We got home last night after a long day. Analise needed her chest port butterfly needle changed out. She wasn’t too happy with the one she had and let us know it.
Anyway, we’re home and I’m logged in to catch up on some work email. Be back later with updates!
Something I found today…. http://www.brain-surgery.com/chtum2.html
Chemotherapy:- Unfortunately, chemotherapy is the hard part of brain tumor treatment. It is only required for the more aggressive tumors. As a rule, chemotherapy should be even more aggressive than the tumor itself. The trials which are imposed both on the child and parents are legion. Bravery and an unremitting attitude of hope are required by all involved.
Archive for December, 2008
12.31.08… home last night
12.30.08…counts are up and will be going home
Ana’s wbc are up from when we arrived and her platelet counts are ok. They redraw at 2pm. Since wbc are regenerating that gives us the go-ahead for home. We may stay longer today for a platelet transfusion should the 2pm draw shows a drop, but we’ll be going home today regardless.
Thank you to everyone for their support through prayers, phone calls, text messages, and emails.
For those who have or plan to donate to Analise’s benefit account THANK YOU. There is an account setup at First Midwest bank under Analise Jordan Deanching Benefit. This account is associated with a tax id#, 26-3857267.
For those who bank at Chase or live outside of First Midwest bank branch locations, we will be setting up an account with Chase using the same tax id#. I will provide more details after the account is established.
Have a good day and God Bless.
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12.29.08…fever down
Thankfully, Analise’s fever has gone down, but now they are just observing her and checking out her blood count.
We learned to have her use tylenol with codeine so that Analise’s discomfort from the chemo can be lessened. Especially in the evening so that she’ll get better sleep.
Not much else but ran a few errands and made some phone calls today. Melissa’s parents and my parents dropped by to visit Analise this afternoon.
Probably the most frustrating thing for Analise is that she cannot go take rides in her stroller around the floor. She could, but she’d need to wear a surgical mask, which wouldn’t last 5min on her.
Thank you to Leticia and Bruce, our neighbors, for their kind words. Along with their son, Zach, they are a nice family and friendly and helpful neighbors, as all of our neighbors have been since we moved in 2yrs ago.
Well, gotta make this short, b/c I have to log in and join a few conference calls for work. Good night and God Bless.
12.28.08…Fever=ER visit and admittance
Well, last night was long. Melissa and her father were still recovering from their battles with the flu virus. Melissa’s mom, kept Sophia occupied until she feel asleep. I kept the monitor on in Ana’s room while I tried to sleep in the family room. Every so often Ana would cry or yell in her sleep, I’d jump up and end up seeing melissa’s mom at Ana’s door about to check her. Most of the time Ana would be looking for her bottle or needed a new diaper. This went on nearly every 1-1.5hrs. At one point I was so asleep, melissa was calling me out from our loft to wake up. Another time, I had repositioned her bottle into her hands and walked to the bathroom. Just as I was going, sure enough, Ana belted out a cry or scream.
Around 445am, melissa woke up and brought Ana to the family room to calm down and watch tv. Sometime around an hour later, I brought Ana back to bed and slept in the twin bed next to her. I want to avoid this, b/c I would probably keep her up with my snoring. Luckily, she was either really tired or I muffled my snoring enough for her to sleep.Today, Sop had a little tantrum while Analise was mostly being herself. Melissa’s mom took Sop over to Carrie’s for a sleepover.
Big thank you to Carrie and Jeff for their help with Sophia. They have been so nice to help watch and occupy Sophia’s attention.
Most of this day was uneventful, besides watching the Bears lose and not make the playoffs. Ana had her moments of crying or yelling or being restless. We noticed thrush in her mouth and started treating it with nystatin. By 8pm, we had taken normal temps via Ana’s ear several times already. She had been waking up, restless and crying, so we took her temp. She was at 101.something, so melissa and I scrambled to get our stuff together and page the oncologists. The answering service was slow to pickup and also took my mobile # wrong. Evidently, my 5′s sound like 1′s to this operator. Nearly, 15min later and a few miles from Hope/ER, I updated the answering service and the dr finally got ahold of us.
Let me say that nothing tests your will like taking care of your sick child. While I appreciate everyone saying melissa and I are strong, the fact is, for me, I’m just scared. No bravery here. A lot of wishful thinking, praying, and some denial mixed in. I’m not the model Catholic, but I’m working on it.Tonight we held ana down while 2 nurses accessed her port for cbc test samples. They got in ok but then had to fiddle with it to flush it well. They had to remove the dressing to get it flowing properly. Ana was unhappy as u can imagine and she was squirming and screaming ‘mommy’ the whole time. Endure this a few times and this will break you down. Absolute torture.
Thankfully Dawn and Kristin, nurses from the 4th floor did a great job.
We’re back on the 4th floor and in another positive pressure room. This type of room requires entry into a small room to wash hands and gown up prior to room entry. These are a little bigger than the regular rooms.We went through the routine patient background questioning (interrogation, if you ask me). And spoke with some residents and our nurse.
Ok, it’s late and I’m sure that I’ve babbled my share….
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12.27.08… flu virus!
It appears as the flu/virus that Melissa’s mom had a few days ago, has moved to it’s way to Melissa and her dad. Melissa’s mom is back to normal, after that virus held it’s ground for nearly 36hrs. Today, I must thank my parents and Jeff & Carrie for coming over with food and help throughout the day. Thanks to Jeff for putting together the girls’ petite house and kitchen etc set.
I must say thank you for the visit from Billy, Carol, and Lori. They came up from NC for the holidays and paid us a visit today. Always nice to see them. We wish them a safe trip back. With this goofy weather, I’d be ready to head back to 60degree North Carolina weather.
Analise was mostly active today. She had a so-so appetite and drank a decent # of bottles of juice today. We’ve quarantined Melissa and her father from everyone else, so hopefully they bounce back tomorrow.
Today’s weather was nuts, b/c we went from -2 degrees on Sunday to 50+ degrees today and showers all night long. I ran down about a half dozen times to make sure the sump pump was working and draining our well. Thank God it was. With as much of the snow melting, it gave way to a lot of flooding all over the Chicagoland area.
Today, Aaronglass (aaronglass.com) came over to replace the windshield on my Honda Accord. I may have cracked it last Monday while trying to clear the sheet of ice covering my car. I got the referral from Matt, who also had it done for his Accord a couple months back. $153 for new windshield, labor, and visit to my house. My neighbor Bill got one replaced at his house today as well by the same guy. We didnt get a discount on giving Aaronglass business on 2 windshields, but I think they dropped the $15 at home service fee.
By the way, we had to replace our 2yr old Bissell ProHeat 2x carpet shampooer. Since I was out, I called Lowe’s and they were selling it for $199 while Circuit City had it for $249. So I went to Walmart and bought it for $188. After I got home, I checked online to see if there were post-Christmas sales and etc. I went to Lowes.com and for the heck of it, entered my zipcode to see if Lowe’s in New Lenox had it in stock and noticed that the price dropped to $159 ! Well, I went to Lowe’s with a printout of the online price of $159 and to make sure they honored it. What’s weird is that it rang up as $159 before they had to do any price match override, while the display price tag said $199. Seems kind of counterproductive to place the higher price tagged on the floor that what the register would ring it up as.
Anyway, Analise keeps moaning and crying in her crib, so I run back and forth to check her. Each time, her bottle is sitting on the other side of the crib. As soon as I put the bottle in her hands or near her mouth, she’s good to go.
It’s late, may the Bears pull out a win and the Vikings get ran over by the Giants! Bears will take the NFC North….