Day Three, Chemo Round 2

Got home and settled in about an hour ago.  It's hard to leave Jade at the end of the night. I don't want to go; Little Jay doesn't want to go.  To stretch our time a little further, we always have Little Jay take his shower and get ready for bed in Jade's hospital room.  But at some point, the water is turned off, his legs, feet, arms, and hopefully elbows are lotioned, and one of the parent has to leave.  Tonight it was me. Work and school beckon.  

Day three of chemo was so-so for Jade. Dad reports that her hemoglobin levels dropped below the minimum threshold so she had to get a blood transfusion, which meant she was hooked up to the IV pole for four hours plus an additional hour for the antibiotic. It was an uneventful transfusion (yay!) -- no reaction to the blood. So, most of the day was spent napping and tethered. Once she had her freedom back, she roamed the hallways with Dad a bit, and added some stickers to her Color Wonder masterpiece. 

We are back on a fluid/calorie intake watch to make sure Jade is taking in enough fluids (36 oz) to flush the chemo out of her system and enough nutrients and calories (1,400) to at least maintain her weight and fight this thing. Her fluid intake has been between half and two-thirds of where it needs to be, so she is on "maintenance IV fluids" during the night.  She weighed in at a whopping 11.9k (or 26.2 pounds) this morning, so I don't think we'll be having any conversations about feeding tubes over the next few days!   

All of her other counts are dropping as expected. White blood cells are at 2.39; platelets at 308, and ANC at 890 (we expect to see this go all the way to zero before she can begin to recover). All of which means we're on infection watch from now on, paying careful attention to handwashing, cough/sneeze covering, general health of visitors, etc. 

Jade's currently halfway through her etoposide infusion for day four of chemo, which technically started at 9pm.  Please... keep her in your prayers.

Til later...