January 17, 2006

I just arrived home in Denver from Iowa City. Leah is still at the hospital, but Chris is staying overnight with her. He and Chloe came down around 6:30 tonight and we stayed until almost 9:00.

Leah had a much better day today than yesterday. That translates into no fevers, no vomit. She definitely seems quite tired, but did not take a nap today, either. We managed to get to the library this afternoon to check out videos. We also played some pbskids.org games on the computer in the hallway. We still do not have a laptop in our room--amazing to remember life before computers since they are so necessary now. Her appetite was not as good today as it was on Sunday, but she had a yogurt for breakfast, some french fries for lunch and a piece of pizza for supper along with some ice cream. The big thrill of having Chloe come is that Chris and I took the girls for a wagon ride down to the cafeteria for ice cream cones. Chloe had a great time visiting. She was quite entertaining to everyone who had a chance to spend time with her. It makes me think of how much like that Leah was at the age of 2. Right now Leah does not seem as sparkly and entertaining, but after what she is going through, that is to be expected.

Dr. Goldman was the doctor who rounded on us today. He did not have much news for us, except that she starts another antibiotic "just in case" because of her fever and vomiting yesterday. I am willing to chalk it up to a stomach flu bug, but they have to cover all the bases. So, one of the side effects of the medicine is that it turns the skin red. This has happened to Leah in the past, but when they extended the time period the med. was administered she had no problems. Today, even with the extended time the medicine was administered, she turned red on her forehead, scalp and neck and back. She gets this antibiotic three times a day.

We continue to wait to see when they will start chemotherapy. They did not want to start it with her being sick and febrile. If she can remain without a fever, our guess is that she can start chemo. tomorrow night. That would mean it would be done by Friday morning. Of course this is all subject to change.

Leah is making friends with a few more nurses. Roshaun has been our nurse now several times and Leah no longer says much of anything when she is examining her. Roshaun's mother-in-law and I completed our graduate programs at UNI at the same time--another example of how small the world is.

James was off today, which is probably OK, since Leah has been picking on him. I also enjoy giving him a hard time and the other day told him he was lying about something. This has prompted Leah to call him "Liar" every time she sees him. Another example of the need to be careful of every single thing that comes out of our mouths since she picks up on everything. However, James has said he would bring us HuHot many times now, and we have yet to see any....so, perhaps Leah has a point. :)

There are only 6 more days until Leah's CT scan, and I have been praying each and every moment it seems that we get some good news. Please continue to pray for this as well, and her continued strength during this journey with cancer.