Tests and Procedures and Shots, Oh My!

Jill did okay last night...had some energy, even, and was playing a little. Our friend Sandra was over for a visit and Jill said she wanted to eat pizza. So Sandra ran out to Pizza Hut and got her one (now, that's service!) and she had a piece and a half. Yay! At 5 in the morning, after being off her Tylenol schedule for a total of only one hour, her fever shot up to 103. The nurse rushed in with Trilisite and as Matt was giving it to her (half asleep and worried), she started gagging....this dropped her oxygen saturation to 92 (it's supposed to be 98-100), but it stayed there for a little bit, so they gave her oxygen and then did a chest xray (no one gives ME a chest xray when I choke on my peas..it's not FAIR...sadistic humor...I'm tired...'splain later). Her fever remains under control with lots of medication and she's doing great, energy wise, all things considered today (it's 12:30 and Matt says she's been playing most of the day, and eating a little).

On the agenda today are:
1) Platelets (3 hour infusion)
2) NG Tube placement to prep her for GI Scan
3) GI Scan
4) CT Scan of her head/sinuses to rule of fungal mass

They also started her on Neupogin (sp?) shots last night. This shot to her thigh (it's a small needle...little stick) should encourage her WBCs to come back quicker. We haven't done this in the past because it gets your ANC (Absolute Neutrophil Count) to 500 only, on average, 3 days sooner, and it has NOT been proven NOT to encourage leukemia cell growth....although it hasn't been proven TO do that, either, so many doctors are on the fence about it. It's also something we will have to give her every day from now on until she gets back up to a normal WBC count (we may have to continue these for up to 4 weeks after we leave the hospital...Matt's making ME do them....why do I always have to be the bad guy???) We felt that with her being so sick and having such a long way to go being immuno-suppressed, it is worth the risk. But we really have no idea what we're doing. Maybe we should've stopped at Round 4 and signed her out AMA. Hedged our bets? I'd hate to see her survive leukemia only to be thrown into a whole other world of organ system failure and transplant. Chemo kills. Everything. Hmmmm....that's a good idea for a shirt......

So, your job is to pray (hope/wish) they don't find anything. I'll keep you posted.

I'm tired because I couldn't sleep last night...don't know why....so I peeled wallpaper off of the girls' bedroom walls from 11:30-6:00 am (it was some very stubborn glue...rrrrrrgh). Slept a bit this morning while my poor neglected 4 year-old was watching Dumbo and various other shows on Noggin (hey, "it's like preschool on tv"...that's their slogan...so I felt much better....I'm sure she learned a lot).