Sunday, November 18, 2012

I look at the date and can't believe that 2012 is almost over.  Where did most of the year go?  It has been a year of many ups and downs.  A year of change and a year of growth.  I have constantly been in amazement at the goodness of people in providing things for my family.  We have been extremely blessed.  Thank you all for the prayers, the service and the thoughts done on our behalf.  We are grateful for all of those.

It has been a crazy week.  Sarah has had to go to the clinic every day to get an antibiotic via her port (IV).  On Thursday, Sarah's port wasn't working.  This happens when a protein forms over the tube in her vein.  To get it working again they have to put a medicine called TPA in the port and have it sit there for 1-2 hours.  Before they do that, they take a chest X-Ray to make sure the port is still in the right place.  We have had to do it a couple of times with Sarah before.  It caused the appointment to go on a lot longer than expected.  On top of that, we found out on Friday that Sarah, Jess, and Gus were exposed to pertussis on Thursday, while waiting in the waiting room.  This means that they all have to be on an antibiotic and Sarah has to wear a mask at the hospital for 5 days.

We didn't want to risk Gus infecting anyone so he stayed home from church and Sarah had a clinic visit.  That meant that only Lilly went to church, since it was the primary program.  We wish we could have gone to see the program.

Thanks again for all the love and support that we receive.  It lifts our hearts and our spirits.

Home again - Nov 14th

Sarah was discharged this evening, earlier than we expected.  She met all the criteria though.  All the cultures that got taken while she was admitted came back negative.  So the antibiotics that she got in the ED worked.  However, the policy is that she goes through a round of IV antibiotics.  That means she is on the antibiotics for the next 11 days or so.  Until the 25th.  Luckily, the antibiotic that the bacteria is susceptible to is one that she only takes once a day.  We have set for her to go in clinic every day to get it, but we might revert to giving it to her at home with a home health care company.  It is nice to be home.

Thanks for all those who helped while we were in the hospital and for those who visited.

Tuesday Morning, November 13th - Hospital visit

It has been a couple weeks since I last posted.  It has been a busy couple of weeks.  Last weekend Jess and I were both sick.  I ended up with a high fever and was in bed most of the weekend.

Halloween was fun.  It was exciting to watch Gus learn how to trick-or-treat.  I will post pictures later.

We are back in the hospital over this past weekend.  At church, Sarah started complaining about her ear, and the pain was just getting stronger.  We left early and Jess took Sarah into the ER.  They thought it was just an ear infection and started her on an antibiotic.  Later that evening, her fever spiked and we went back to the ER.  Her port wasn't giving so she had to get some blood cultures from a poke in her arm, as they waited for TPA to work on her port.  She got a dose of IV antibiotics and we were sent home.

While at work, I got a call from Jess, who had just gotten a call from the Hospital.  Sarah's culture were positive for a bacteria.  We have now found out that it is strep strain, but don't know what medicines will be the most effective.  We will be here through Thursday at least.  She needs 3 negative cultures and no fevers for 24 hours before she can be released.

This trip has reminded me that we aren't out of the woods yet.  Sarah's maintenance, while easier, is still a chemo treatment and we will still need to be watching out for her.  

Thanks for all the love and support.