Feb 27, 2016 (Sara)

Lincoln is working on a few new teeth so sleep might not be on my books tonight. I thought I’d Update.

So we (well Maya) had lab draw this morning. It was rough on Maya only because of the suspense. She hasn’t had a pokey for a while now that she has her Buddha button but her port can only be accessed at the clinic and not at Lab Corp. The phlebotomist was kind to take his time to ensure he only needed one poke but…this meant more time. The pokey butterfly was endured and she quit crying the second she got stuck. He was impressed.

We got good news from the clinic. WBC increased a little to 0.4- I was a little confused since we were told to anticipate seeing “0” WBC but the RN said this number will probably drop again this week since she just got vincristine on Tuesday. Also, since she didn’t get blood assessed yesterday…she might have been 0 and we didn’t know it. Her platelets dropped to 35 but no need for transfusion yet. ANC is 52 (again this is the number we need to be above 500 for her to fight any type of infection). When she was admitted, her ANC was 250. Sigh….The good news is her Hemoglobin (Hgb) increased to 10.3!!!! This is fantastic actually since she was 8.9 on Wed. At our discharge meeting The Hematologist said we’d likely start to see a little “blood recovery” after two weeks of chemo initiation. It hasn’t even been two weeks and the RN I spoke with today was really impressed that her Hgb increased with out a blood transfusion! As Scotty journaled, she isn’t feeling very good but…I guess we cant expect that yet.

Appetite continues to be ravenous but starting to expand to her more usual repertoire, she requested the left over artichokes from dinner last night. Not new weight- I think I will check her tomorrow. We are pushing fluids and I was so distracted about the blood counts that I forgot to ask about her phosphorus level and renal function…I guess that is why clinicians shouldn’t care for their family.

I stopped by work today. Had to finish up some things. It felt good to connect with some of my colleagues. Thank you for listening, crying with me, consoling me, believing in me, and distracting me. I am so blessed in so many many ways but one of my many blessings is NEIS. I have the best job and the best work family. Maya loves the gifts and I love the support. Love is life. Goodnight.