Another Busy One

This morning sister thought it would be fun to see what's happening in the world at 3:30 in the morning. Despite my efforts to convince her nothing at all she wasn't having it. She kept asking for the light or her glasses our would just say, "Oh! Mom!" The nurse took her on a short walk then tried to convince her to go back to sleep, she wasn't buying it. When she started to ask for cereal I decided to admit defeat. We got her some cereal and she fed herself! She hasn't really been motivated to do it herself so she has kindly been letting me feed her. She only ate about half of her cereal before laying down and again announcing "bedtime" and thankfully fell back to sleep. 

In the morning, the real one, when the nurses came in to start their morning stuff she woke up and wasn't happy about it. After all the stuff she dozed off for a little while longer. It wasn't long before she woke up and started asking for cereal. When it's her idea to wake up things tend to go a little smoother for her.

Lab results showed that her WBCs have continued to decrease. I know this is how it's supposed to go. Chemo basically wipes out all the bad, leaving her with very little. It still makes me nervous to know she's got such a low white count. Dr. T promised me that her bone marrow is working quickly to make healthy cells and get them circulating. Her platelets stayed about the same. Her hemoglobin was once again lower so she did have to get a little bit of blood. The doctor didn't want to give her too much or her bone marrow would stop trying so hard to make pretty healthy cells. Despite her low hemoglobin she was still sitting up, watching her show while playing on the iPad and eating cereal. And it also didn't seam to be putting stress on her hard.

Another piece of randomness. When they take her blood pressure using a machine it shows a little on the high side. When they do it manually, the one they tell me I should believe, it's within a normal range. It's weird to me that she has that much power over a machine, which she clearly doesn't like. I think it's her wasps of getting back at all the poking and picking and waking up before she's ready. She's making them work harder.

So, as I mentioned yesterday today was an infusion day. They did it this morning. When they do an infusion it's hooked up to the IV pump and goes directly into her port. Just as everything else does. Except for the meds she takes by mouth. The nurse that hangs it has to wear a gown and double glove. It's serious stuff. Then they have a bag with CHEMO written all over it. Good news is Mary can basically do whatever she wants while it's infusing. We don't go on walks during that time, I haven't ask if we can or note frankly I'd rather not parade her around the hall with a big chemo sign attached. 

After chemo then came the blood. So busy morning! Around noon was when things quieted down, I had felt like my morning disappeared in a flash. Sometimes I can't believe how busy I can be in one small room all day. It's exhausting. The good news is I have been promised a day of sleep once we get home. Can hardly wait.

We had visitors this evening! David and the kids came. For the past number of weeks Fridays have been our pizza and movies night. Ruth suggested we do the same thing. That girl, and the things she thinks of are incredible. (FYI grandmas when we passed a park while driving around she suggested we have a "grandma race, where they walk fast and race." No idea where that came from but good luck with that.) One thing I learned was that apparently all my ability to be patient left me when I walked out the hospital doors. Going to have to work on that.

Mary was asleep when they came so I left right away with the kids while David experience some of my quiet, boring hospital life. I decided that I needed some new yoga pants for all the hospital yoga I do, so a Target run seemed like the only option. Then we ran to Pizza Hut to grab a pizza and get back. 

Mary had been woken up, before she was ready (which annoyed her father greatly) and was having some issues. The fact that I wasn't there didn't really help matters. Apparently she even asked her dad to leave a time or two. They had gotten her settled by the time we got back. But once she saw me and the kids all was right in her world. After pizza we went on a walk. The big kids were thrilled to take her into the play room, even if it didn't last long. When we were headed back Little Miss wanted to go see the elephant picture (the walls have fun pictures of animals and we have to stop and identify just about everyone) which took us down another hall. There was a volunteer who brings his service dog to see the kids in the hospital making his rounds. Mary actually saw them the other day but wasn't that interested. This time though she got closer to her and pet her. The big kids were, of course thrilled. By the time we got back to her room it was time for them to head home. I was able to get her to eat most of her dinner, even if I was feeding her. Around 9 she once again announced bedtime. I'm really starting to wonder if these bedtime announcements will carry on when we get home. It's kind of nice. She usually pats the bed, for me to lay next to her then reminds me to take off my glasses. Sometimes it's sweetness overload, with that girl making it so hard to resist!