Tuesday, August 31, 2010

Trip to the Hospital and Admission to Unit 1

Monday morning Mom went and did her dry run on the bus.  Just to be really different Ryley wanted to go with her and Karlee was fine with staying home with Dad.  Of course since Dad was working staying home with Dad entailed laying on the couch and watching TV.  Just before Mom and Ryley got home Dad decided to take Karlee's temperature and it was getting a little high.  After a couple more readings and a call to the oncology clinic they decided they wanted Karlee to come in as soon as possible.


We threw a few things together and Mom grabbed the bag we keep packed and they were off.  This meant a day of watching TV and playing around the house for Ryley.  He did really good; watched some TV, then a movie and played around a little.  Around 2pm Mom phoned and told Dad that Ryley was supposed to have a sleepover.  Dad was a little surprised as no one had told him anything about a sleepover.  Fortunately everything worked out great as Viviana was willing to take Ryley around 3 and Dad could head up to the hospital for the evening.


Once Karlee got to the clinic her temperature seemed to come down to under 38 so that wasn't a concern, but she was very lethargic and bloated.  Her stomach was very sore and distended so they wanted to keep her around for observation.  Around 4:30 they finally moved us over to the unit and got her a room.  It was a pretty quiet night as Karlee really didn't want to do anything but lay there and have her tummy rubbed.


Tuesday morning the doctors were going to let Karlee head home after she got her chemotherapy. Unfortunately the chemo kept getting pushed back later and later.  Mom was convinced that they would be out of there by 11am.  Dad was going to drive up and get them at 11, but when he talked to Mom they still hadn't given the chemo at 11, so he waited a little while before going up.  


By the time Dad got up there her energy level had dropped again and her temperature was slowly creeping back up to the edge of the fever zone.  We convinced her to go down to the Edward Sunshine room (play room) for group time, but all she wanted to do was sit with Mom.  At least we all got out of the room for a little while and could visit with other parents, patients and the child life people.  We finally got the chemo into her, but the doctor needed to take a look at her before we could get discharged.  As the doctor was taking a look at her she finally hit a fever at 38.4.  The doctor (not our regular doctor, but another Fellow), heard a little crackling in her right lung and wanted some blood tests, a urine test and an x-ray.


We quickly got all the tests done and then Grandma showed up with some stuff for Mom and Karlee to get them through the night.  Grandma spelled us off for a while so we could go get some supper.  As we were returning from eating the doctor talked to us in the hall.  The urine and blood tests came back normal.  There was some minor irritation on her right lung, but it didn't look bad enough to be pneumonia.    He wanted to put her on some IV antibiotics over night and see how she responded.  If everything goes the way he thinks it will he is going to discharge Karlee tomorrow with some oral antibiotics.


Dad headed home about 6:30 to pickup Ryley and get him into bed at a reasonable hour.  He had a really good time at the sleepover and him and Alex played together well (for the most part).  Once he got home he wanted to watch a little TV, then he had his bath and a couple snacks and was into bed at a reasonable hour.  We had a message from Ryley's teacher this year.  So far she sounds really nice on the phone.  He is very excited to start school again, and hopefully that will help us with a little structure to our days.


We would like to again thank everyone for their prayers, good wishes and all the help we have been given.  We really are blessed to have such wonderful people in our lives.


Love
Ron, Jennifer, Ryley and Karlee



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