We have had a lot going on in the last few days, so I’m hoping to get it all sorted out in my head here!
Jumping on Daddy.....
Yolanda was up here last Tuesday, it was nice to have her here but we were (secretly) a bit relieved to see her go back to Grandma and Grandpas house yesterday. Things got so busy here with Charlotte back and forth to the hospital that Yolanda got a little antsy. But we had a lot of fun this past week though, did tonnes of crafts and painting in the RMcD House craft room. What a sweetheart she has been, trying to be so helpful. The girls have had so much fun just being together, there is an awesome huge playroom here. Yolanda and I had a really nice outing on Sunday. Someone had donated two Stars on Ice tickets to the house that were passed on to us. It was an amazing show, it took me a song or two to collect myself once the lights went down... the craziness of this all just sort of swept over. Yolanda loved all the “princesses” skating around and she named them all according to the colour of their dresses. Thank you to whoever donated those tickets!
As far as Charlottes medical stuff goes... We were told that days 7-14 of her chemo cycle would be the toughest on her and her immune system. Day 7 was May 6th we took a look at her tearing around with her sister and thought “Wow! If this is her low point we can definitely handle this.” Unfortunately it went downhill from there. Every other day we were to come into the clinic for a blood test so we could check her levels, they went down as predicted... then a little lower than they like to see. She had a blood transfusion that while long and boring was wonderfully uneventful. Luckily Yolanda was out with her Oma and Opa in Bragg Creek that day because of a scare the night before. (Rob thought he had come down with a cold and because Charlotte had an immunity of zero we are pretty paranoid. So we thought it would be best for him to be away for a day or two at least until we were sure if he was sick or not. He dropped Yolanda off so that I would only have Charlotte to worry about.) Luckily the next morning Rob felt better so he was there for our long day in the clinic! It was amazing to see how much she perked up with some blood in her, the colour came back to her cheeks and she was cherry again. Anyways the next blood test showed that her platelets were too low, so a platelet transfusion was ordered. Whenever transfusions take place there is the possibility for her body to react negatively, every single time she gets blood from other donors it’s a bit of a risk.
The night of her platelet transfusion she had a really weird fever-temperature thing going on. We thought it was maybe the thermometer, or a reaction to the platelets. We would take a reading that said 37.4, then two min later it said 38.1, then back to 37something, then up again. This went on and on. We are supposed to come in if she reads over 38 for an hour, or 38.3 come in right away. So we called the doctor on call (it was like 9:30pm) and he said to come in just to check. They checked her out 37.6, 37.8, 37.5 monitored her for an hour and thought she seemed ok. They were about to send her home. Rob (for those of you who don’t know him) likes to fiddle with things... like thermometers for instance. He kept checking her out too, playing around with their fancy thermometer, and noticed that one side of her head always read hotter than the other side. The nurse always took the temperature on her left side which gave a nice reading, by the time rob pointed it out her right side was reading 38.9! This caused quite the alarm... and still days later no one we have talked to has ever seen this big of a gap. Anyways Charlotte was admitted and given antibiotics right away. Her blood cultures have not found anything specifically wrong that would cause the fever, but it seems to have gone away. Either the antibiotics did the trick or it went away on its own. It was a bit of a mystery fever bouncing around, not really showing anything else.
Guess what we figured out yesterday: Charlottes teething! Oh goody, maybe it was just that all along.
Jumping on Daddy.....
Yolanda was up here last Tuesday, it was nice to have her here but we were (secretly) a bit relieved to see her go back to Grandma and Grandpas house yesterday. Things got so busy here with Charlotte back and forth to the hospital that Yolanda got a little antsy. But we had a lot of fun this past week though, did tonnes of crafts and painting in the RMcD House craft room. What a sweetheart she has been, trying to be so helpful. The girls have had so much fun just being together, there is an awesome huge playroom here. Yolanda and I had a really nice outing on Sunday. Someone had donated two Stars on Ice tickets to the house that were passed on to us. It was an amazing show, it took me a song or two to collect myself once the lights went down... the craziness of this all just sort of swept over. Yolanda loved all the “princesses” skating around and she named them all according to the colour of their dresses. Thank you to whoever donated those tickets!
As far as Charlottes medical stuff goes... We were told that days 7-14 of her chemo cycle would be the toughest on her and her immune system. Day 7 was May 6th we took a look at her tearing around with her sister and thought “Wow! If this is her low point we can definitely handle this.” Unfortunately it went downhill from there. Every other day we were to come into the clinic for a blood test so we could check her levels, they went down as predicted... then a little lower than they like to see. She had a blood transfusion that while long and boring was wonderfully uneventful. Luckily Yolanda was out with her Oma and Opa in Bragg Creek that day because of a scare the night before. (Rob thought he had come down with a cold and because Charlotte had an immunity of zero we are pretty paranoid. So we thought it would be best for him to be away for a day or two at least until we were sure if he was sick or not. He dropped Yolanda off so that I would only have Charlotte to worry about.) Luckily the next morning Rob felt better so he was there for our long day in the clinic! It was amazing to see how much she perked up with some blood in her, the colour came back to her cheeks and she was cherry again. Anyways the next blood test showed that her platelets were too low, so a platelet transfusion was ordered. Whenever transfusions take place there is the possibility for her body to react negatively, every single time she gets blood from other donors it’s a bit of a risk.
The night of her platelet transfusion she had a really weird fever-temperature thing going on. We thought it was maybe the thermometer, or a reaction to the platelets. We would take a reading that said 37.4, then two min later it said 38.1, then back to 37something, then up again. This went on and on. We are supposed to come in if she reads over 38 for an hour, or 38.3 come in right away. So we called the doctor on call (it was like 9:30pm) and he said to come in just to check. They checked her out 37.6, 37.8, 37.5 monitored her for an hour and thought she seemed ok. They were about to send her home. Rob (for those of you who don’t know him) likes to fiddle with things... like thermometers for instance. He kept checking her out too, playing around with their fancy thermometer, and noticed that one side of her head always read hotter than the other side. The nurse always took the temperature on her left side which gave a nice reading, by the time rob pointed it out her right side was reading 38.9! This caused quite the alarm... and still days later no one we have talked to has ever seen this big of a gap. Anyways Charlotte was admitted and given antibiotics right away. Her blood cultures have not found anything specifically wrong that would cause the fever, but it seems to have gone away. Either the antibiotics did the trick or it went away on its own. It was a bit of a mystery fever bouncing around, not really showing anything else.
Guess what we figured out yesterday: Charlottes teething! Oh goody, maybe it was just that all along.
Trying to encourage her to eat something! I guess chemo changes how things taste (besides making her nauseous) all she wanted to eat was dill pickle chips for two days.
You two young parents are amazing. I am giving thanks for your courage and your practical common sense.. One day you will look back at this time in your lives and see how our Lord was sustaining you...
ReplyDeleteSo many many people are still praying for sweet Charlotte, and Yolanda, and each of you...
We are especially praying today as she has her "harvest" happening...
Hold on to each other and to your faith...This too will pass....