Day 20 - Hoping for a better day

Just when you think it can't get much worse, you're proved wrong. OK, so I suppose when you're dealing with cancer it can always get worse. I just wish it wouldn't. At some point it has to get better...much better.

Courtney had a bad day. So bad, in fact, I was only able to speak with her for about 10 minutes total. Here's the summary from Kelley:

Hey.
Well, we went from a great day yesterday to an absolute crummy one today. Courtney is now asleep and hopefully will sleep through much of the night and feel better.

The platelets did their job -- no more blood. :) She had a x-ray of her stomach..but I am not sure when that report will come in. The doctor said that he was doing that for our peace of mind and did not expect much other than gas (which was confirmed just by them looking at it in the room). She got her second bag of platelets an hour ago and will be fine on numbers.

She really just felt crummy. I felt so bad for her...but glad the platelets solved the blood issue. Her hemoglobin was re-tested and was the same...which means she really did not lose much blood. It just looked worse than it was!

She missed talking to a lot of her docs today -- but they all came in. Her Infectious Disease doctor's partner came in briefly and said he would be back tomorrow since Court was unavailable at the time. Since Courtney had a low grade fever, they cultured her blood last night at 2 am. It came back positive for a gram positive bacteria. Don't panic! It is much better than those nasty gram negative infections (which if she should get one day are treatable) or fungal infections. They are putting her back on the vancomycin to knock it out and added a few more to her arsenal. So...she will feel crummy for a while but will get over this hump. Just wanted to let you know everything I do. Please do not worry about me saying she has an infection. They will treat it as they should. This could help account for the fact that we have not seen an increase in her WBCs too...so tomorrow we will know more.

We are both going to try to get some sleep tonight. I will email all in the morning...hopefully the morning that will bring a MUCH better feeling Courtney.

Oh yeah...in her drug induced stupor, she asked: Is Chris really going to shave his head? ;) (Chris is Courtney's older brother who promised to shave his head if she lost her hair.)

On that note...her head looks the same...but know it is not. More hair is coming out but in strands and not clumps. Today she really did not care about that though!

love you.
Kelley

We're so blessed to have had so much help from Courtney's family - especially her sisters who have been able to stay with her at nights, so I can be with the children.

As I was elbows deep in vomit today, I didn't dare go to the hospital. Emma went through the night and into this evening throwing up every 1-2 hours. Aidan began at 8:00 AM with the same thing. (I don't know what I would've done if my sister, Ashley, wasn't here to help this morning.) Both Aidan and Emma have been sleeping soundly for the past few hours, so it looks like it's behind us. Emma never really got upset. She just slept, watched TV and threw up all day. Aidan on the other hand seemed to have more pain and cramping, as he cried frequently in between bouts of throwing up. Funny thing happened with him - I had just started talking to Courtney when he woke up crying, seemingly in pain. I held him for a minute and when he quieted down, I called her back. He spoke to her for a moment before she had to go. Immediately after that, he started smiling (for the first time all day) and hit me repeatedly on my head. The he plopped off the couch, went to his room to play for a few minutes, then headed down stairs where he demanded to be fed. He ate for about 30 minutes. after which he began to run around the house for the next hour like he had never been sick. Of all the times we've dealt with sick children, that was the fastest, most remarkable turn around I'd ever seen, and it began with a short conversation with Courtney. I can only hope he had a similar effect on her.