Category: Uncategorized

Settling back in

Well it looks like we will be here for a few days. Serenity’s fever came back last night (103 degrees) and Tylenol isn’t having much of an impact on it. She alternates between feeling energetic and cheerful and being lethargic and cross. She spent a long time crying last night because she wants to go home, or at the very least leave the room.

She can’t leave because they are waiting for results to come back on her C diff test. I believe she was tested a week and a half ago and it came back negative, so I don’t expect that she has it but until the results are back we are quarantined & the doctors and nurses put on masks and gowns to come in and check on her. We’re in the Immune Compromised ward so the room is already cleaned & dusted carefully once a day but because of the possibility of Clostridium difficile our room is also wiped down with bleach at the beginning of every shift change.

She only has 3 days left of chemo in this phase of Delayed Intensification but according to the doctors her ANC will likely plummet more & so she needs to be here until she’s gone about 48 hours without a fever.

Back in hospital

After spending 2 weeks in the hospital with Taran (a story for another time), we are back in the hospital with Serenity.

On Thursday Serenity’s ANC & hematocrit were low at our clinic appointment, & she received a transfusion. Yesterday morning she was fine but by night time she had a fever of 101.8 & the doctor on call told us to bring her in to be admitted. By the time we got settled in she was covered in little red bumps & complaining that her mouth hurt.

They drew blood for labs and started cultures on her blood & urine last night, and also started her on Zosin, an antibiotic. This morning she woke up feeling much better & her rash is receding. It is still quite prominent in her diaper area which concerns me, but hopefully we will soon know what caused it.

If she is dealing with a virus rather than a bacterial infection, and continues to make progress we could go home as early as tomorrow.

Clinic Visit

We took the twins in for shots today and to get Taran’s blood redrawn. The poor little kids; they were not very happy at all. It was really sad to see. After the doctor’s visit we dropped them off at Phil’s mom’s house and took Serenity up to Primary Children’s.
It […]

We took the twins in for shots today and to get Taran’s blood redrawn. The poor little kids; they were not very happy at all. It was really sad to see. After the doctor’s visit we dropped them off at Phil’s mom’s house and took Serenity up to Primary Children’s.

It was really crowded today and we waited awhile to get seen. She weighed 12.2 kilos but I’m afraid I haven’t noticed what she was before, so I don’t know whether she gained or lost. There was a mom in the waiting room who came back after her son weighed in and announced, “He lost weight again.” Several of us gave her this look of understanding and a few said they were sorry. I thought again how odd it is to be a part of the cancer club, to know the worry and fears behind that sentence.

Because it was so crowded there wasn’t a room for us at first so we went back to the infusion suite and Serenity got her port accessed. She wasn’t happy about it but it went quickly. When her labs came back ok we headed down to the Rapid Treatment Unit for the lumbar puncture. Serenity had been fasting all morning in preparation for it and she was starting to get a little fussy. (It was 1:00 p.m. by now.) Things went smoothly with her procedure, they gave her intrathecal methotrexate and when she woke up she ate a few crackers and then we went back upstairs to the oncology unit.

Some friends of ours were inpatient again with their 4 year old, so we stopped briefly to say hi to him then went back to the infusion suite for Serenity’s chemo. Her IV methotrexate was increased to 250 (mg squared, I think?) and she also got vincristine. The doctor we saw said she is doing really well with the high doses of chemo. She’s had a few minor side effects but nothing like we could be seeing.

On the way home she slept in the car and was a little bit fussy. She complained that her tummy hurt but they had given her some anti-nausea medication at the clinic so it must have been helping. At home she took a long nap, refused dinner, and fell back asleep quickly. She feels really warm to me but her temp was only 99 degrees so I’ll just keep an eye on it. She has been dozing fitfully but overall is doing pretty well.

TODAY is the blood drive!

Be a Hero, Save a Life, Donate Blood!
This is a reminder about the National Bloggers Blood Drive today. If you’re in Utah please come join us at Twelve Horses in Draper any time from 3 – 8 pm today. There will be movies, games, snacks and a couple prize drawings, not to mention […]

Be a Hero, Save a Life, Donate Blood!

This is a reminder about the National Bloggers Blood Drive today. If you’re in Utah please come join us at Twelve Horses in Draper any time from 3 – 8 pm today. There will be movies, games, snacks and a couple prize drawings, not to mention you will be hanging out with lots of cool people!

Twelve Horses is located at 13961 South Minuteman Drive, Suite 125 in Draper. Take the Bangerter exit off I-15, head east and turn south on MinuteMan Drive, the building is on the east side.