We made it home today. I was so excited yesterday to come home. Gabriella felt great, her fever had been gone for over 24 hours and I just knew her counts were up. The one thing we were missing was her appetite. She still had no interest in food or drink until I said "do you want to go home?" That would motivate her for a few bites but really no more.
The last few days in the hospital we have gotten into a morning routine. Gabriella has been sleeping in until after nine so I was getting up between 6:30 and 7:00 and guarding the door. It is amazing how many people feel the need to come in her room when she is sleeping. The most entertaining are the young resident physicians who want so badly to do their "assessment" that they forget that the patient is MY sleeping child. Todays resident was too funny. He came in and I got out bed and stood between him and G. He asked how she was doing, I told him she was sleeping which was pretty obvious. He kept looking past me with his stethoscope in his hand talking about his assessment and I just stood there blocking his path. Eventually he understood that he was going to have to physically move me to get it done so he just gave up and left.
I monitored G's temperature pretty closely last night and this morning and was horrified when it was 99.8 just before we were going to go home. The discharge papers were in. G was fired up to go home and Mommy and Bridgey were en route. I thought frickin' crap (one of G's new phrases) but when Dr. Marina came in she advised me that she was no longer neutropenic and she will fight of a low grade fever. It still left me quite uneasy but we loaded up the car and home we went.
Kris and I got a little relax time before she loaded up and delivered a cake and then took off for the Mammas Night Out festivities. G and Bridgey spent the evening enjoying each others company, they took a long bath together and played some crazy games with some toys that G got at the hospital. It was so nice for them to be back together again. I can't wait for tomorrow when the four of us can hang out and relax together.
Tuesday G goes in to El Camino for the overnight chemotherapy session that she missed last Wednesday so we are technically not quite a week off schedule. The oncologists are pushing it a little bit because they were able to get her PET scan, CT scan and MRI all scheduled for Friday and they want to make sure that the two do not interfere with each other. I'm assuming that by next week we will know how well the chemo is working and we will sit down with the radiation folks to schedule our 5 1/2 weeks of radiation therapy. After Tuesdays chemotherapy, we will be over 20% done with chemo. Seems like it only just started.
Uncle Ronnie sent me a link to a video that was made by a patient at the Seattle Children's Hospital with some oncology and hematology patient's lip syncing a song called "Stronger"...just click to watch the video.
Grab a box of tissue and enjoy. It is some pretty powerful stuff.
Wish us luck for another hectic and trying week.
Team G
Adam
"But sir, you don't understand... I'm a doctor almost... I need to gather numbers and signs... Must do assessments!! I must! It's my job to disturb my resting patients regularly so they can get better. Hmmm... now that I look at you, I can see you are quite the formidable obstacle. Perhaps it is in my best interest to let you be. I'll be moving on now, thankyouverymuch." ;^)
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