-week with Mother and my sister, Bre. It is so nice to be with family, especially during this time of the year.

xoxo, Kaden