Naomi nearly goes into Anaphylactic Shock

Wednesday, 8/2/06, was very scary. During her normal weekly Cheomtheopy, Naomi recieved her 4th dose of 'PEG Asparaginase'. There was no reaction from the previous doses of this medication but on this occasion she began to go into anaphylactic shock, causing a code blue alert to be sent out in the hospital. Code blue is a high priority alert to the hospital staff announcing that someone is dangerously near death and all hands need to be readily available to assist.

Within seconds after the alert, Naomi's room started being filled with doctors, nurse practitioners, and other emergency medical professionals. During the episode, all of Naomi's soft tissue began to swell including her lips, throat and eyes, while all her organs began to shut down on their own to protect her body. The doctors quickly gave her benadryl, cortisone, prednisone steroid, and a epinephrine injection to stop the effects of the PEG Asparaginase. Naomi is still in the danger zone for the first 48 hours following this event. We spent the last 24 hours in the hospital and the next few day we will stay nearby in case of another violent allergic reaction.

The dilemma we are facing after this episode is that Naomi is scheduled to receive one more dose of PEG Asparaginase on August 23rd. This will be her last dose. We are told that we can either 1) refuse this dose, 2) pre-medicate her before she receives the PEG, or 3) switch to the L-Asparaginase, which is a different type of Asparaginase that is not approved by the FDA. We are unsure of which direction to take and the doctors are leaving it up to us to decide with little guidance at this time. We're still waiting to talk with Naomi's Attending physician Dr. Gary Dahl about his opinion on all this.

Please continue to pray for our precious little Naomi.