August 2nd - Week 20

Wow! We are now one third of our way through Kayla's chemo. It is kind of exciting, but kind of discouraging. It has been long so far and we still have quite a ways to go.

 Our day started out a little earlier than we have been going lately. But, we made it to the clinic by 8:15AM and got started quickly. I like being one of the first ones there because we are sure to get our normal "spot" in the chemo suite. Kayla did great getting checked in (blood pressure, temperature, weight, height) except I need to work on having her stand on the scale alone. She still insists on me holding her and standing on the scale and then I stand on it alone. The only thing is that she is over 40 pounds now and it's getting harder for me to hold her (because of being pregnant).

 We met with Marnie, the nurse practioner again. We hadn't met with her for a few weeks. She had a nurse with her that we had never met before. Marnie is usually in there alone with us. Well, this nurse was trying a little too hard to be helpful. She would encourage Kayla to take deep breaths when Marnie was listening to her lungs. So, basically, Kayla would not take deep breaths. So, this nurse tried to encourage her more and that made Kayla not do it . . . more.  Marnie moved on to the part where Kayla is supposed to lie down on the examining table. I sat right next to her, but she did not want to lie down. She cried and kicked and screamed and she is a strong little girl. The "helpful" nurse was right in Kayla's face trying to get her to calm down and just lie there so Marnie could feel her stomach. You can imagine how much that helped. I was trying to help, but between the nurse and Marnie constantly trying to talk to her and get her to lie down, nothing was helping. I think Marnie got a little frustrated with her and left the room. She came back with Stephanie, the music therapist, who Kayla really likes. Unfortunately, she was way past calming down by then. I was pretty sure by then that the nurse was the issue here and I told Marnie that. Marnie was able to quickly examine her and then left the room so Kayla could calm down. She was much better when we were alone and I asked her if she didn't like the nurse and she said yes.

 I should have been more forceful and told both Marnie and the nurse to leave for a minute so I could talk to Kayla. There are some things that just don't work for her and forcing her into doing something she doesn't want to is one of them. Next time, if that nurse is there, I will definitely ask her to leave and I think we will be okay.

 When Kayla had calmed down, we went into the chemo suite and the sweet nurses in there were all worried about her and wondered what was wrong and were all ready to spoil her. Once we got Snow White on and I gave her a cookie I had brought, she was good to go for the rest of the day.

 We colored, practiced writing letters of the alphabet, played games, ate lunch, did some music with Stephanie, and basically had a good rest of the day.

That evening, I couldn't get Kayla to drink all of her OJ (with zofran in it). I should be glad that she prefers to drink water over anything else, but it is really hard to hide meds in water! She maybe drank half of her cup. So, at 3AM the next morning, she woke up and threw up. I got her some more OJ with zofran and just asked her to drink what she could. She drank some, but not much. She threw up off and on until noon on Friday. I finally got her to finish off her OJ and she was good for the rest of the day. I am not sure what I am going to do if I can't get her to drink something besides water so I can hide zofran in it. Ugh.