Next stage

Saskia had another bone marrow biopsy today to check once more if there is anything else going on regarding her platelets. The previous biopsy showed that there were the so-called "megakaryocytic" from which the platelets are being produced, but just not enough. There are several theories as to why this is and one of them is that the body reacts as if there is an infection somewhere in the system or that the bone marrow is damaged beyond repair.
I just stick with this last one as it is the easiest to understand. There has been so much poison injected into her system, that parts of the functions of the bone marrow just cannot be repaired.
Saskia is now on a daily dose of steroids, to see if this will increase the production of platelets.
On Monday 03 February she will go back to hospital and irrespective of the platelet count, she will start her next chemo therapy.
This one will be the same one which she had early November of which she had a very bad reaction to (and which was the cause of the drop in platelets for the last two months). This means that she will have to stay in hospital for a minimum of 5 nights but potentially 7 nights, depending on how she reacts. Last time we were back in hospital within 24 hrs of being discharged and we do not want to repeat. So she will remain in hospital until she can keep some food and drinks in her stomach.

We are immeasurably thankful for all your prayers for Saskia. She is an amazingly strong girl and never lets herself down too much. We ask you to keep praying for her and us, specifically over the course of next week when she will receive this very strong dose of chemo.

My First Day Of Highschool...

Today I had my first day of high-school. I personely think it was an awesome day, everything looked so much bigger in Cornerstone College. It was a long but a short day, only because we had labell everyone of our books and that took FOREVER... the rest of the day was quite nice but not so relaxing because we had P.E. (Physical Education) in which we did alot of little activities. I met alot of new people, which was quite nice because this is usually the best opportunity to make new friends and to learn about how they live and what interests them, because I know for one thing is that everyone is different, even the most identical twins in the whole world, they would have a different personality and a difference inside of each one of them.
After a quite hot sports lesson, we went back to class to finish of the rest of the day with a nice German lesson. Well that kind of wraps up my day so to finish of this paragraph... Gute Nacht (Good Night).

Animal Farm

15 January 2014: Saskia's 12th Birthday! Although we had several hospital visits to check her bloods, all in all we managed to celebrate it in reasonable fashion. On Tuesday evening we went to the last remaining drive-in cinema in South Australia at Gepps Cross with two cars, fully loaded with giggling girls, followed the next day with a visit to Aldinga Beach. This had to be later in the day as Adelaide is/was sweltering through a heat wave (45+ degrees Celsius, or for those of you in America: more than 113 Fahrenheit).
We have seen Saskia grow into a beautiful, wonderful, loving, and gorgeous young girl. Even under the given circumstances, she has maintained a very positive attitude and always looks forward. She has a large group of diverse friends and her love for animals is growing with the day. She wants to become a veterinary scientist working for a governmental organisation, an interest sparked by her natural ability to be with animals and the career of a very friend of us.
Saskia's biggest wish (besides the obvious) was to get a dog for herself. Although we do already have a dog, a cat, a miniature horse, two sheep and two ducks who accidently wondered in one day, we though it would be a good thing for her (and Gemma our Golden Retriever) to get her a little cuddly friend. So we bought all the little things a new puppy needs and progressively gave that to her. At first she did not really know what to say, but managed to keep a smile on her face. But when we gave her a piece of paper with some 20 different dog photo's and the text "Please choose me", she nearly screamed the roof of our house!

Although we said that the next round of chemo was to start today, it didn't....Today's blood test showed that her platelet count was only 33, which is only 3 more than a few days ago. Dr. Petra Ritchie, Saskia's oncologist has now said that she would still like to wait a little longer before making a decision. But if the count remains low, it is likely that Saskia will still have her chemo treatment within the next 10 days and not receive a stem cell transplant. The argument is that if she receives a stem cell transplant, it would be a waste as it would be wiped out during the next session. Saskia's bone marrow is behaving reasonably well, bar the platelets, however the platelets can be "topped up" so to speak.
Monday 20 January we will be back in hospital. If the platelet count is up, Saskia will start 5 days of chemo, if not, then we just have to wait a little longer....

Bloody Platelets....

As mentioned in our last update, Saskia received her fourth treatment on Friday 27 December through to Sunday 29 December. Her platelet count was still very low (32 in stead of the required 75), so she received half dose of chemo only, which made her feel not too bad. Saskia knew that if she did not manage to eat or drink anything, she would have to stay longer in hospital, so she did everything possible to make sure she did eat and drink something. At least she felt realy great for the New Years Eve party at our place.
However the platelet count remains a major issue. On 31 December her counts were 25 and was told to be careful and not bump into anything. Now being Saskia and fed up with all the restrictions she has, she "forgot" about that and climed into the rope swing we have. After several swings obviously she knocked herself against the tree, hereby bruising most parts of both her legs.  On 2 January we went back for another blood check and her platelet count was only 9, which required her to have a transfusion. Obviously the doctors were not to happy with all the bruising and gave her once again a little lecture of what could happen if the bruising was not on her legs, but for example in her head.

Saskia took the advice to heart and tried her very best to not harm herself again. However..... She stayed over at a friends place on Saturday night and realy behaved very well. They stayed indoors, watched movies, played games, shared photo's on ipads, ipods, etc. All went well untill her ipad slipped out of the cover and knocked one of her teeth through her lip. The photo here is the one she sent us Sunday morning, which woke us up realy quick.
It clearly showed that her platelets were realy down and back to hospital it was, where it turned out that her count was only 8...
She got another transfusion and luckily her face looks much better now. Also Saskia is well aware of what the function of platelets is now.

The doctors still do not realy know why her bonemarrow just doesn't make sufficient platelets. Our initial scare that it was a secondary cancer (which is likely with her treatment) which caused this "malfunctioning", was luckily ungrounded. It is possible that her bonemarrow is permanently damaged and is in need for a stemcell treatment. Luckily at the start of her treatment (after the first chemo session), there were sufficient quantities of stem cells harvested, so this is all possible. We hopefully know more over the course of the next week or so.

Her next treatment is at this stage scheduled for 16 January (straight after her 12th birthday). This treatment will be the same one as treatment number 3, which means a full week in hospital and feeling very, very sick.
But we do enjoy the in-between times, even with all the bruising...