Friday, January 07, 2005

Dr. Office Visit... and noodles.

<>Went to CHOA yesterday to see Dr. Smith, there is something very comforting about him, when he walks in the room you just feel like it is all going to be OK. We told him that and he said, “thank you for your kind words”. We all had to wear masks before we got into the office since we might still be contagious with the Flu. We definitely didn’t want to get others sick, especially kids that are immuno-compromised, so we all walked in looking like we were prepped and ready, going in to perform a surgery. In the waiting room was cool fish tank with all the Nemo movie fish right down to Peach… well, no Bloat that I saw, but very cool indeed. The walls were filled with professional black and white pictures of patients, most all of them bald, and there families. I think that is what got both Tiffany and I, the pictures, little bald kids, I’m not real used to or comfortable with that yet. I know it is going to be our reality, and when Abby looks more like that those pictures will probably be very comforting to us, but yesterday, to be honest, they were just another thing that woke me up to our new reality.

<>The appointment went pretty well, other than the rush hour traffic on the way home. Abby got another blood test and they had the results for us in a few minutes, shows you how important these blood counts are to them. The white count is down to 2,600 from the original 77,000 the night that we went in. Hemoglobin is good at around 12 and the platelets, the stuff responsible for clotting the blood is a bit low. She’ll get another transfusion of platelets on Monday before surgery.

<>Dr. Smith was optimistic and said that the counts dropping so quickly is a good sign, shows that she is responding well to treatment. Monday is the key day though, when they test the bone marrow, they will be able to see how much Leukemia is still there. If it is really low, and she has responded well, then the treatment can be less aggressive, thus less side affects.

<>This month we will have to be extra careful about infections and disease for Abby since her counts will be so low. When one part of her white blood count gets below 500 she will be considered neophylitic, (I think that is how you spell it) and that is the most dangerous time. Right now that count is around 1000. Also, she’ll probably start to loose her hair this week, that will be a bit rough, but we’ll love her just the same of course.

Those are the stats. Things seems to be going really good, she is and eating machine and I could write a couple stories about that but lets just leave it at she really likes spaghetti. Breakfast, noon, and night she wants noodles, no sauce just noodles. That’s a side effect of Predinsone, a ramped up metabolism. So noodles she will be eating, only noon and night for now. I’ve got to draw a line somewhere and breakfast I think is going to be that line. It seem like alcohol… “no noodles before noon.” :)

<>
Later

4 comments:

Anonymous said...

Awww...Timmy likes his noodles without sauce, too. So glad to hear that Abby is responding well to treatment! Still praying...

Betsy

Anonymous said...

This reminded me of the sign that was up next to Grandpa Schreiber's chair. Do you remember it when we'd go to visit? It said "God made only so many perfect heads, the rest he covered with hair".

When we were over at Mom and Dad's last weekend, Dad was talking about his beard with John. John wanted to know how it got there and Dad told John that he didn't have hair on his head because it had fallen onto his chin. This created quite a conversation at our house a few days ago when I explained to John that Abby's hair would come out because of the medicine the doctor would give her to make the germs go away. John wanted to know if it was going to go on her chin like Grandpa Karl's. I had to explain to John that Abby's hair was not going to her chin! Love, Julie

Anonymous said...

SCU is praying for all of you on this journey. We feel the pain with you as PAul suggested a true Body should. May this journey be one of healing and growth for all.

united,
Troy

Anonymous said...

Hey Mark,

You are more than welcome to use the Barbers' garage and tools anytime.

Mike and Betsy