Home Sweet Home

Abbey was busy today playing with all her toys and played more today then she has in a few weeks.  

Yes.... it's good to be home!  When we pulled up yesterday Micah was sitting by the door waiting patiently for us to pull up and oh how good it was for us to see our boys and be back together again.  Jim held down the fort great while us girls were gone and even cleaned the bathroom so it was freshly clean when we got home.  He knew that I would jump in the shower and then give Abbey a bath right when we got home so it was nice for it to be sparkling for us.

After Abbey and I got cleaned up we all went right outside to enjoy the beautiful weather.  It was in the low 60's and just a perfect homecoming day for us.  Friends of ours just gave Abbey a jeep that their girls grew out of (thanks Gamads!!) so she spent some time learning to drive around.  She loved it!  We also went over to our neighbors house who have a swing set in their backyard and the kids loved being over there.  It was so wonderful to see Abbey playing, laughing and running around with other kids after the very rough week that we had.  She sure was sick, but she sure did bounce back quickly. 

  

Today I was busy washing, sterilizing and wiping everything down that went to the hospital with us.  For those of you that know me well, know that I have some germaphobe issues, so that's the hardest part about being in the hospital.  Although the whole floor is constantly being cleaned by people that work there and everything gets wiped down a lot, it's still a hospital with more germs then I want to think about.   

I can't complain about our hospital stay though.  Like when she was first diagnosed, the staff was amazing on our floor and I felt that Abbey was very well taken care of.  We learned early on that people who work with children that have cancer are amazing.  It isn't just a job for them, but a passion to help these children and their families.  I've said it before, but we have grown to love our doctors and nurses that we see weekly at the clinic, and it didn't take long to think very highly of the people that took care of our Abbey over the last few days.  

We saw many of the same nurses that took care of us back in October when she was diagnosed and there were definitely some moments where the memories of just six months ago were hard to think about. It was like de ja vu when we first got on the floor, but I was so thankful that we are where we are in her treatment now and aren't at the very beginning.  It is surreal to see many little kids walking around with bald little heads and tubes hanging from their shirts while their mommy's and daddy's walk with a poll filled with things dripping into their bodies next to them.  It is nothing that you get used to or can be prepared for and it's sad.  Yet the tone on the floor and the people that work there somehow make it a little easier to get through.  They love these kids and do everything and anything to make them feel comfortable and even smile and have fun while going through what they go through.      

On Tuesday night, the night we were admitted it was about 11p.m. by the time we were in our room.  She was accessed right away and blood drawn for a blood culture and a numbers check.  They then gave her antibiotics to kill off any infection going on in her body that could have been causing the fever.  They wanted to keep us for two nights to make sure nothing grew in the culture and to make sure her fever was gone and she would start feeling better.  She also got antibiotics through her port every 8 hours the whole time we were there.  The first 24 hours we had to stay in our room because of her fever.  They do that to protect the other kids on the floor in case they have some kind of sickness that could be 'catchy'.  By day three (in the morning) her fever had been gone for 24 hours so we were able to leave the room to go to the play room and walk the halls.  And then by late that afternoon they gave us the go ahead to go home.

We don't know what caused her fever, but nothing grew in her blood culture and she is feeling much better.  Today was the best she's felt in quite a while and it is so refreshing.  Yesterday she was supposed to be starting day 29 of her treatment which is the all day chemo, and spinal tap.  As of yesterday morning her ANC was 430 and it needs to be 750 to start, so she is delayed for a week and hopefully she'll be ready next Thursday.  As much as we want to get this phase over with, we were relieved that her numbers weren't ready because she is just starting to feel better and her body really needs this break to get stronger. 

Thank you so much for all the encouraging comments on our blog this week.  We can't tell you how encouraging it is to see so many people tell us that they're praying for Abbey and us when we hit these bumps in the road.  We truly felt covered in prayer and once again we were carried through.