Friday, March 09, 2007

One More Night

Well it looks like Abby will be staying yet another night in the hospital, this will be her 4th night there. Tiffany took the shift last night and I came home with the girls. Tiffany's mom came back in to help and she arrived last evening. That let me catch up on some stuff this morning at a coffee shop while Vicky watched the girls. She is actually going to stay down with Abby tonight and let Tiffany come home. That will be nice because I haven't seen Tiffany much since this whole thing started.

Abby seems to be doing better today but the cough is worse, probably all that sitting in the bed. They are going to start her on some nebulizer treatments to help clear out her lungs. Dr. Pashley stopped in this morning and checked in on Abby and said her nose was looking really good, he's the one that did the sinus surgery. Dr. Smith also stopped by and checked her out. Since her fever is still bouncing around in 99-101 range and her cough is worse he wants her to stay another day for now. I never got a CBC result to see what her immunity is but I'm sure it's still pretty low.

So that's the scoop. I'll update more when I get a chance. But for now... a nap.

Mark

Thursday, March 08, 2007

The Uncomfortable Bed

Well, I'm sitting here in this same uncomfortable bed that I remember so well from the first time we were here. This time I was smart though and I brought a nice cushy sleeping bag for to pad the bar in the bed that gets you right under the ribs, still though it's not the most comfortable thing I've ever slept in. Still I think for the price of this room per night they could have a more comfortable bed, I mean I only pay $100 plus for a really nice B&B during the off season and it comes with breakfast too! Oh well, I guess we're paying for them to wake us up all night long instead, they're doing a good job in that area. :)

Abby's doing ok. Here fever stayed down in the 99-100.5 range today with and without the help of Tylenol. Tonight when they checked it it had bounced up to 102.6 again so they gave her some Tylenol to bring it down. It seems like when her fever is high, her cough get worse too. They put her on droplet precaution and now anyone that enters has to wear a mask... except me because I'm impervious to everything but kryptonite... actually, I think sardines is my kryptonite but I digress.

So, back to Abby. Right now her stuffed poodle is visiting with the red light on her toe (the pulse/ox). So, either she is delusional or just feeling better. Oh no, I think the poodle is using the Kleenex box as a potty. Maybe I'm delusional! ...I think she's feeling better, yep, 99 degrees now.

Anyway, I'm off to bed myself now. Hope you don't mind a late posted blog because I'll have to post this in the morning.

Tuesday, March 06, 2007

Spent.

After 3 months of chemo coupled with colds, infections, surgeries, procedures, trips to Denver and a multitudes of medications I am now spent! Abby was up 4-5 times last night, Lily was also crying about as many times (she's teething). Abby's cough is worse again and she isn't sleeping or eating very well.

Usually I can brush it off, get through it and find the positive side of the issue in the moment but not this time. I think Abby sums it up best when she said to me last night, "I don't think this cough will never go away!" or "I didn't sleep at all last night!" in her little sad and frustrated tone. Really breaks my heart.

Anyway, that's how it is. Tiffany took the family down to Denver again today to get Abby checked out. Her ANC was at 0 and her total white count was only at 300. They checked her out, talked it over and since she sounded ok in the lungs they let her come home.

I came home early and walked into the house to the sound of Abby screaming and crying. I held her and tried to figure out what was wrong through her crys. It is really hard to not be able to do anything about all of this, really hard. She had a fever again so Tiffany called CHOA and they decided that we should get Abby admitted to the hospital again. Tiffany took her this time and when she got down to the hospital Abby's fever was up to 103. The staff did all the usually neutropenic fever stuff, cultured the blood, gave her a stiff shot some mega antibiotic and got her started on fluids.

It's 9PM now and things sound like they have started to settle down. Abby's cough is still keeping her away and hurts her to cough. Her fever has come down a good amount and now hopefully she can sleep. They did a chest X-Ray and we should no the results of that tomorrow.

Tiffany said that they are in the same room that Abby was in when she first got diagnosed... kind of weird. Tiffany commented on how things seemed to have come full circle. Indeed they have. My hope is that they can figure this thing out and kick this bug that she has. My hope is that Abby will feel better.

My last hope is that this truly has come full circle and that the bed that Abby now sleeps in tonight, the same bed that she was diagnosed in over 2 years ago, will the last hospital bed that she will have to sleep in for a very long time.

Ahhh, I can't wait until she feels better. Thanks again for checking in.