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We had to get up this morning and take Benjamin to the doctor for a procedure.  We were afraid he’d be MAD because he couldn’t eat or drink anything since the night before.  He actually did very well…he was not really crabby at all!  He actually was a really good boy the entire time!

While waiting for Benjamin, Brad’s phone rang…it was Dr. Rob’s office.  The blood culture they took on Monday came back positive which means Ally has an infection of some sort.  They needed us to bring Allyson in to begin the IV infusion of antibiotics and possibly another platelet transfusion.  - Allyson was at home with Brad’s parents, so we called and asked them to bring Ally up to the Cancer Center when Benjamin was finished.  Luckily, we were right across the street.  — Dr. Rob said that there is a potential for Allyson to have an infection in her port.  That would mean she would have to have surgery to remove the one she has and replace it with a new one.  We are hoping that is not the case.  - To treat her, we have to do an IV infusion of antibiotics through her port three times a day for ten days.  This means she has to be accessed for the next ten days, at least.  Next weekend, she’s supposed to have a backpack weekend…she might be accessed for nearly two entire weeks.  - For now, we are treating the infection…they are growing a second culture to see what the infection is exactly.  We REALLY want the antibiotics to work…if they don’t,  her port is probably contaminated with growing bacteria. Time will tell…

Benjamin and Allyson did well once we all got home.  We even were able to take them out to swing for a while.

The first infusion we were to do at home was scheduled for 10:00p.m.  We started it (on a small pump)…things were going well, but the alarm sounded nearly ten minutes into the thirty minute treatment.  Mind you, Allyson was asleep until that happened.  She freaked, and I mean freaked!  I had to hold her…hold her down because she was hooked up…until Brad could get in touch with the nurse to see what to do.  We turned the darn thing off to get it to stop beeping, and finally the nurse called.  To make a long story short…Brad ended up having to manually infuse the rest of the the meds over a twenty minute period — our pump was bad.  They are sending out a new one tomorrow before her two o’clock dose.  (This means we have to manually infuse the entire dose tomorrow morning.) — Ahhh…never a dull moment;-).

I was wiped out by the time we were finished.  Hopefully tomorrow will be less eventful!

The numbers game…

I’m glad we changed our appointment from Tuesday to today, and here’s why…We had to be at the doc’s by 9:45.  Nurse Heather drew Ally’s blood and sent it off so we could get her counts.  Dr. Rob popped his head in to say hello and checked Ally’s ears and lungs.  She sounded ok to him, but the fact that she’s still running the slight fever worried him just a little.  He ordered another blood test to be run to check for imflammation/infection.

The counts came back - here are the numbers compared to Friday…Hemoglobin was down from 7.7 to 6.5 - transfusion of blood was necessary.  White blood cell count was 120,000 on Friday, and today it was 14,0o0 - platelet transfusion necessary.  So, Allyson had the platelet transfusion first, and that took two hours.  Once that was finished, she could have the blood transfusion which also took two hours.  The second blood test came back ok, so she’s good for now.  -  All said and done, we didn’t get to leave the office until 3:30.

She left the office with a fever a little over 100.  We are to watch it again and see what happens.  Dr. Rob also said she’d probably need another platelet transfusion by the end of the week.  We’re scheduled to go in on Friday.  If her fever gets any higher, we need to call.

Basically, I get to do what I’ve been doing for the last four days.  I walk around with the thermometer and take her temp every so often because I am afraid it is going to go up and we’ll have to go in.  Please pray that this fever goes away so my compulsion to check her temp goes away as well.

Benjamin had a great day at Tita’s.  He loves to play with his little friends.

Brad’s parents got in this evening.  We are thankful they are here for our busy, busy week.

Lisa, Allyson and Benjamin planned a great day for me today! Allyson and I got to sleep until 9am, that is late for us. Once we were up and moving Lisa cooked a great breakfast. We had potatoes, eggs and bacon. After breakfast the kids brought me my cards and gifts. I got the best gift ever, Lisa had a bound book made that has photos of the kids and I doing all of our favorite things. It is the type of book you would find on a coffee table. It also has a very special dedication at the end that really touched me. After that we all played until I had to leave for my massage, another gift from Lisa. We feed the kids lunch and then put Benjamin down for a nap. During his nap Lisa, Allyson and I played some of Allyson’s favorite games (snails pace, wormy apples, monster game). Benjamin got up at 4 and Allyson had been asking to go the the park. We packed the kids up and headed to the park by our house. Benjamin and Allyson had the best time we climbed all over the place and got some good swinging in. After a quick trip to the store we headed home for dinner. Lisa made her “red gravy” (that is new orleans for pasta sauce) and it was very good. It was a great fathers day!

Tomorrow we have an early appointment to see Dr Bob and Dr Rob to check Allyson’s counts. We are planning on a long day at the office since her counts will probably be so low that see will need a transfusion. On a good note, Nana and Gramps are driving up tomorrow for a week or two and Allyson and Benjamin can not wait.

We have new pictures and movies be sure to check them out.

Until tomorrow…

Ally had  a pretty good night, thankfully.  She woke up wanting a waffle, so Brad made waffles for everyone.  We checked her for fever periodically in the morning.  She held onto the low-grade fever all day long.  It never did get high enough to call the doc though.  She wasn’t really herself most of the day though.  I imagine that is because her counts are continuing to go down.  I am glad we moved the appointment to Monday instead of Tuesday.  I think I’d be worried all day Monday if we hadn’t…

Mary, a friend from Kids’ Docs, came over late afternoon with her son and another little boy.  Well, neither of them are little - her son is 15 and the other boy is 9 years old.  Benjamin had a great time playing with these boys.  He’s never really been around older boys like that to see how they interact with each other.  At first, he just sort of watched them in awe, but them he had a great time playing with them.  They dumped all the Lego block out (and I mean all of them) onto the floor and build things on our Lego table.   Benjamin did really well…he even built quite a tower out of the smaller Lego blocks all by himself.

Allyson is becoming more independent.  She likes to dress herself now.  She does a really good job too, I must say.  The only thing she has trouble with is getting her shorts over her rear end in the back.  Those short arms can barely reach back there and get them to pull them up.  She’s wanting to do so much more on her own and loves to declare that she’s done it “all by myself!”.

Here’s hoping for another good night…Fever, fever, go away!

Allyson had a good night, and she slept well.  We went to the doctor for our chemo visit.  She did really well this time.  She hardly fussed at all.  Dr. Bob came in to look at her…she checked out A-OK.  They did blood work to check her numbers.   They are down, but not to transfusion stage yet.  Her hemoglobin is the one that has dropped the most.  We are reaching critical stage, but we’re not there yet.  He advised us to watch her over the weekend and change our appointment from Tuesday to Monday morning.  I of course did so.  I am sure we’ll be there for a while as she’ll more than likely get a blood transfusion.  That makes for a long day…by the time the counts are back, they order the blood and it gets to the office, she’s tranfused, we’ll be there probably five hours.  Thankfully it is “Munchie Monday” at the office…volunteers bring in some sort of lunch and tons of snacks (usually lots of homemade cookies and cupcakes).  We’ll go armed with lots of DVD’s…

Today is a banner day in the history of Benjamin.  He didn’t fuss because he didn’t get his way - not even once - after I picked him up today.  He really only fussed when it was time to go to bed…he was tired.  YIPPIE!   That made for such a pleasant evening.  We all played and played and played.  He’s discovered the Doodle Pro and LOVES to draw on it.  He played with that (and of course his baseball) all night.

Allyson popped another fever this evening.  It never did get to 100.7, which is the magic number she has to reach before we call the office.   We do NOT want to go to the ER!