December 17, 2005

Today went by quickly for us. Grandma Kathy and Grandpa Daryl brought Chloe down for a vist and stayed much of the day. It was great to see all of them; Leah seemed to enjoy it much of the time (she had her moments, but if I were her, I would probably have plenty of moments, too).

We finally felt as though we had some good sleep last night, even though Leah's temperature continues to spike during the night. We are never in a rush to wake up and today was no exception. Normally the doctors do rounds earlier on the weekends, but we did not see Dr. Rahdi until after 11. My parents were able to meet him and he spent some time trying to make friends with Leah. His daughter is 4, too, so he knows all about Dora and "Swiper no swiping." Dr. Rahdi visited with us about a variety of things. A CBC was taken this morning which showed us her total blood counts again. Normally when blood labs are drawn it is common practice to skip the sixth day of a patient's hospitalization for blood draws. This was Leah's sixth day here, but because her counts are dropping and it is important to know if she has bottomed out, they drew another set of labs to determine this. The results showed her to be anemic yet again with a hemoglobin level of 7.8. They transfuse at 8.0, so this afternoon Leah had a blood transfusion. Her neutrophyls are also 416. If that number goes below 500 we begin administering GCSF, a shot to stimulate her counts to rise more quickly. This is something I have been dreading. I hate needles, pain and blood. But, there is no choice, so I must learn quickly. The one nice thing about being in the hospital when these shots start is that we are not trying to figure out what to do at home all by ourselves. Tonight the nurse gave her the shot, and later I am going to give one to her to practice. She assures me this is fine and thinks it will be easier for me to give to Leah if I am not trying it for the first time on her. Leah was not excited about the shot, of course, but she is a tough cookie. I am sure when she realizes these will be a daily occurence there will be more resistance. Dr. Rahdi has also mentioned the possibility of a CT scan on Monday. The fevers that persist seem to be without a cause because all of her blood cultures do not grow anything. From what we can gather, the fevers very likely could be tumor related. Yet, in order to rule everything out, they would do a CT scan to determine she doe not have a fungal infection that was not being picked up by a blood test. I have bad memories of her last CT scan that was performed on Thanksgiving. However, this test is not painful or invasive, and hopefully after treating her for a while they are aware of what dosage of sedation she can have and she would be unconscious this time, unlike before.

My parents arrived with Chloe around 11:00 and visited with us, brought goodies for home, and met many of the people we see on a daily basis. Leah wanted to go to the library with them, so we took the girls up in a wagon they have here, and picked out new books and movies. Chloe, my dad, and I went to the mall while my mom stayed with Leah for a bit. It was great to get outside and into the real world, although Coral Ridge Mall the weekend before Christmas was a poor choice. There were just way too many people. I did not even attempt the things on the list because the lines were just too long. I did get Leah a shirt at Old Navy - before I left she had requested a mom shirt. (She has several about grandma and grandpa). This one says "My Mommy is the Prettiest." :)

By the time we returned to the hospital Suzanne had arrived from Des Moines. She is staying with us tonight. I have reserved for her the chair that folds out into a bed and feels as though you are sleeping in a coffin (that is Chris' analogy. I wonder how he came up with that?!). She has gone to purchase all the things on my list that I never got while I was shopping. Tomorrow is her birthday and Leah plans to give her lots of spankings just like they do at preschool on birthdays.

Once again, we are very fortunate to be here with this staff of nurses and doctors. James, our nursing assistant, stayed with Leah a great deal today during her blood transfusion and prior to that had her giggling away this morning by allowing Leah to spank him repeatedly. Chloe got in on this act, too, and while a part of me could not condone them beating up on poor, defenseless James, it was very good to see them laughing and playing. I suppose when James shows up black and blue tomorrow I may feel much worse. Leah also bonded with Anuhba, another resident. She spent over an hour of time sitting with Leah in her bed, talking with her and reading to her. She is so kind and caring to Leah, and after I discovered Anuhba is a reader, I got my chance to give book recommendations-there was no escaping for her then. Jeremy, another nursing assistant that works in the evenings, worked last night and confessed that he tries to have Leah for a patient each night he works. It is nice to have these people who feel she is special and treat her with such care and kindness, even when she is not always happy to see them. Leah also found great humor in Jeremy last night after he accidentally spilled her urine sample all over the bathroom floor and had to mop it up himself. Despite her fever and the fact that she did not feel well, she did perk up enough to laugh about that. We have to find humor in small things while we are here.

Again, please continue to pray for Leah, for her chemotherapy to be effective, for her strength of spirit as she faces many frightening procedures, and for her to feel well enough to return home and enjoy time with her family and friends.