Friday, July 13, 2012

Final Round of Chemo!

Ava has been so amazing during this final round of chemo.  She even received a different "cocktail" of meds for this final round and she didn't even flinch while she was getting chemo, not that I should have expected anything less from her.  She was drinking like a champ that they even took her off of her fluids during the days of chemo since she was running around this room like she would in the backyard.  

The 4th of July was our 3rd holiday spent in the hospital but the girls got to watch the fireworks from our room that overlooks the valley,  we had a fantastic view!  We also constructed a fort this time around to keep the girls occupied (not sure why we didn't do this earlier), neither are even remotely interested in the toys we have here so we've had to get creative.  Ava absolutely loves the fort, probably because it feels like she is somewhere else other than this hospital room.  We even bought some arts and crafts to occupy their time here.  The girls were able to decorate bobble head puppies (kind of creepy) that you paint and bedazzle.  However, it turns out the paint was not washable so I probably should have put something on the floor to avoid the paint mess and maybe some aprons for the girls.  I wish I could say that was the first time we had a non-washable coloring product incident in the last few months but we've also had recent incidents with permanent markers and ink pads I assumed were washable.  NOTE TO SELF:  Make sure it says washable before purchasing!

We've been so fortunate the other 3 rounds of chemo as it relates to infections, nausea, etc.  The count recovery part of this round has been a bit tougher than the others.  Ava has been very nauseous since chemo ended so we have had to continue the anti-nausea meds for a lot longer than the other rounds.  She also wound up with a fever that started a couple of days ago.  When my girls get fevers, they are never low grade, always high, pain in the butt fevers that Tylenol doesn't have a chance against.  Ava's fevers have been as high as 104.4 which is causing her respiration's to be very short and quick, her heart rate is through the roof and her oxygen is too low at times that she has to get oxygen.  Her blood cultures haven't grown anything as of yet (today is day 3 of the fever so nothing will likely grow at this point)  resulting in the docs not being able to pinpoint exactly what is causing the infection.  She now has a bit of fluid in her lungs forcing a chest x-ray to be necessary because of all of the fluids she has been getting to help with her blood pressure, etc.  She is currently on 3 different antibiotics right now just to be sure all bases are covered.  I'm really hoping she wakes up tomorrow a sweaty mess which would be a result of her fever breaking and possibly with some counts to tell me we are moving in the right direction to ring that bell and say goodbye to chemo and the lengthy hospital stays.

I'm not confident that will happen but I'm sending lots of good vibes toward that crib tonight!

Please keep sending positive thoughts Ava's way.  I would hate for her to end up in the ICU because of  this darn infection that has no name.

I'll keep everyone posted on her progress.

XOXO

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