8/28 update

Hello everyone,

We thought it would be important for us to give an update tonight. We had been scheduled for chemo tomorrow morning if everything went smoothly through tonight. Unfortunately, we'll be having a bit of a delay again. Wednesday night while I was at work Whitney called and said that she was on her way to the ER, that Maggie had a fever. Earlier in the day, we noticed that she had some significant rashes on her legs and back. Interestingly enough, they were located exactly where she had pressure applied while in the hospital. Most of her left thigh was red, spotty, and warm to the touch. Exactly where she had a bandage wrapped around her leg to secure her catheter while in the hospital. Also, most of her left calf was covered as well, where a blood pressure cuff was placed for much of Maggie's time in the hospital. Next, a small strip on her right ankle, where her identification band was located. Finally, an oddly shaped shape on her back. We think maybe this was where one of her leads was located--the wire that connected her to the machine that measures her vitals. We're not sure about this one. However, we hadn't seen (and still haven't) mouth sores! This has been such a relief, so far.

Of course standard protocol is to rush in, get antibiotics started and draw blood cultures for the lab to begin exploring what is causing the fever. We don't mess around with infections, sickness, or fevers. I ended up working until 9PM, and sometime around 9:30 Whitney was told that Maggie could go home, much to our surprise. I was in the process of packing my car with our clothes and other essentials. The key factors that allowed her to go home were 1) Maggie looked and felt relatively good, and 2) her counts are normal--she's able to fight the bug on her own and prevent it from spreading or otherwise worsening.

Today we went to the clinic to see Dr. French (Maggie's primary oncologist) and were told that there was a bacterial infection growing in the cultures drawn last night. It is gram positive (her last infection was gram negative, for those who understand what that means). Further, it appeared today that it was likely a pretty ordinary bug, not a strange or rare one. So we'll find out tomorrow if it is a strep infection, or a staph infection of some kind. She's already on an antibiotic that should take care of it.

However, we won't start chemo until they know for sure that they've identified it, knocked it out, and made sure that it isn't lingering in her IV tubing. There is a 25% chance for every bacterial infection that the IV tubing could be ruined, permanently infected by the bacteria--which would lead to a new surgery, a new broviac, and more frustration, delay, and additional pain for Maggie. We are desperate to hear good news next week that the infection clears out of the broviac (IV). Once it is determined that the bug is gone and clear from her line, we should be okayed to continue chemo.

So, we are having a delay, but a fairly routine one at this point. Maggie has been running fevers in the 99.5 to 100.3 range. Not too significant, and she seems to feel okay. We've had some difficulty getting her to take and keep down Tylenol as she's thrown it up a couple times, only to bounce back, eat some more, and act normally right away. Tomorrow we go back to see the doctor, get another dose of the IV antibiotics, and discuss our plans given the exact bug being identified. We'll be home over the weekend, more than likely, but unable to attend family gatherings (birthday parties). So that's frustrating. But we're glad that Maggie is okay and we will hopefully get on track with more chemo in the first half of next week.

Continued thanks for your concern, prayers, support, comments, and generosity.

Home again

We have been glad to be home--since 6 pm on Monday, in fact. Once again, Maggie cleared the methotrexate chemo nice and quickly. That got us home Monday instead of today. As of today, we'll go back to the hospital on Friday for more chemo and a planned 5 day stay. That could get postponed if Maggie gets mouth sores or runs into other side effects in the meantime. So, for now we are home, trying to keep Maggie well rested and well fed.

Once again we're enjoying the weather, blowing bubbles in the back yard, going for walks, sleeping in our own beds, and otherwise doing normal things. We like it this way. Pray for an uneventful week and continued healing and safety for Maggie.

Flushing the chemo

Maggie's chemo drip of Methotrexate ended last night around 6:30. She is now in the process of flushing it out of her system with IV fluids (she is retaining water with the amount of fluid going through her body). Thankfully she has a catheter because we'd never be able to keep up with diaper changes. However, like last time, the catheter has irritated her diaper area and she is again having pain. Each diaper change is an episode of crying. She has also had discomfort with the catheter as she is unable to sit straight up. The doctor prescribed another diaper cream that is a barrier between her skin and diarrhea and to now heal the rash that has developed.

We are now playing the waiting game. Maggie's Methotrexate level must be less than .1 in order for us to leave. This afternoon at 3:00 it was .59 (way down from over 60.0 last evening). Maggie is doing fairly well-- no sickness. We pray that her bottom clears up and the pain goes away.

Going okay today

Maggie is doing okay today. She responded fine to her spinal (no nausea this time!) and has been getting her methotrexate chemo since 6:30 PM. That one is a 24 hour drip through her IV. After that we'll wait for the chemo to clear out of her system and hopefully go home Monday.

It's a little hard being back in the hospital as we really have enjoyed a couple of nice weeks at home. We're adjusting fine though, and we're glad Maggie hasn't been sick. As of yesterday, her counts were still good, so her risk of infection isn't too high for the time being. So everything is pretty routine here.

Also, please say prayers for a little guy named Liam in South Carolina--another infant with ALL. He's had a bad relapse and it is getting touchy for them. Prayers are appreciated.

Thanks.

Back to the hospital

Our "freedom" is ending tomorrow morning. After going to the clinic today and having a CBC (Complete Blood Count), we were told that she is ready to go back for chemo. Maggie will have the exact same treatment as she did 2 weeks ago (Methotrexate for 24 hours and then fluids to rid it of her body as quickly as possible). We hope that it goes as well this time as it did last time (with the exception of mouth sores--we don't want those to come back). She'll also have chemo inserted into her spinal fluid, which she's had done quite a few times now.

Maggie has been a joy. She has been smiling and laughing and with the exception of her not sleeping well, she is our "old" Maggie. It will be hard to go back into the hospital and have her hooked up to IV's and a catheter. During the last week and a half, life has felt more normal (or as normal as it can get knowing that our normal has changed).

We continue to ask for your prayers, specifically that Maggie will respond well to the chemotherapy (she will not get sick, not get mouth sores, and will get rid of the chemo quickly) and that she will not get diaper rash or tape burns from the cathetor. We would love to be able to come home again on Monday, so we pray that things might work in our favor.

Happiest Girl

Maggie continues to feel great while we spend time away from the hospital. Her sores are no longer bleeding and have only required pain meds once a day (if that). The doctor said today that they probably aren't as deep as the previous mouth sores--whatever the reason, they're not bothering Maggie like the previous ones did. We are so grateful for this. We can't say it enough. In the last few days we've walked to a community carnival (twice), drove to Bluffton, OH for a family reunion, had my brother and fam over for an extended visit, visited friends over lunch, and eaten out quite a few times. The weather has been beautiful and we have taken advantage. Maggie continues to make us smile and laugh. Tonight in a pet store she talked (loudly) with the puppies and kitties in the cages. She's learned to scoot her high chair backwards by slamming her back against the chair. Overall, she's been very vocal and cheery. A bit attached to mommy, but she's slept a little bit here and there and she's put on half a pound since Thursday (good eating!).

We'll get a phone call from the doctor tomorrow for instructions for the next chemo. He said today that we'll likely start sometime this week since Maggie's sores are improving. Should be Wednesday or Thursday, more than likely. Whenever it starts, we'll have several days in the hospital, then be home for a few, then back in again for more chemo.

Thanks to everyone for such wonderful comments, emails, cards, gifts, etc. We feel very loved. We're working on getting in touch with as many of you as we can, either by phone, email, card or letter, etc. Thanks for your patience. We'll continue to update the blog, probably more often once we're in the hospital.

Goodnight.

Change in plans

We've really enjoyed having some days at home...as it turns out, we might have a few more. Maggie has mouth sores again, and quite a few of them. You can see a couple of them on the underside of her lower lip even with her mouth mostly closed. She has a couple under her tongue and a strip of 3 or 4 on the inside of each cheek. They look like canker sores, but when she cries here lately they have bled. It looks very painful. Sorry for the details. By some miracle, she giggled through most of the evening despite the sores.

We went into the oncology clinic at the hospital and saw Maggie's primary oncologist this afternoon. He said that we need to postpone tomorrow's methotrexate chemo as new chemo on top of her fresh mouth sores would cause her to shed the entire layer of cells inside her mouth, down her throat and into her stomach. Essentially, she'd have one enormous sore covering all of her GI tract. We actually went to the clinic with our bags packed, expecting to be admitted. After all, we were scheduled to go in at 8 am tomorrow (Friday) anyways. Instead, we're going to try to manage at home and check back on Monday to see if the sores are getting any better. If they have improved, they'll schedule the chemo for Tuesday or Wednesday. We're also going to start acyclovir, a drug that targets a herpes virus that they think is contributing to her mouth sores. She'll stay on that drug indefinitely.

In some ways it is nice to still be home, but for once I think we'd prefer to be in the hospital--on course with the chemo treatments to try to continue to attack the leukemia. We'll try to make the best of it and if we can manage Maggie's pain and keep her eating and sleeping we might be able to have a good weekend. We'll take it a day at a time, though. For those wanting to pray--please pray for a quick recovery from the mouth sores, good pain management, sleep, and undisturbed eating. We hesitate to ask for prayers for us (Whitney and I) because our priority is that Maggie receive your prayers--but we are trying not to get too discouraged. This continues to be a very trying time and our previous experiences with mouth sores has us expecting worse--a sedated, morphine dependant, extended period of time waiting for progress. We continue to struggle with the difficult reality of the whole situation.

Thanks so much for your concern and support.

Rock-a-Bye, Baby

Praise the Lord, Maggie slept through the night last night. We were able to put her down around 9:30pm (without Benedryl) and she didn't awake until 5:00am to feed, then went back to sleep until 8:00am. I kept her in our bed after 5:00am just to make sure that she would sleep and not be awakened due to the transfer from our bed to her bed. Maggie even managed to take 2 short naps today too. We were very happy and especially happy that we were able to catch up on sleep (or at least I was. Andy has been very interested in staying up to watch the Olympics).

Maggie is still her cheery self. She has been talking a lot more since returning home. She saw our neighbor's dogs yesterday and immediately said "da, da, da." Perhaps "dog" will be her first word and not "mama" or "dada." We don't own any dogs, but she sure is fascinated by them (from afar). We gave her a real bath for the first time since her diagnosis. Maggie has had painful diaper rash from the antibiotics/chemo, and so we wanted to try to soak her bottom. The nurse told us we could put saran wrap around her broviac to protect it from water. She didn't enjoy her bath as she did before diagnosis, but hopefully she'll become used to splashing in the water and playing with her duckies once again.

We again pray fervently that Maggie will not get mouth sores and she will continue to be her happy self. Thank you all for your thoughts and prayers.

Home sweet home

That's right, we are at home! Can you believe it? Praise the Lord! With the way our luck has been going, I didn't think that we would be home this early. But, we are home. Maggie's Methotrexate levels had to be lower than .1 in order for us to leave and today at 3:00, they were at .09. The chemo left her system very quickly, which is good. I have read on other sites with children having this same drug that it can take 5 days or even 3 weeks. So, I wasn't putting any stock into coming home early. Call me a pessimist, but I actually packed clothes for about 2 weeks worth. Being in the situation we are in now, when we go to the hospital, you just never know how long you might stay.

With the exception of Friday and the vomitting from her intrathecal chemo, Maggie has been in very good spirits since Wednesday. She has picked up on her eating and is breastfeeding, as well as eating cereal. When we got home, she played on the floor by herself, which is something she used to do prior to the diagnosis of this disease. Since being diagnosed, she has been very needy and always wants to be held or near one of us. Maggie has been laughing and smiling with ease. She really is the Maggie that we knew prior to cancer. We pray that this continues and we thank God that she is feeling more like herself.

Our outlook for the coming week consists of spending time at home and enjoying the outside and the comforts of our home. We plan to be back in the hospital on Friday for the exact same protocol as this past Friday. We pray that Maggie will not react adversely to the intrathecal chemo and continues to have the same results with the Methotrexate (that is, not get sick and have it leave her system quickly). Our biggest prayer request though is that Maggie WILL NOT get mouth sores. There is a high chance that she might, based on what the doctors have said. With our experience, they are one of the most horrible things that Maggie can have. She is in so much pain that we are unable to console her with anything but morphine. This will also put us back into the hospital indefinitely. Please pray that she stays clear of mouth sores and any other side effects.

We thank you again for your continued prayers for Maggie. We are encouraged by our experiences this week and know that it is because of prayer that Maggie is responding as well as she is.

8/10/08

Maggie seemed to feel pretty well today. Whitney went out with her sister Morgan for a while and Maggie didn't have too much of a fit. She drank a bottle (a rarity for Maggie) and took a nap after playing and reading books for a while. That was nice. She slept almost the whole night last night which was also wonderful. Finally, she still hasn't had any adverse effects from the methotrexate. We'll likely get to go home tomorrow sometime or more likely, Tuesday. Once the chemo is out of her system entirely (measured with blood labs) then we're free to go if all else is good. Then we're back in the hospital no later than Friday for a repeat of this weekend's chemo.

Here is a video of Maggie getting a kick out of her aunt Morgan. She was in such a good mood--while the chemo was dripping into her body, no less. We have to have this same methotrexate 4 or 5 more times at least so we hope it goes well each time. Again, we're kind of expecting mouth sores later this week, but if we avoid that it would be beyond great.

Saturday

Hello everyone,
We enjoyed a good Saturday, all things considered. We especially enjoyed visits and birthday wishes from all. There were smiles all around for much of the day--not bad for a hospital day. Maggie finished her Methotrexate IV--a high dose which we'll repeat next weekend. So far, she hasn't had any adverse reaction to the chemo. She smiled and laughed (we'll add a video tomorrow) a lot and even ate normally which was much desired and a first over the last 4-5 days. She's off the IV nutrition and will remain so, perhaps she'll have a good appetite for a while. Some kids apparently do become nauseous during the administration of this chemo, so we've avoided that so far. What a blessing. We have a few days to get through before nausea is out of the question. Later in the week we'll be getting ready to come back in and we'll also start watching for side effects from this chemo--mouth sores being the primary concern. Dr. French also predicted that the rest of her hair will soon be gone. That will be sad as many of the nurses and doctors make comments about the beautiful color of her hair--auburnish red. If we can avoid the mouth sores we'll consider ourselves very blessed. Her counts are good now so she should be able to heal a little quicker if she does get them.

We enjoyed good carry-out food today courtesy of Whitney's family and seemed to enjoy the day. Maggie did wonderfully and we enjoyed her happiness thoroughly. She hung in all day despite not having a single nap and coming off of a shortened night of sleep last night again. She keeps on ticking, while Whitney and I are trying not to drag. Though we are tired, it helps a lot to see her have such a good day. We'll enjoy every one as tougher days of side effects are likely to come soon.

Thanks again for your prayers, concern, and correspondence. Whitney enjoyed everyone's contribution to her birthday celebration today, both from those near and far. Look for a cute video tomorrow. We hope to be well rested when we post it.

Goodnight.

Last couple days

I want to apologize for not updating the blog in the last 2 days. You know what they say, no news is good news, and it was. We were able to go home on Wednesday late afternoon after Maggie had a blood transfusion. When we went home, we did all the things we had been dreaming about in the hospital for the last 2 1/2 weeks. Since Maggie's ANC was like any other person, we were able to go out around people. We took advantage of this and went the The Greene (an outside mall) and ate outside at several different restaurants. On Wednesday, as we were eating there was live music playing. Maggie was kicking her legs, clapping, and smiling the entire time. She was so happy to be outside (as were we).

Maggie was put on IV nutrition for 16 hours each night while we were home. This was wonderful as she has not eaten regularly since early Tuesday morning. She has nursed only a couple of times. She surprised us though by taking a bottle yesterday evening (she has rarely taken a bottle) and ate rice cereal last night.

We were admitted again into the hospital this morning at 8:00am. After waiting several hours, she had her spinal, in which chemo was inserted and fluid was taken to check for any leukemic cells (there were none). She also had a catheter inserted so that they can check her urine over the next couple days. She was hooked up to IV fluid so that they can adjust her PH levels in preparation for the Methotrexate. We are still waiting for her levels to become more basic so that we might begin. Since the spinal, she has been getting sick. They have given her 2 anti-nausea drugs to help that side effect.

We really enjoyed our time at home. It felt so wonderful to be free to do what we please, sleep in our bed (the limited amount that we did), eat good food, and be outside. It's hard now to be back in the hospital, back to our new "normal." We are burned out. We are sleep deprived, as Maggie is still not sleeping well. My parents can attest to the difficult nature in getting her to sleep. On Wednesday night we tried for hours to get her to sleep, only to resort to her crying to sleep for over an hour at 4:30am (we sat and cringed the entire time). On a good night, we are getting about 4-5 hours of sleep. Maggie has become very needy in that she must be held all the time and only by me or Andy. We don't get much of a break, which has been very exhausting as well. What can I say- we are at the brink of breaking down. We are trying very hard to not get short with each other (due to lack of sleep) and to keep a positive outlook, but it's been very hard the last 2 weeks. All we want is our baby to be healthy and content (to sleep and eat). With the exception of eating and sleeping, we saw our smiling, happy Maggie the last day and a half. With the chemo, this has changed which breaks our hearts. I don't mean to complain or whine, but this is the reality we are living with and it's the hardest thing we've ever encountered. My birthday is tomorrow and several people have asked what I've wanted. All I want is my baby to be healthy. That is my prayer each and every day.

Home on the radar

Maggie's counts made a dramatic turn today (for the better). We were hoping to see her ANC reach 500 soon, and today it reached 3200! So, she has immune functioning that is comparable to most of you reading the blog. This rapid growth also explains the blast cells that they saw yesterday and had to investigate. The doctor today said that since the blast cells are normal blasts, they are a "non-issue." No need to worry about that.

Since she's recovering, she's due for chemo by Thursday, but they're planning to discharge us in the morning to give us a two day break--we'll likely return to the hospital by Friday at the latest. They also took her off all of her antibiotics as her blood cultures remain negative. Maggie had a fever during the night last night, but nothing today.

We're excited to get to go home, even for a short time before returning.

August 4 Update

Our day today was in many ways similar to yesterday. Try to manage on little sleep. Treat Maggie's fever periodically. Get excited about cell growth.

Of course there is more to it than that. Maggie's blood cultures from her initial fever (Saturday night) are still negative. So, there is nothing growing (bacteria), which is good. We'll get final word in the next few days, but it seems that we are still looking at a virus. She was up in the mid 101's today when her tylenol wore off. If it is a virus, we just have to wait until it runs its course. Her fever is responding to Tylenol just fine in the meantime. No big deal there, for now.

Maggie's ANC grew to 250 from 40 yesterday. That is what we've been waiting for. It needs to get to 500, and may do so as soon as tomorrow morning. Her White Blood Count is 4200, up from 2000 yesterday. Again, 6,000 to 14,000 is normal if I recall correctly. It just took Maggie a while to recover fully from the bone marrow damage that the leukemia and chemo inflicted. But the doctors doubled her Neupogen (a drug that instigates WBC growth) in the last few days and that seems to have jump-started her growth. We're still looking at starting chemo later this week, maybe getting a short 48 hour rest at home before coming back.

We got a scare today, though. Among the cells that are recovering are blast cells, at 11%. These are young, immature blood cells that turn in to different types of blood cells as they mature. However, in ALL, the leukemia cells are also blast cells. So, they did a test to see if the blast cells that they found were normal, or Leukemia. There was some concern because the doctor wasn't expecting to see as many of them as they found today (they don't usually want to see anything over 5%). We got a visit from Dr. Broxson and he said that they were waiting for results. When we asked if we should be concerned, he paused and said: "a little bit concerned, but not a lot." Easier said than done. He peeked in shortly thereafter and said that they were, in fact, normal blast cells. There was some confusion from that point forward--though they were normal blast cells, there was some mention of what they were doing in response to the high %. If they are normal, why are they still trying to manage/monitor those cells? We have been trying to find some peace of mind about this, but it all happened too late in the day to be able to talk to the doctor at length. But so far, so good.

If nothing else, it was a shock to us and our expectations. Since the genetic testing we have been comforted in knowing that relapses are supposed to be somewhat infrequent, especially this early. At one point, the doctors told us that if they stopped treatment right now it might take 3-4 months for the leukemia to come back. So, our concern has been focused on infection risk, not relapse risk. Of course if there is a relapse this early in treatment, that is worse than a later relapse. We want to see the chemo treatments working at this early stage to prevent having to discuss alternate treatments that are riskier. Even though we have been assured that things are fine right now, this was a reminder of how fragile we are when frightening or bad news is delivered. Our hearts stop beating. We worry about the worst. And we question whether or not we are being too optimistic through all of this. It is hard to explain that though many are so encouraged by the good signs so far, we still have to sit with the unknown and the reality of Maggie fighting such a horrible disease. The worry is so intense when we have to wait for crucial news or when it seems that something is going differently than expected. We are learning on the fly and anything "unexpected" or "unusual" causes great panic. The more we learn as time passes--the better we will be able to understand what is going on. But so far, we don't have a sense of what is normal, what isn't, which doctor is naturally optimistic, which is more cautious, etc.

Though this entry is getting long--I want to mention two patients on the floor tonight. One was a teenage girl with long brown hair being wheeled down our hallway this afternoon (by the same nurse who first escorted us to our room when we were first diagnosed). The look on her face as well as that of her family members trailing behind her was so hard to witness. The first day of the fear of a new, unthinkable cancer diagnosis (or it could be a non-cancerous blood disorder, I guess--they are treated here too). It breaks your heart to see more families going through this. We know so little about what is going on with her, but it seems so familiar to us, just by glancing at them for a split-second.

Secondly, we were asking questions to one of the oncology nurses about why Maggie has had so many nurses from other floors lately. The answer is twofold: a) there are a lot of patients here now, b) Maggie is stable and doing better than most (or all) of them at this stage of treatment. When there are chemo treatments being given or serious complications, the experienced nurses are assigned. In our case, we are just waiting and treating a minor fever--so the extra nurses who are helping out get assigned to us. Anyways, as a part of this explanation, we were told that several kids are quite sick right now. One of whom has a fever of 106. Wow.

We appreciate your thoughts and continued prayers for Maggie. In addition--we are remembering those who are down the hall from us, families and children at different stages of their lives with cancer. And, those in other states who are in similar situations (some of whom we have read about and been in touch with).

Thanks for your prayers and goodnight.
Andy

Bad and Good Reports

Maggie took 2 hours after her Ativan to fall asleep last night, and it took a dose of Benadryl to seal the deal. It was after midnight before she fell asleep. At 3:45 we got news (as she woke up) that her temperature was 102. They gave her Tylenol and it subsided until about 1 or so this afternoon--it returned to over 101. She's not very comfortable unless she is nursing, but she just received her second dose of Tylenol. The doctors think that it is probably a virus as she is still on a wide range of antibiotics from her last fever. Her vulnerability to bugs is ultra-sensitive, to say the least. Hopefully it will go away soon and the blood cultures that they took will be clean of bacterial infection.

On the plus side, her white blood count (WBC) quadrupled since yesterday morning. Her WBC is at 2,000 vs. 500 yesterday. It still needs to get to between 6,000 and 14,000 to reach a normal range. Next her ANC (currently at 40) will need to jump to at least 500. Since she had such a good day of WBC growth, the rest of her cell growth will hopefully accelerate now. As such, the doctor is ready to think about starting chemo again in the next few days. Or, we might get to go home for a quick break before returning later in the week to start her chemo again. Today marks the 2 week mark of our current hospital stay. 18 of the last 19 days have been spent in our comfy room here on the fourth floor of Dayton Children's Medical Center.

Ativan?

Ativan is supposed to be calming and put our little one to sleep. It appears to have the opposite effect tonight.

A good day

We had a good day today, beginning with a good night sleep. They gave her Ativan last night around 11:00pm and Maggie slept through the night until 8:30am. Ah, it was so wonderful. Maggie had her times today where she moaned & whined, but other than that she was, for the most part in good spirits. The IV therapists did a dressing change on her broviac area and they said it looked good. We hope this continues to be the case for the next 2 years. We spent about an hour and a half outside today. The weather was perfect--sunny and a slight breeze. Maggie really enjoyed it- reading books, sucking on things, and playing in the grass. We hope to be able to do this daily now that she is feeling better. She has always enjoyed being outside. At home when we were unable to soothe her, we would take her outside and she would immediately calm down. Andy's parents were here to help keep her entertained as well.

As I type this we are trying to get Maggie to sleep. The Ativan that worked so well last night is not appearing to be as successful tonight. I will post a video that I just took of her on the anti-anxiety and often sleepy drug. We are getting our old Maggie back--difficult to put to sleep and one who doesn't need much sleep to function well.

Now that Maggie is showing signs of better health and we appear to be past our "hiccups," we wait for her counts to recover so that we might start chemotherapy. Pray that she might continue to feel better, stay free from illness, and that her counts might recover. Thank you all for your continued prayers, and I hope you enjoyed the weather today as much as we did.

Maggie updates you personally...

Sometimes Maggie prefers to add the blog entries herself.

She's starting to feel a little bit better after surgery.

Post Surgery

Maggie is out of surgery and is sleeping in her bed. The surgeon said that "it went perfectly." They used a different brand broviac that is a size larger. It is to be more durable and he (and the nurses) like this type better. He told Andy after the surgery that he plans not to see us until Maggie is finished with treatment and needs it removed. We pray that is the case.

We had quite a rough night again--no mishaps, only Maggie not wanting to sleep. We might have gotten an hour if we were lucky. We talked with the doctor and he thought perhaps it could have been withdrawal from morphine. Whatever it was, it was torture for all of us. She didn't scream & cry as if she was in pain, instead she whined, wanted to nurse all night, and when we put her in bed she called out for us and couldn't put herself to sleep. The doctor prescribed Ativan if we have difficulty tonight. He said that if by 9-9:30 Maggie isn't showing any signs of sleep, to give her some and it'll put her to sleep for 6 hours. My thoughts were, "where was that drug last night?" Either way, hopefully that will help us as it has almost been a week since we've gotten more than 3 hours of sleep in a night.

Our next steps are now waiting for Maggie's counts to come up so that we might start chemotherapy. Her ANC is at 50. It needs to get to 500 before they will begin. Hopefully it might take the upswing here soon so that we can move on with treatment and get out of the hospital.

We thank you all for your continued prayers. We have heard from so many that you are praying for Maggie. We know that this last week has been very tough, but we only expect it to get better now. Thank you again and hopefully we all have a peaceful night.

Surgery

Maggie's on the schedule for 1:45 tomorrow (Friday). Though we continue to be unsure about why we've had such trouble with her previous IVs, we're scheduled with a different surgeon (ironically his name is Dr. Christian). Try something new, right? So--please remember Maggie in your prayers--that the procedure would be successful, that Maggie's recovery from anasthesia would be painless (and without nausea). Of course our biggest hope is that this IV (Broviac) would serve its purpose until Maggie is done with treatment, 23+ months from now.