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"Where are you?" I asked.
"We're at the clinic. Doris has relapsed. Her white count is 27,000."
"Twenty-seven thousand! Oh my God."
That evening upon entering the house, I hugged Doris. I was surprised to see that Michelle and
Doris were in good spirits considering their day at the clinic. Michelle informed me that the
consolidation protocol had been dropped and replaced with a new induction protocol. After the
bone marrow aspiration to determine the extent of the leukemia relapse, she'd been given
doxirubicin, vincristine and peg-asparaginase. She had prescriptions for Zofran (anti-nausea),
prednisone (steriod), and allipurinol (to reduce the uric acid produced in the kidneys because of
rapidly dying cancer cells). It was about 7:00 p.m. The prescriptions had to be filled and
Michelle was heading out the door to go to the pharmacy. Doris said, "I want to go."
Upon their return, Doris had a pained expression on her face and walked straight to her bedroom
holding her stomach. I immediately got out the Zofran and had her take it despite her saying she
was afraid to take it because she would throw up. She took it and immediately threw up.
Michelle took her temperature and it was 100.4. "I'm calling the doctor," she said.
While she was paging the doctor, I felt Doris' forehead and it was burning. She was shivering
and gagging at the same time. Although Michelle had taken her temperature only ten minutes
earlier, I knew it had to be higher than that. I took it and it was 102.9. I ran to the next room
where Michelle was now on the phone with the doctor. I put the thermometer in front of her
face so she could give the doctor the latest temperature.
Michelle took Doris to the emergency room at MCV Hospital. It was the second admittance in
two weeks for a fever.
Doris took the relapse hard physically and emotionally. She wasn't talking at all. She told
Michelle the following morning, "I didn't think I was going to make it through the night."
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