Round Two

What an eventful two weeks we've had.  Just two weeks ago, Jade was still in recovery from her first round of chemotherapy.  Her ANC was at 0 and had been there for 14 long days; she was using an NG feeding tube to receive nutritional supplements overnight (the combination of chemo and hospital food did not make for great calorie intake); and had developed a nasty cough. The next morning I woke up to learn that her counts were finally rising. They were at 50 (and the docs need to see her ANC at a steady and rising 200 before discharge is considered). 

The next few days were a flurry of activity.  The bone marrow biopsy that was scheduled on Monday to determine if there was something delaying her count recovery was postponed. With her counts rising, the team decided to wait until her counts had recovered even more so they could obtain a better sample to determine how effective the chemotherapy had been in eliminating the leukemic cells. On Tuesday, the NG feeding tube was removed (based on good calorie intake and weight gain) and the staff told us we would be discharged the next day if her ANC continued to rise at the rate they were going up.   Tuesday is also when I started feeling a cold coming on, which I can only attribute to Jade's coughing and sneezing in my face for the previous two weeks. 

In any case, I work with some terrific ladies who helped nurse me back to health with spicy Liberian collard greens, organic tea, and ** Lemon Ginger Echinacea ** so that I could actually be present for Jade's homecoming. While getting myself healthy, I had less than twenty-four hours to whip my house into proper condition. The house, including air vents, was scoured to prepare for Jade's return -- thanks in part to the generosity of Auntie Shameika and the professionals at Sears and Maid Brigade. 

With the exception of one hiccough (the home visit nurse said Jade's lungs sounded course and she was concerned about her breathing) that had me frantically taking Jade back to the hospital the day after she was discharged, Jade's 9-day home visit was a blessing and family-filled.  Auntie Shameika, Grandmas, Auntie Judy, Uncle Rashid, cousins Dionte, Jazmyne, Brooke, and the Carters all made appearances. (The unplanned clinic visit was uneventful. The docs didn't hear anything of concern in her lungs; and three short hours later we were heading back home.) But just seeing and having her at home, sleeping in our bed, running through our halls, playing with her brother and cousins... that's how it should be. 

Doing regular family things together was how we decided to spend this home visit. (Her ANC was still relatively low to consider a public outing... and why chance it?) There was baking, watching the dunk contest, music-making, sleeping late, family-style breakfasts and dinners... in other words, delight. I felt myself able to breathe and almost relax for a moment (well... as much as a mom can relax when tracking medications and obsessing - perhaps - over the cleanliness and safety of Jade's central line and lumens, a.k.a. tubies.)  

We had a pseudo-sleep over on her last night at home; we stayed up late, ate Oreos, blew up the air mattress and all four of us slept in our bedroom that night.  We excused Jaytoe from school to chaperone his sister back to the hospital.  Jade was readmitted on Friday, March 2nd to begin the second round of chemotherapy to treat her AML.