The Worst Rollercoaster Ride Ever

First, let me say that Mollie is doing pretty well at the moment. But the day did not start out that way.

I spent the night at home last night, and Matt stayed at the hospital with Mollie. Just as I was putting stuff in the car to head down the hospital, Matt called and said I needed to get down there, NOW (and hung up). After I was on the way- heart-pounding and freaking out, I called Matt back; he said Mollie was slurring her words and not responding to him. It happened really suddenly. My first thought was s-t-r-o-k-e. Her platelets had crashed overnight and were around 17, ooo (usually they are between 200,000 - 300,000) which meant she was at risk for internal bleeding (including bleeding in the brain). Of course, I was going over all the possible scenarios. It was not a good moment for me.

When I got there, Mollie burst into tears and continued to slur her words. Dr. Bell and Dr. Poole had been paged, but hadn't seen Mollie yet. I kept insisting, and finally a resident showed up and did a neuro exam, which didn't show anything unusual (except for the slurred speech). The doc kept asking Mollie some question that annoyed her to the point where she said, with perfect clarity, "I don't know." That settled it for him- he thought that this would resolve after a blood transfusion.

After the doctor left, Matt and Lucy took a walk, Mollie fell asleep, and I sat in the hospital room, closed my eyes, and just prayed. When Mollie woke up, she said, "I think I feel better. I think I just had a meltdown." And has not had any other slurred speech or unusual symptoms since. She got a platelet transfusion, and then red blood cells. The blood helped immensely. We spent most of the afternoon doing art projects and reading. As near as we can tell, the slurring may have been from exhaustion or dizziness due to her anemia/fever, fear of being in the hospital, reaction to all the chemo, or a combination. Needless to say, I am so thankful and relieved that she is doing better.

She is still very sick- she has a fever (which means infection) and is receiving two antibiotics. They're doing blood and urine cultures right now- no results yet. They stopped chemo (which I don't like) until her counts recover a bit. And she is getting GCSF shots to try to speed that process up a bit. At this point, she will be discharged when her fever goes down and her counts come up.

As if I haven't already written enough.... I have to mention the little boy in the room next to Mollie. He's probably no more than 3 years old and he's been there by himself almost the whole time. The nurse was talking about how cute he was, and a little troublemaker, etc. I assumed that the parents/guardian had to work and that's why they weren't there. The nurse made it clear that that was not the case- the mom treats the hospital visits like a vacation for her- free babysitting. It is so heartbreaking.