Tuesday May 15, 2012

The past two days have warmed up quite a bit.  I wore shorts to work and rode my bike for the first time this year.  I did a lot better than I thought I would.  The Dexter hill that I was worried about, wasn't that hard and I kept a decent pace up it.  Well, I was in my granny gear, but I wasn't going my slowest.  Spring has finally come to Seattle.

Sarah's appointment yesterday was surprising.  When we got there and they accessed her port, the nurse couldn't get any blood return.  This happened once before and it took a couple of hours to get it working again.  I wasn't looking forward to the wait.  They have some medicine called HPA that will dissolve any clots blocking the port.  However, before the clinic gives it, they want a chest x-ray to make sure that the port is still in the right place.  So they send us down a floor to radiology.  We check in and the orders weren't in for the x-ray yet.  The secretary comes over to us after a couple of minutes and tells us that she is working with the clinic and it will be just a minute.  After a few minutes, they get us back to the x-ray room and Sarah gets her x-ray.

We make are way back up to the clinic.  This is the part I am dreading.  I figure that she will get the HPA and then we will be waiting in the hallway chairs for a hour.  Sarah is still flagged as being in isolation because a nasal swab hasn't shown a negative for RSV yet.  A nurse comes to get us quickly, and takes us to a room.  Odd, I thought.  I let them know that Sarah hasn't had labs yet, and the nurse says she will check with the PA that Sarah was seeing.  Laura, the PA, comes in a few minutes later and asks a few questions.  She asks if Sarah was offered a finger poke to get half of the labs.  Sarah was scheduled for a back poke and they had to make sure that her platelets were high enough before going forward.  I told her that she wasn't and she gets it setup.  One of Sarah's favorite nurses, Aaron, comes in a gives Sarah a finger poke and puts the HPA in the port.  At this point we aren't that far behind schedule, but we need to wait an hour to get the port working for the back poke and to get the rest of the labs.

Sarah taking a nap before her back poke

Sarah decided to take a nap while she waited the hour.  Aaron came in and got the port working.  Sarah went in for the back poke and she was only 45 minutes behind schedule.  While she was under, I went down to the Starbucks and got Sarah a donut because I know that she needs food when she wakes up quick.  She woke up cranky but chowed down on the donut.  Amanda, one of the other nurses, made sure that they kept Sarah on fluids after the procedure, reducing the amount of time we had to spend giving her fluid before she got her chemo.  Aaron took us back to a room and finished out giving Sarah fluid and getting her Chemo medicine.  We ended up getting out of the clinic about 12:30ish, about the same time I was expecting to be done.  Kudos for the nurses, who got us out on time.  It was nice to get out much earlier than I expected, with the port issue.

Sarah's appetite has dropped the past couple of days.  Jess, Lilly, and Gus have also had a little tummy bug.  Sarah and Lilly both had small fever's yesterday.  Sarah didn't break the 101 mark, so we didn't have to call or take her into the ED.  We are grateful for that.  We just need to get Sarah to eat anything we can over the next few days.  This is what happens with the methotrexate.  At least we aren't giving her doses that require her to stay in the hospital.

We are grateful for all the love and support.  We hope the Lord will bless you greatly.