Day 12 of 12.

Yesterday was a very long, tough, frustrating, and stressful day. Lauren is not feeling well. Her tummy hurts really really bad. She has been lying and sleeping in the fetal position most of yesterday and throwing up a lot and her speech is slurred. She's only poop'd a wee bit today and only pee'd once yesterday.

Yesterday:
Right as we were leaving yesterday to go to the hotel (we decided to get a hotel since we needed to come back early today and we didn't think Lauren could make the 1-1/2 hour drive home) she threw up all over the place, right in front of the PA (physician assistant). The PA told us to hold on for a second as she went to confer with either her boss or colleague. She came back and said, "We are going to admit her. There is no use sending her home because she is not going to be able to hold anything down and she needs to take two more chemos (Temodar and Etoposide) tonight." The plan was once in the regular hospital they were going to stick a tube down Lauren's nose and into her stomach, where they'd pump gas, which stimulates the intestines and forces out her to poop (or something like that) and they'd also administer the two other chemos through the tube. At least that is what we thought the plan was. Once in the regular hospital, that plan went out the window. They didn't want to go the tube route. Instead, they pumped her full of anti-nausea medicine. Their thinking was that Lauren was throwing up because of the chemo, even though the X-ray showed she was FOS (full of shi.., poop). Nevertheless, after a 5-minute exam they were convinced Lauren was throwing up due to the chemo even though Lauren was under the supervision of the day hospital all day. So Lauren was given three different types of nausea medicine via her IV. One was Zoefran, which she usually gets at home and at the hospital, but before we left the day hospital they gave us specific orders, DO NOT GIVE HER ANY ZOEFRAN. We relayed that info to our nurse in the regular hospital, our nurse replied in very snooty tone (at least it sounded snooty to us, but we were probably over sensitive and stressed and tired) said, uh, No. She hasn't gotten the maximum amount yet and the work orders instructs Zoefran around the clock. The nurse also wanted us to wake Lauren and try and get her to drink some Miralax (a laxative). If the regular hospital didn't want to insert the tube, not that we wanted Lauren to have to go through it, then why were we admitted??

So around 8 pm, as Hilary was holding Marissa, she was rubbing Marissa back when she felt bumps. She pulled up Marissa's shirt and her body was covered with little red bumps. Chicken pox's? This would be VERY bad for Lauren and all the other kids on the oncology floor and in the day hospital. We called one of the nurses over, she examined Marissa and said she was going to page the doctors (residents), but that we should keep her isolated. At around 9:45 pm the doctors finally came by and examined her. They said it wasn't chicken pox and in their opinion, it wasn't contagious. Phew! Thank God!

Now that we had the doctor's attention, me and Hilary were able to unload all of our questions, about why we were there, about the tube, all our what ifs questions, and basically what the game plan was. We weren't thrilled about the game plan, but we did feel a little better. Now the hard part. We needed to wake Lauren so that she could drink her chemo, Etoposide (liquid form). Lauren had been on Benadryl all day, which helps prevent her from having a reaction to the chemo, but it makes her really groggy, tired and extremely grumpy. Earlier, when she first got into the regular hospital (not the day hospital) Lauren had a meltdown. She yelled that she was very mad at everybody, and that mommy, granny, daddy, Marissa, the nurses, and doctors were very mean because we wouldn't let her go home. She even slapped the doctor's hand away when the doctor tried to press on her tummy. And when the resident asked her to follow her finger with her eyes, Lauren flatly replied, No. We actually thought her slapping the doctor's hand away and saying "no" was kinda of funny. She is normally very sweet and polite. So we were dreading having to wake her to take her chemo. Her meltdowns give me chills down my spine. She definitely gets her temper from her mommy, it must be that Irish blood. But after saying "no" at first, she rose to the occasion and drank all of it. It wasn't easy. It took thethree of us. Granny held the throw-up bucket, Mommy had to hold her up, as I helped her with the two glasses (one with chemo and the other a chaser) because she was so groggy. It would be a disaster if she dropped and spilled the chemo, I think it would be a hazmat situation. While she felt sick taking it, she drank it all. I am so amazed how strong a 4-year-old, soon to be 5-year-old can be. She makes me so proud. Thankfully she fell right back to sleep afterwards. The next hurdle, we needed to wake her in an hour to take her chemo, Temodar. Three capsules. And it was already 10:30 pm.

At 11:30 pm, Hilary who was by herself (granny, daddy and Marissa were already sleeping at our hotel in Pasadena) woke Lauren. And again after saying "no", Lauren once again rose to the occasion, sat up and swallowed three capsules (one really big and two medium size capsules) of chemo. Lauren is my hero and so is my wife, who is doing an amazing job managing and taking care of Lauren's day-to-day requirements.

This morning:
Dr. Finlay and his entourage (including Anna) came by this morning. He is happy that Lauren is stable. They are concerned about her slurred speech and the fact she is not peeing. I just found out Lauren did poop last night. Yeah!! Unfortunately it was in bed when she was sleeping. But fortunately, I was sleeping in the hotel and didn't have to clean it up. Have I mentioned Hilary is my hero? It's also good that Lauren can't read yet, because she'd probably kill me for writing about this. I'm hoping to eventually print out this blog and give it to Lauren in a book form, so that she can see what she has gone through and how much we love her. So, sorry sweetie for writing about your poop. If Lauren's speech is still slurred and if she continues to have headaches, they are going to order another CT scan to make sure there is no swelling from the chemo. Lauren will probably continue to be admitted until at least tomorrow. Then we go back on Friday for her stem cells and then we are staying at the Ronald McDonald's House for 10 days. Oh well. One day at a time.