Yahi...!

Laura didn't mention how well Millie has recovered from her rough week, so I just wanted to put our followers at ease: even though the ulcers on her esophagus haven't completely abated, they're getting better and she's eating again. She attended Disney on Ice with her mother and her cousin Sammie Bell (a former Disney princess!) in Oakland on Sunday. She enjoyed the performance, to which she wore her best princess outfit, gobbled cotton candy and cheered along with the crowd, and then they proceeded to take Samantha to the Oakland airport to return to SoCal. Laura called me from the traffic gridlock exiting the arena asking if I knew of any food between them and the airport.

I asked, "On Hegenberger?!?!? You'll be lucky to find a Carrow's style coffeeshop amongst the sleazy motels and fast food." Lo and behold they found a Japanese restaurant, where Millie bonded with her adult cousin while consuming her favorites Chicken Katzu and Maguro Tuna (Ahi) Sashimi (which she calls "yahi").

Still complaining of a sore throat and eating little, she got ready for the nurse's call yesterday. She needed good blood counts to continue with chemo and had last registered extremely low in platelets (the third type of blood cells along with red and white). When Marta called she told us that Millie qualified for sticking with our schedule with 72,000 out of a necessary 75,000 platelet count - they figured she was on her way back up so... all systems GO! I never thought I'd be happy about more chemo, but sticking to the schedule toward surgery, as Laura mentions below, is KEY.

And honestly, aside from painful swallowing she'd been fine - no more vomiting since the first time and no more blood in her stool. They said it could take up to two weeks for her to regenerate her platelets, which would delay everything including our scheduled surgery, but that little machine just bounced back AGAIN! Six-year-olds are amazing.

So today we checked in early for Round 6 (the same regimen in Rounds 2 & 4 were much easier on her than 1, 3 and 5) and headed down to Piedmont Ave. for... more yahi!!! She ate 8 slices of RAW TUNA, a bit of Chicken Katsu and a little rice, then headed once more into the fray, all the while being the silly (continually harassing Daddy is her favorite pastime) and happy little girl we know and love. I remarked to her mother, "We should get her blood checked for mercury poisoning," as ahi has a bad track record these days (see: Jeremy Piven), but Laura chuckled and said, "She's been getting intraveinous mustard gas - how could tuna hurt her?"

She's got a point there.