November 7th - Week 31 and holding. . .

For once we were a little early on our trip to the clinic today - which turned out perfect because right before we got there, I realized I had forgotten a bottle for Sadie. . . so we made a quick stop at WinCo.  At the clinic, Kayla got checked in and accessed, and we met with Marnie.

The next cycle of chemo treatment has been delayed the last few weeks because Kayla's platelet count has been too low.  Well, when the blood counts came back, the platelets were up to 178!  Hooray!  That was a huge jump.

But, her neutrophil count had plummeted to 500.  Neutrophils are the part of your blood that fight off germs and infection.  Kayla's need to be at 1000 in order to do chemo.  So, we are delayed. . . AGAIN.  This is our fourth week in a row.  I guess her body just needs a break.

The scary thing about having her neutrophil count so low is that any kind of infection can come on super fast, and then she'll have to be admitted into the hospital.  Marnie told me that if she gets a fever of 101, or even if she just looks sick and my "mommy radar" is going off, I need to call them and bring Kayla in.  So, just  another little stress in the back of my mind.

Just a little update on other stuff.  Lily's birthday was on Friday, and my parents and sister (and her boyfriend) came to visit for the weekend.  I put them to work on Saturday helping me can my 300 pounds of apples.  We got 80 quarts of applesauce done, but I still have a few more buckets in my garage to get done.

On Sunday, we blessed our sweet little Sadie.  It was a beautiful blessing and we just love her to pieces!

On Monday, which was my birthday, we went to the allergy doctor for Benson (in Meridian. . . 25 minutes away).  He previously got a blood test done at the pediatrician that showed he has multiple food allergies, so his doctor referred us to the allergy clinic.  It was a super long and tiring afternoon there with three kids, Benson screaming each time the doctor came in to tell me very important information (mainly because there was a glass jar full of Dum Dums on the counter.  Why in plain sight?  I don't know, but it caused huge problems for him).  The nurse did the lovely prick test all over his back, which didn't sit well with him either.  In the end we found out that he is allergic to peanuts (and all tree nuts), eggs, milk, wheat, soybeans, cats, and dust mites.  I learned how to use an epipen and we now have to have one for Benson at all times, they gave me another breathing thing that I think I know how to use (picture screaming Benson during instruction).  The doctor told me that Benson needed another blood test (which requires a trip to the hospital for lab work), and he also wanted to do another test on Benson's peanut allergy, to find out how serious it is.  In the end, he told me to keep peanuts and eggs away from Benson, but the rest are okay.  They just cause eczema, which is a pain, but easier to deal with than no wheat or milk.

After getting home from that, I was so exhausted, so tired of cake, and had 5 (well, 4, Sadie is a sweetheart) cranky kids that I just wanted to feed and get to bed.  Bryson and I were able to get them all to sleep by 8pm (sorry, we didn't even have family night) and I went and TOOK A BATH.  A good friend made me a nice bath salt recipe and I decided to try it out.  It was a nice end to a crazy day. . week. . . 6 months?  Plus, Bryson and I watched an episode of Psych.  :)

Tuesday, Kayla had a dentist appointment with the dentist who did her surgery back in May.  It was all the way in Boise, and I knew that they couldn't do anything like clean her teeth.  So, it was just going to be a visit where they take pictures (if she'd let them) and the dentist would look in her mouth.  Is that worth another 30 minute trip with kids?  I was not looking forward to it.  If you can't tell, I have not been looking forward to this whole week. ;)  It all ended up working out okay.  The dental assistant ( who looked maybe 18?)  was a little thrown off by Kayla's situation and my instructions that she couldn't get her teeth cleaned (because of her port, she's needs antibiotics in order to have any dental work done) and kept saying he'd check with the doctor.  Kayla did let him take pictures of her teeth (wow).  It helped that she could sit on my lap because I am no longer pregnant.   The dentist was really nice (it wasn't the one who did her surgery) and seemed to be very knowledgeable, even though he didn't look old enough to be out of dental school yet.  He looked at her teeth and everything was good.

That afternoon I spent some time getting things ready for our church primary program which is this Sunday (150  kids in our primary!).  And I also made it over to the polls to vote!

Today, after we got home from the clinic (early), I figured it would be the best time to get Benson's blood work done, so we went over to the hospital (luckily we could go to the new St. Luke's in Nampa - not so far away) and did that.  He was great until the nurse tied that rubber strip on his arm to get his vein ready.  When she stuck the needle, she had to move it around quite a bit to get his vein.  Poor guy!  It looked (and from his crying - sounded) very painful.  It was quick though, and then we went home.

I squeezed in about 5 minutes of rest on the couch where I had time to stop and realize that I felt like a zombie.  Then Nathan and Lily got home from school and I took them to their dentist appointments - no cavities, Yay!

Sorry for the long and a little bit venting post.  I feel so tired and ready for any kind of break right now.  Having the kids off from school for the rest of the week and parent teacher conferences and trying to squeeze in a meeting with my primary leaders to make sure we are all prepared for our primary program on Sunday isn't exactly a break, but by the end of next week it looks hopeful.  :)  Thanks for your prayers. . .