Admitted to the Hospital

Rebekah woke up this morning about 7 and wouldn't go back to sleep. With all of us in the camping trailer, that meant we all had to be getting up. I tried hard not to get up even covering my face in the blankets, but that didn't work for long.

Our appointment was at 10, so we had a while to play and get breakfast (Mommy ate, Rebekah didn't) and get things into the van (to go into the room).

Once they drew blood and got Rebekah's vitals, they started fluids. With this set of chemo drugs, she needs 6 hours of fluids before they can start chemo (and her urine cannot be too concentrated) so the earlier we start fluids the earlier we can potentially start chemo. The earlier we start chemo, the earlier we can go home on Saturday. She has two hours of chemo each day and an additional 9 hours of a bladder protectant (it starts after the first hour of chemo and runs for 10 hours total). They generally try to start day two's chemo 2 hours earlier than day one's started and so on for the 5 days of chemo. Then we have to stay for 24 hours after day 5's chemo started. We started chemo today at 5pm. Tuesday could start at 3, Wednesday at 1, Thursday at 11am and Friday at 9am and we could go home Saturday morning. It won't happen that way, I'm sure, but it would be nice.

Rebekah's counts were really pretty good for her. Better than we've seen in a while. The last round of chemo, without the one drug, was much easier on her than other rounds have been.

We saw Gage and his parents while we were at clinic. They were just coming in as we were getting ready to be admitted. We chatted for a little bit and hoped that we might see them "in-patient", but Gage's counts weren't sufficient to start chemo so they will wait another week. They knew that there was a good possibility that they would need to wait, so it didn't really come as a surprise.

Rebekah has been on the go most of the day. After we checked into our room, we headed over to the cafeteria (where we met up with Daddy) and had some lunch. Rebekah really wouldn't touch anything. Then we headed back toward the room and Rebekah wanted to keep going, so we made some loops around the ward and then headed into the room for a little while. She fell asleep in her wagon and slept for about an hour. As she was snuggling into the wagon, I asked her if she wanted a blanket and she told me no. While she slept, I brought stuff up from the van (most of it anyway). She woke up really crabby. We got a fresh diaper and then headed out of the room some more.

She saw Melissa of Child Life who pulled her around in the wagon and took her into the classroom where she helped her to color (until she started being loud and disturbing the other students). She walked for a while with Janine (Physical Therapist) pulling a car on a string that made music and flashed lights when it rolls along. She drew some pictures with Kristina (Art Therapist) and played with some clay. Grandma C stopped by while we were at clinic and brought Rebekah a book and read it to her and played for a while. She wanted Daddy to read it to her later and Kristina too.

This evening, a group of volunteers came with games, toys and remote control cars. They brought some puppets for Rebekah to play with - all of which make noise. She had fun with them. Then she got to drive the car (she wasn't so thrilled about that), but she did like watching the cars go a little later.

Rebekah made a new friend - Stephanie. Stephanie had back surgery this morning and has to lie flat until tomorrow, so she couldn't go anywhere. Her mom was standing outside her room this evening and Rebekah waved to her and she waved back. We stopped by the door and Rebekah waved to Stephanie and then had to go in to visit with her. Rebekah really liked playing with Stephanie's balloon and her singing piggie and the "Get Well Soon" bear that has his arm in a sling. Stephanie seemed to enjoy the company, despite the age difference (Stephanie is a teenager). Rebekah was doing a lot of talking and making her desires known. She noted that Stephanie had a pole and her tubes were getting drinks. She wanted to hold Stephanie's hand. She was being the social butterfly.

This evening, as we were strolling around, she saw nurse Katie behind the nurses station and was calling her name. It wasn't perfect, but we could tell that she was saying "Katie Katie Katie Katie". It was neat to see her calling for Katie and saying her name without being prompted to say the name.

About 9:30 this evening, we came back to the room for bed. Rebekah brushed her teeth, we changed her into jammies and got a fresh clean diaper on and layed in bed. She really wasn't too interested in going to sleep, although she was pretty mellow. About 10:30, I turned the lights out and she seemed to fall asleep. Then, at about 11:30, she started coughing and screaming.

I shut her nutrition off, checked with Megan (her nurse) to get her some morphine and to see where her claritin was and tried to do what I could to calm her down so that she wouldn't start throwing up. It didn't work. She threw up all over the bed and she would not cooperate with me. She kept trying to lay down and I kept sitting her up. When she lays down, she often pukes straight up which makes a royal mess! Once things settled down, I got her cleaned up a bit and snuggled into my arms in the chair so that Megan could remake the bed.

She is back to sleep now and we just started her nutrition up again at a slower rate. She has been throwing up a fair amount while getting chemo (at least for the last several chemo's) and we go home with her throwing up. It will get better, it just takes time. It is tough to see her knocked down like this and not feeling well, but she does seem to bounce back from it.