Wednesday, August 12, 2009

:::::sigh::::::


What a long day.
We did the usual morning routine and made it to the clinic at 7:30.
They weighed her, took her height, blood pressure and temperature.
Then it was off to the procedure room so that she could get accessed and have her blood drawn.
The counts came back and everything was low.
::::sigh::::
It turned out that she was going to need a red cell transfusion.
So we go back to the infusion room and wait for the nurse to come and give Kayla her AraC and take more blood for a type and cross. (to see what blood type she is)
So we go over to the hospital for her transfusion and spinal tap.
And I do have to say that she was doing very well with not whining about not being able to eat.
Just goes to show that if you actually sit your kid down, look them in the eyes and give it to them straight, they might possibly understand and cooperate.
Anyway they start her blood and she picks out a movie to watch.
"Monster House"......She picks it every time :)
She started getting a little tired.
I was hoping that she would fall asleep (the transfusion was 3 1/2 hours long!)
She didn't fall asleep, but she was such a good girl.
Dr. K comes over and it is spinal tap time.
We do it the "bear hug" way. Which is her sitting on my lap, resting her head on my chest and her arms hanging around my waist.
Lucky for me that in doing the spinal tap this way I have a perfect front row view of the needle in my daughter's spine. I get to watch the spinal fluid drip out into the tubes that the dr. holds. Then he get a syringe of chemo (it looks like pine sol to me) and injects it into her spine. Then that part was done.
They hooked her back up to her blood and we re started Monster House.
Like I have said in previous posts, the medicine that they give her to calm her down and help with the pain make her act strange.
She slurs her speech and asks me what happened and where she is.
Sometimes she gets aggressive and lucky me, today was one of those days.
She fought me when I was trying to wash her hands after she used the restroom, she fought me all the way through the parking lot to the car. I couldn't remember where I had parked the damn car.
Then when we get to the car she starts throwing things out of the door and is yelling at me to get her McDonalds.
We get going in the car and she will not stop whining.
I have figured out a way to soothe the beast........Spice Girls!!!
We listened to "wanna be" about 2 times before she passed out.
She wasn't even awake to eat her happy meal.

Today was long and emotionally draining. Not just for me but for her too :(

4 comments:

Doug said...

We're so proud of you for hanging in there. When you get on the other side of this (and you will) just think what a help you'll be to someone else who has to go through the same thing.

Love,
Grandma & Grandpop

Anonymous said...

Freaky. I think the whole spinal fluid dripping out of the needle tube is freaky! I do NOT like it at all. And it smells weird. Isa gets Versed and Morphine are those the same drugs? I will notice if she gets mean, cuz she is sorta like that sometimes. Maybe you could have them cut her dose down? We did on the morphine and it really helped.

Good Luck those days are TOUGH, and the spice girls too! ouch.

CaseyDeuce said...

I wish that this wasn't a situation that you had to go through, I couldn't imagine watching my daughter or son get a spinal tap. You're so strong and I admire you!

KatBouska said...

You're doing an amazing job with her! I can only imagine how stressful this is for all of you. I'm praying for your baby!!