September 6th - Week 25

We are starting our next cycle of chemo:  4 weeks on 2 weeks off.  I think I mentioned after her last visit, I sure hope Kayla can stay on track this month, because I will most likely have the baby sometime during her 2 off weeks, which would be great timing! 

Kayla (and pretty much all of us) has been fighting  a cold, but luckily, it has not really gotten bad and she is getting over it.  I was a little worried that it might affect her treatment, but we met with Marnie and she told us that they will sometimes hold off treatment for illness, but not usually for colds.  Kayla has had a little bit of a sore throat and has been coughing a little and sneezing a little.  Nothing too bad, but every time she coughs or sneezes or complains of a sore throat it starts to stress me out!  The biggest concern for her is if she has a fever, which she hasn't.  Knock on wood. 

So, Thursday's treatment was a pretty normal day.  We left at 7:30AM, right after Nathan and Lily got on the bus for school, Kayla and I headed out.  Benson was still sleeping, so Bryson took him to another great friend's house to play for the day after he woke up and had breakfast.  That is very helpful to me on days when we have to be there early.  

Kayla did great with getting accessed and doing all of the check in stuff.  Although, I still can't get her to stand on the scale alone.  I have to get weighed holding her, and then get weighed alone so we can figure out her weight.  When we can get past that, it will be a huge milestone.  I was hoping we could be past it by now though, because it's getting harder to pick her up with my 8 month pregnant self.  

As I mentioned earlier, we met with Marnie, the nurse practioner.  I told her how I had met with Dr. Hanson and talked to him about physical therapy and that he was going to check into it.  Marnie did say, but could not guarantee anything, that a possibility would be to have a physical therapist from St. Luke's come over and do therapy with her while we are there at the clinic for treatment.  Now, that is something I could handle!    Get two things done at once.  That would be an ideal situation, but I don't know how likely it is to happen. 

We had a good day in the chemo suite. . . Kayla and I played the fishing game and then Rummikub until Miss Stephanie walked in and then Kayla was totally done with our game and ready for music time.   

The clowns came to visit and put another Nemo sticker on her IV bag, but I didn't take a picture of that this time.  They also gave her a pretty bracelet and a beanie baby.

It was such a nice cool day that we went outside to eat lunch on the patio area.

So, we played games, had music time, ate lunch, did some preschool stuff, took some walks around the hallways and then did a little craft project for Miss Jenn.  She had the kids write their names on a piece of paper and then glue little torn scraps of paper to their name.  We worked on this right at the end of the day and Kayla was getting pretty tired by then, so I helped her finish and she wouldn't look up and smile for a picture.

Another special thing she got was this beautiful quilt.  I guess September is Childhood Cancer Awareness month and each September the Craft Warehouse donates quilts to all of the kids here at MSTI (Mountain States Tumor Institute).  They were hanging on the walls all around the hallway, so we walked around and Kayla picked one she liked to take home.  She loves it.

She especially loves the back of the quilt. :)

And that was pretty much our day.  We were home by about 2:30PM which wasn't bad at all.  I am usually pretty tired by the time we get home, even though Thursdays are a break for me compared to every other day. :)

I was very thrilled that Kayla drank her "chocolate milk" (with zofran in it) in less than a 1/2 hour that night.  Yay!  I was less than thrilled when she woke up at 6AM throwing up and I got her a small, very small, cup of "grape juice" and she wouldn't drink any of it.  I was trying to get her to drink something with zofran in it all day long.  She just would not do it.  She even told me that she would rather lie on the couch feeling sick than drink grape juice and feel good.  What?  Crazy girl.  She was throwing up off and on all day and lying on the couch sleeping on and off.  The later in the day it got, the more she started throwing up, which then started to wear on me because I did not want her getting dehydrated and have to take her in to the hospital.  FINALLY, at about 7PM, Bryson was able to get her to drink it.  And she's been fine ever since.  Stubborn girl . ;)