It Has Been a Long Day

Mom was up at 4:30 this morning, getting the car loaded up. Both girls were woken up and diapers changed and Rebekah dressed for the day and then loaded in the car with some help from Dad. Sarah was dropped off at Aunt Tiffany's for the day (or at least the morning).

Rebekah was asleep and in treatment and Mom was waiting for her by about 6:25. A little before 7, we loaded a sleeping Rebekah into the stroller and made our way to the hospital for her Cat Scan which was on the schedule for 7:15. We waited, while they got everything ready and at about 7:15 we strolled into the cat scan room (at which point she woke up and wanted up). Mom got her up into her arms while the anesthesiologist got her medicine flowing to put her to sleep again. Once asleep, mom layed her down and then headed to the recovery room to wait for her.

The scan didn't take long - only about 15 minutes (if that) and they brought her into recovery in a crib. We let her sleep for about a half hour before starting to try to wake her up. Once awake, she wanted to play. After the anesthetic she is very wobbly, so she couldn't really get down to play. After a short while, we headed over to clinic. She wasn't thrilled with being confined to the stroller or Mom's lap at clinic, but mom didn't want her getting hurt.

Clinic seemed to be running behind, which is frustrating when 9 am are the first appointments of the day. They did try to get patients cared for as quickly as possible. Clinic is short staffed, so I realize that some times they aren't able to get to everyone as quick as they would like.

Her counts came back with a critically low Platelet count and doc really wanted her to get platelets, so we stayed for a Platelet transfusion. Day Treatment (where she receives transfusions) was really busy and they asked for us to stay at clinic for a while. It was about two hours from the time doc said she needed the transfusion until it was actually running. At one point there were four or five children's cancer patients in Day Treatment. That pretty much filled them up. The platelet transfusion itself only took about an hour to run, so that was good.

Her ANC is 350, so we need to be really careful around "sick" people for the next few days.

Her weight is down. As of today, her weight was down 10%. That is the magic number. If it goes down any more, we will need to do something. There are a couple of medications that we can give her to increase her appetite - one of them is a steroid and one of them is an antihistimine. Doc was ok waiting until Monday to see where we are at. I am hopeful that her appetite will pick back up and she'll start gaining again. Please pray with us that it does.

Finally, about 3 this afternoon we made it home. We had to stop and get Sarah from Grandma A. She had picked her up from Aunt Tiffany's. Thanks to Aunt TT and Grandma A for watching Sarah. Tiffany was amazed at how much Sarah was eating and doing. Sarah is sure getting to be a big girl.

Last night, a lady from church brought us a meal which was delicious. It was great not to have to worry about cooking. She brought some groceries as well, which was truly appreciated. The cinnamon roll bread seems to have been a hit with Rebekah. Tonight we have a lasagne to cook up with salad and garlic bread. I think Tiffany said it was from the same family. It is wonderful not to have to worry about dinner. The meals and groceries have brought tears to my eyes in thankfulness. I am amazed at times of the thoughtfulness and caring of others.