January 20, 2006

Today has passed so quickly I have almost forgot to blog. We certainly have not been too busy to find time to blog, but between visitors, naps, library visits, and phone calls the day is almost over. Both Leah and I found it very difficult to wake up this morning. We finally managed to sit up in bed around 9 AM. Part of the problem with our hospital room is that we have what we call a theme room. Every morning there is a loud squealing, screeching noise followed by what sounds like water running in a shower. This goes on for the entire morning. Yesterday the nurses came in to see what was wrong with Leah's machines since the noise was heard in the hallway with our door shut. We reside in what we call the "rain forest room" and are hoping for a discounted rate because of this. It seems to have something to do with the heating system in the hospital and unless we have our heat turned up to 80 degrees, which is unbearable to us, the noise continues.

Dr. Goldman did not round until after noon today. There are many families being admitted now that are newly diagnosed. These seem to take longer since they have more questions and concerns and the doctors generally try to give them as much time as they need. Dr. Goldman did not have any news for us, anyway. We discussed the fact that chemotherapy would start tonight and that her creatinine clearance results were fine. He felt her hearing results from the audiologist yesterday were fine, too. This is something they monitor closely, of course.

We have touched base a few times with Kyle's mom. His surgery started a few hours early, which gave them less time to worry. When we stopped by their room this evening he was resting, but she felt hopeful that the surgeon removed the tumor and also ended up taking his adrenal gland that was cancerous, too. For more updates about him, feel free to visit his caringbridge site: www.caringbridge.org/ia/kyle.

Our new friends here the Crooks family also appear to have better news today. I checked their website earlier: www.caringbridge.org/ia/bepositive and was happy to hear that Bruce's counts are coming up. I still wish we could stop by there for a visit, but his unit is more restricted than Leah's.

Leah has finally fallen asleep, but will have to make sure she clears her bladder every two hours for 24 hours straight. We started this at 9 PM, so we have until tomorrow night to finish this part of treatment. She is always good about waking up on her own to use the bathroom at night, but they will be waking us up just to make sure the chemotherapy drugs do not stay in her bladder too long.

Chris and Chloe and my mom are coming down tomorrow. Chris will stay the night with Leah while I head back to Denver for a day. Then I will return on Sunday so we can both be here for her scan. Tonight one of the nurse's asked if we were excited to have the scan to see the results. This is a new way of looking at things. If I knew there were going to be positive results I might feel more of a sense of excitement. Since there are so many unknowns I feel mostly worried and anxious about what they will see.

Chris and Chloe spent their evening at the Wartburg/Luther wrestling meet in Waverly. They both had a good time being out and seeing people. Here at the hospital we have had many visitors today: the Buhrows, Karla and Kasey, Mrs. Goldfish, Tyler from Dance Marathon, Jeremy our nurses assistant who came by to visit....as Chris has pointed out we always seem to have a lot of people in our room. I know sometimes Leah does not enjoy having visitors, but we do.

Please pray for this round of chemo. to do its job and for good scan results on Monday. Please include both Kyle and Bruce and their families in your prayers as well.