December 7, 2005

The days seem to go quickly here. If anyone would have told me that it was possible to pass time quickly at a hospital I would not have believed it could be true. I am attributing this new attitude to the fact that I have not been outside the hospital since last Wednesday when we arrived at 5:45 AM.

We do sleep a little later than we normally would, but since we are getting up many times each night to have vitals checked or go to the bathroom, the extra sleep is needed. By the time we shower and think about breakfast, the many visitors who need to see Leah and poke and prod her start arriving. This goes on til almost lunchtime. The afternoons have been filled with activities, visitors, naptime, and finally, supper and then an evening activity.

Today Chris and I got our second installment of chemotherapy education. Again, this seems like too much information. In addition to the chemotherapy drugs we are learning about, there are many medications Leah has to take to reduce side effects of chemotherapy. One of them is called bactrum. As I mentioned last night, Leah's own bacteria will be her biggest enemy, and this drug will help supress the growth of bacteria in the body. Another drug she will take is called Nystatin. Leah has some previous experience with this type of medication because of the thrush she had as an infant. With Nystatin the goal is to administer this orally (I get to swab her mouth everywhere) three times each day to prevent mouth sores. Mouth sores can result from chemotherapy, and anytime this type of sore exists, there is another source of potential infection. Another medication she will take, Zoforan, is an anti-nausea medication to be administered for the 3 days following chemotherapy. The last medication she will need to take G-CSF will be used if she has low blood counts as a method of boosting these counts. This is administered as an injection. Anyone who knows me, is already wondering how in the world I am going to manage to give anyone a shot. I was never meant to be a nurse!

This morning Leah received her last two chemotherapy drugs in this cycle: Vincristine and 5FU. Neither seem extremely remarkable to us at this point. The side effects are almost identical to Cisplatin, yet they are not considered to be the heavy hitting drug that Cisplatin is. In fact, Vincristine will be administered each Thursday at the clinic here in Iowa City to Leah.

Right now they plan on discharging us tomorrow. Leah is very excited to go home. She gets rather upset when she sees other patients leave and mentions her own house. She has adjusted to hospital life as well as one could hope. Today she finally had a bonding moment with her nurse, Kristi. While Chris and I were learning about her medications and side effects, Kristi took her to read books, and James the nursing assistant, decided to brush her hair. I wrote last night how Leah's hair looked rather ratty. That is a complete understatement. Everyone who looked at it feared we might need to hack much of it out. James worked wonders on her and she is starting to resemble the old Leah we know.

Our activities today consisted of going to the salon for a manicure and making cowpies this evening for cowboy night.

Besides enjoying being home, I will be happy when Leah is no longer hooked up to her pole with all the wires and tubing. In the past two days I have tripped over it twice. Yesterday I pulled the needle out and her whole port had to be reaccessed. Today I did something similar while we were out walking and the needle pulled out partially. I feel terrible when this happens and Leah is none too pleased with the nurses poking on her to correct things.

We continue to receive many emails and phone calls. Each day Chris and I remark to each other on the number of people we have reconnected with. While we certainly wish we had happier circumstances in which to visit with everyone, we do appreciate everyone who has reached out. We are also encouraged by the number of people who tell us that they pray for Leah each day and for all the churches both locally and throughout the country (and a few overseas) who pray for her, too.

Tomorrow night I hope to post this blog from our own home!