December 4, 2005

The weekend is almost over. We have now been staying at the hospital for 5 days, and seem to be adjusting to a rather uneventful existence. Leah still has her fever. Today she is much livelier than she has been since Wednesday when she had surgery, so we feel that she may be recovering from whatever she has. Up until this morning her time consisted mostly of moaning, whining, watching videos, napping, and staring off in space. Today she has watched videos, but we even read some books and she is coloring now.

Last night we had a chest x-ray after I posted my blog. The nurses and residents we see were getting concerned about her fever, as were Chris and I. It is so discouraging to have her feeling like this already, and chemotherapy has not even started. The point of doing a chest x-ray was to make sure that a lung had not partially collapsed after surgery. Apparently this can happen sometimes and because Leah has not felt well enough to walk around and do some deep breathing, could have been one source of fever. The x-ray came back showing everything is normal-a positive thing, yet still gives no answer for her fever. A resident asked this morning if they could catheterize her for another urine culture, which Chris and I immediately vetoed. We were glad we did, and Dr. DePaola agreed with us later when we visited. He continues to be unalarmed about her fever and assures us she will feel better. He has also pointed out, though, that this will be a long road with many ups and downs, and this is one of many we will experience.

Today we had a few visitors. Doug and Amy stopped since they were in Tipton visiting Amy's parents. They brought us real food-McDonalds! Leah actually liked her lunch-chicken nuggies and fries. They also brought an assortment of food for us and things for Leah. The Maleceks and our neighbor, Esther, visited with us, and Leah was happy to have her triplets see her. Chris' aunt and uncle stopped by for a bit before they headed back to Wisconsin. My sister has come to spend a night with us, and her friend Graham also came to visit. Right now Chris, Suzanne and Graham are at The Vine eating supper. I must admit I am rather jealous, but Leah explained to me that I could not go because she really needed me here.

Although I find it hard to concentrate, I have managed to read a few books. Leah's favorite person to lay in bed with her happens to be me. (This is due to the fact that ever since she was little she has held my hair as a source of comfort -much like a security blanket). Since I am confined to bed it is either a Blues Clues video for entertainment or one of many books I brought with me.

I am hoping that tomorrow we will find out Leah's chemotherapy schedule and also that her fever will truly be gone.