New Blog Stuff

Stacie has been after me for a while to make our blog a little more festive because she has been a little short on time. We weren't able to get a family picture or anything to send out. So, I busted out the Santa suit and killed to birds with one stone here. I'm standing over there by myself because my gut is in the way and the girls kept bouncing off of it. A picture won't come to you in the mail, but you can see it here as many times a day as you would like. Seriously though... take some time to be with your families cause looking at us for that long can be a little weird.

Today was just ok. Chloe woke up feeling pretty lousy and nausiated. The chemo was a little rough on her and she had to vomit a few times this morning and hasn't felt like eating anything. She's finally sitting up now (it's about 4) but is not real excited about much.

Despite that, Chloe has been pretty popular today. She has had visits from her nurse every hour or more of course, the Tech nurse, her oncology doc, bone marrow doc, nurse practitioner, child life specialist, sharps container specialist, volunteer, house keeping, hospital equipment inventory specialist, different tech nurse, volunteer, volunteer, volunteer again, yet another tech nurse, and volunteer again. And then a different volunteer. I was thinking maybe a door stop on the door to keep it open would have been nice; but i have no idea where to get a door stop. She usually doesn't have that many visits in one day unless she's having complications so it was a little odd. But, the volunteers came bearing gifts donated by someone so that was really nice. Chloe now has a bunch of pencils, a slinky, and some other little Christmas coloring books and such.

The bone marrow Doctor brought by some information about what lies ahead. He gave me a packet that listed the different drugs and their side effects which include everything that i listed yesterday with the addition of the possibility of seizures, kidney failure, liver failure, scarring of the lungs, stunted growth, learning disabilities, anemia, death, bleeding in the bladder, pains in the hands and feet, infertility, shortness of breath, shaking of the hands and so on. Of course those are just possible side effects that they have to tell us about and we hope Chloe has none of them. Although herbal enthusiasts would tell us we have other options, i think most people would chose the protocol that has the best proven cure rate - which is where we are. It's just real depressing to know what could happen. I really don't know how the Doctors and Nurses down here can do it everyday- but i'm glad they do.

Chloe got a chemo shot this afternoon which I think it is her last chemo until the week before her transplant. Last night I told her stories about Nephi and others that knew they had to do something even though they might have been scared; so they were brave and did it because they knew it was the only right choice. She loves to hear stories. Today as she got her chemo shot i reminded her of how tough Nephi was and she calmed down and did a lot better with it. She is a tough little girl.

Thats about it from down here - well, that and i have a knuckle that is kind of dry and could use some lotion.