Ava's First Round of Chemo

Ava started her first round of chemotherapy on March 14th, 2012 which continued for 10 days.  She did really well and maintained a very positive spirit.  Ava was constantly making the nurses laugh with her new dance moves from watching Rio so many times and ended up being the talk of the ICS floor.  I figured chemo meant she would be sick and sleeping all the time so her amazing spirit was a pleasant surprise.

Ava had a couple of bad reactions to the platelet transfusions and unfortunately that meant adding antibiotics that turned her skin bright red.  She also struggled with being able to consume enough calories so she ended up having to get a feeding tube.  Of course after just one night with the feeding tube in, she pulled it out playing with a stethoscope of all things.  We put the feeding tube back in that night and then she puked it up the very next day and she was given the weekend to get her appetite back up.  I discovered how stressful it can be to try to get a 17 month old to eat and drink, this had never been an issue with Ava prior to her diagnosis.   I wanted to make sure she was eating enough so she could at least have freedom in her room from all the cords and feeding tube since she couldn't actually have freedom from her room due to her high risk of infection.  She ended up eating and drinking enough which was a huge relief for me.  I'm not sure I could handle putting that feeding tube back in!

The Feeding Tube and Stethoscope

The hardest part for me (other than finding out about the cancer) was when she started losing her hair.  It took a while for it to start falling out so I made sure I did her hair every day.  =)  When it finally started to fall out, it came out in chunks which was difficult to see.  We had her head shaved a couple of days after it started to fall out and I was pleasantly surprised to see how much I enjoyed her new look.

Ava's new haircut...she wore pearls for the occasion

Ava continued eating and drinking well as we continued to wait for her ANC and Monocytes to come up high enough to go home.  I chose to finally sleep at home a couple of nights to catch up on some much needed rest.  I called Justin on Sunday morning to tell him I'd be up as soon as the cheesy potatoes in the oven were done.  It was Easter Sunday so I wanted to have Easter dinner up at the hospital as a family.  Justin told me that I should leave the potatoes home since we would be eating dinner at home as a family that night.  After a month in the hospital, Ava's counts were high enough and we were finally able to go home.   That goes down in the books as the best Easter ever!