Clinc Day and Platelet Transfusion

Last Night at a little after 10pm, Rebekah threw up all over her bed. I was planning to stop her feeding before I went to bed, so we stopped it a little earlier. She has been thrashing around so much in bed that I didn't want to have to worry about her getting twisted up and pulling out her feeding tube again. She had been tolerating her food pretty well and had gotten most of her RDA (Recommended Daily Allowance) for the day.

She seemed to sleep better last night. Either that or I was just too tired to hear her. She still had her 8pm, 10pm, 2am, 6am, and 8am medications and we had to be out of the house by 8:15 for our clinic appointment.

Friend Gaye met us at clinic to help keep an eye on Sarah. Rebekah's counts are pretty low, which is to be expected. Her Platelets were particularly low, so doc wanted her to get a Platelet transfusion. We waited around for the transfusion. Luckily, the Platelet transfusion itself only takes about an hour. There is generally about an hour wait for the lab to get the platelets sent up. By about 1:30 we were heading home.

We asked doc about Rebekah's lack of words and could there be some damage to her vocal chords from the radiation or what might it be. He didn't think there was damage to the vocal chords because when she does speak her tone is "normal" and not low and raspy. His best guess is that her throat is sore and it hurts to speak. Also, because she is still drooling quite a bit her mouth is probably pretty sore. Doc seemed a bit surprised that she was continuing to drool. We will keep the morphine "scheduled" giving it every 6 hours for now, because of the apparent pains. We may start to drop one of the other drugs. One step at a time.

The best ways to know for sure if her throat is sore is to put a scope down it or to do a barium swallow (yeah right) and watch how her mouth, tongue and throat work. But because her counts are low, now is not the time to do it (unless there were serious problems - which there are not). If she still seems to be having problems when her counts have recovered (like at our next hospital admission), they will likely have either an ENT or Gastroenterologist (forgive me if I've spelled it wrong) evaluate it. One more wait and see. Uugh!

This afternoon Caron came by and helped greatly. It is amazing how much better it feels to see carpet (without having to look through toys) and counter tops, etc... Thanks so much Caron!

This evening, Rebekah threw up once again. This time while in Mom's arms. That was a mess! She seems to be doing ok now other than being a bit restless - tossing and turning as she is sleeping on the couch at the moment.