Day 16, Chemo Round 1 :: Lemonade

At least one of us is too big to be in this wagon...

Being tethered to her IV pole for the four-hour GCSF infusion today didn't curb Jade's good spirits or activity levels. Instead, she firmly planted her feet on the base of the IV pole, pointed in the direction toward the art room, futilely asked me to go fast, and held on for dear life. When life gives you lemons... 

I'm not sure where Jade gets this thrill-seeking and fearlessness from, but I pray that this spirit of hers will help her thrive -- especially in the months ahead. Before the infusion was complete, we had made several laps around the unit, a trip to the play room to borrow a board game, and two lengthy visits to the art room to paint, play with puppets, and create with pipe cleaners...

And the antics only increased once her brother arrived and she was disconnected from the IV pole.  There was a lot of dancing. You'll have to ask them to demonstrate their new dance - the sweaty leg (I think we may have Auntie Shameika to thank for that name). Multiple attempts to perfect her tree pose. Our budding yogi. Piercing shrieks when toes were nibbled by wind-up bunnies and chicks. Thanks to Ms. Eloise and Ms. Corrina. And boisterous anticipation of the Wednesday-night treat cart -- which included big brother zipping Jade in a wagon through the empty corridors and ultimately camping out in the hallway outside of Jade's room. Yes, my kids know the schedule... Wednesday night - treat cart. Thursday at 2pm - Hospital BINGO.

The fellow who has been working with Jade since 2012 stopped by in the midst of all of this to check in on Jade. I asked about the impact of the GCSF on Jade's recovery and she let us know that we still have at least another week before they anticipate Jade's ANC being high enough to take a break and go home for a week or so. She also informed us that we would be meeting the bone marrow transplant team tomorrow and sitting down with them sometime next week to review in detail the options (conditioning regimens, donor bone marrow vs. blood stem cells, etc.) available to Jade. There is so much that I don't know, so many statistics swirling around in my head... and that's frightening... just so desperately want for us to have many more healthy and happy years ahead of us with our brave girl!

Thank you for your continued prayers and support.

Today's Counts
Hemoglobin: 10.5 (holding steady; yesterday was 10.6)
Platelets: 34 (down from yesterday's 51)
ANC: 0
Monocytes: 0