January 14, 2006

I blog tonight from Iowa City. This morning when Leah woke up I thought she felt warm. Initially I wondered if it was because she was in her sleeping bag and was just hot from that. Instead of wanting to be active and eat breakfast, she laid around and went back to sleep and did not really cool off. When I did take her temperature it was 104.2 the first time and 103.6 the second time. So, I called down to Iowa City and talked to Dr. Loew and after packing up, talking to my mom, dad, Esther (our neighbor), and Chris, Leah and my mom and I were on our way.

We were here by noon and they accessed Leah's port, drew labs, and we gave her Tylenol upon our arrival. After meeting the new resident, Dina, and talking with her we went downstairs to have lunch at the cafeteria. On the way down we ran into Dr. DiPaola who had already heard via email that we were coming in. Leah's blood counts seem to be fine, except that she is neutropenic. Her white blood cell count is low, so we started the dreaded GCSF shot tonight. She always want me to administer it, and I am getting better at it, but I dread it right along with her.

I can definitely tell that Leah does not feel well. She did eat today-more than she usually does while at the hospital- but she is quite tired and her eyes do not look right at all. Even this evening her temperature was at 103.5-with Tylenol. She did fall aseep and that brought it down a bit, but it is quite obvious she needs to be here.

Chris had not planned on coming down tonight, so his coworker, Darren, and Darren's family happened to be in Iowa City trying out Hu Hot and they offered to run to Wal-Mart for us to get some supplies. It helped us out a ton to have frozen meals purchased along with blue Trix yogurt. In the end, Chris did decide to drive down for a few hours. It almost seems like too far to drive, but at the same time, it does help pass the time, and Leah enjoys having us both here. Chris is getting ready to drive back now, while Chloe will spend the night at Grandma Karen's.

At this point we seem to be stuck here for quite a duration. Chemotherapy was originally scheduled for Tuesday, but because she started GCSF and has a fever, it is almost certain it will not start until Thursday. At this point it is all a wait and see game.

While we are definitely not excited to be here, we do enjoy seeing James and Kristi who are both working. We are getting to know several other nurses and enjoy visiting with them, too, and always ask if they will be back the next day to see us.

Our prayer requests are many tonight: for Leah's fever to break (and remain gone), for her chemotherapy to work, for her tumor to shrink, and for her doctors and nurses to help her with her healing process.