Update 6/12

Juliana was discharged on Monday. However, there was a hiccup when we went to her Cardiology appointment on Tuesday. The echocardiogram showed that her heart muscles were not pumping as vigorously as they should. She only had about 33% of the blood being pumped out with each beat. A month ago, the echocardiogram showed that she was at 60%. This issue can be a side effect of the chemotherapy, but it may have also been influenced by all the infections that she dealt with during round 3.

The cardio-oncologist told us there were two options to treat her heart. An IV medication must be given in the PICU (Pediatric Intensive Care Unit) for monitoring purposes or an oral dose. The oral dose can take several weeks to work, so it's not even an option. Therefore, Juliana needed to be admitted to the PICU. We arranged to go home long enough to pack everything back up (luckily, laundry was already done) and have a nice supper as a family, and Culvers became the choice. After we ate, goodbyes were said to Juliana as she headed back to the hospital with her mom. The rest of the family headed home.

She started the heart medication on Tuesday night and had an echocardiogram on Wednesday. Within less than 24 hours of the IV running, her heart rate went up to 38% (a 5% increase). She will have another echocardiogram on Friday to check her progress and will continue to be monitored.

The biopsy that was scheduled to check on platelets in her bone marrow was canceled for now due to the issues with her heart. It has been tentatively scheduled for next week, but they may decide not to if her platelets improve. Juliana will likely stay on the heart medication in the PICU through the next round of chemo. So the next discharge date may not be for a while.