Back to the ER

Mollie came home from school with a slight fever... and it went up. So, we are back in the ER waiting to see a doctor. I will update when we know anything. Please send positive thoughts/prayers that her counts are okay and we don't have to stay!

Update #1: We are still waiting on counts, but the doc says it looks like she will be admitted. Mollie is really, really bummed out. She keeps asking how much school she will have to miss and making up little songs about how the doctors are good but she doesn't like coming here. I'm worried about my sweet little girl.

Update #2: It looks like she has a UTI and will definitely be getting admitted. She is sleeping on a cot in triage right now and waiting to be transferred upstairs. She already got a dose of cefepime (antibiotic). Hopefully that will start working right away. It's kind of lonely here and I'm not looking forward to sleeping on the uncomfortable couch in the hospital room. But, maybe we've finally gotten the answer to what's been making Mollie feel so puny (as nurse Kate would say) for the last week or so.

Update #3: We are now "settled" in to the room. Mollie's ANC is very low (I still don't have a number, but her white count is 400 and the ANC is only a fraction of that). The medical team is pretty sure this is a urinary tract infection and are treating it as such for the moment. They are doing blood and urine cultures so we might know something more tomorrow. They will not release her until she has been fever-free for 24 hours and her ANC is trending up. At the minimum. My guess is that they will hold her chemo so that her counts start to rebound. Cefepime, do your stuff!!

Thoughts from me at 3 AM: Man, this sucks! Matt was supposed to go out of town this weekend to run his first marathon, and it looks like Mollie is going to be in here for at least a few days. Plus, with the "flu policy," we aren't going to be able to bring Lucy to the hospital. That bites on so many levels. It is going to be extremely hard logistically, because we don't have anyone else to care for Lucy. And even worse, Mollie and Lucy are going to miss each other!

A Little Better

Mollie had a better day today. She went to school, but was still not up to 100%. No surprise since her last dose of steroids was last night. This was just a really tough bout with steroids. It was hard for Matt and I to tell whether Mollie was feeling bad from the cough/sinus infection, steroids, or both. The cough is still hanging on, but she is definitely in a better mood than last week.

Hopefully, she will continue to feel better, despite the cold weather, and will be ready for her flu shot next week. Lucy was supposed to get her flu shot this week, but she woke up with a fever today! We think it is from teething, or maybe she's just getting a cold. I took her to the pediatrician to get checked out and I wanted to run out of the building because of all the sick people in the waiting room! I hope we didn't catch anything while we were there.

Ugh.

Yesterday was one of the worst days Mollie has had in a long time. She feels crummy from the steroids, crummy from her cough/infection, and the weather is cold and overcast. She ended up sleeping most of the day. We went out to run some errands and I tried to entice her into going to the library, the toy store, or just to lunch, but she wouldn't have any of it. She just wanted to go home. Later in the day she got angry at me for not taking her to her Daisy scouts meeting (even though she was sound asleep during the whole time the meeting was taking place). I hadn't even mentioned the meeting and I was really surprised she remembered it.

She's very teary, emotional, and tired. I have a feeling today will be more of the same- it's day #3 of 5 for the steroids. It's hard to see Mollie feeling so bad and even harder to try to deal with a very energetic, happy toddler at the same time!

Clinic Update

Mollie got her monthly IV vincristine today and has started her steroid pulse. She did fine with the port access and we were actually done by noon (a minor miracle). But... we still had to get prescriptions filled afterwards. These clinic days are LONG.

Mollie's ANC (neutrophil count) is much lower than it was a few days ago (1100), but she is not neutropenic. Neutrophils are the infection-fighting white blood cells. This lower count means we need to be extra careful about infections because if she does get one, she will likely become neutropenic and may end up in the hospital. She's still very congested and doesn't have a lot of energy.

We will probably hold her out of school for the rest of the week; we need to get her feeling better!

Another Day, Another Clinic Visit

Not today, thank goodness. Mollie stayed home from school today because we felt she needed a little more recovery time before her chemo tomorrow. She had a pretty good day, but she missed school. Her teacher sent home some activities that she worked on; we did some jigsaw puzzles and ran some errands, but I could tell she missed going to school.

Tomorrow morning we head back to clinic for her chemo and she begins her 5-day steroid pulse. Those dreaded steroids should also help with the sinus inflammation.

I'll update from the clinic tomorrow.

In other news, I got a phone call from the former director of the pediatric ER about the medication mix up on Saturday. He has forwarded this information to the new director (I didn't realize there had been a change) and she is supposed to follow up with me this week and we will file a formal complaint. I'm still angry about the situation. That nurse didn't follow protocol; if she had, she would have realized that Mollie was not supposed to get Benadryl, and there would have been no problem. The nurses in clinic ask Mollie her name and birthdate every time they do anything; then, before they give her any medication, they ask me if she has any allergies. Every time. They also told me that they have one patient who IS allergic to Benadryl...

Again with the fever!

Not too happy about being hooked up to an IV again!

Waiting in clinic.

Mollie spiked a fever last night at 3 AM, so we knew we were in for a clinic visit today. She was also feeling dizzy and "wobbly" (although she was laying down so I'm not sure what she meant by that). I gave her Tylenol and Zofran; it got her fever down and let her go back to sleep. Of course, the light in the kitchen burnt out and I slammed my finger in the cabinet, plus I had the clinic visit on my mind, so I had a hard time going back to sleep!

We spent the day in clinic and the NP thinks Mollie has a sinus infection or inflammation. She received another dose of rocephin through her port (another needle stick, with one more to look forward to on Weds.) and is starting a two week course of oral antibiotics. We're hoping this clears up all the yuckies, including the bouts of dizziness.

We had a lovely day yesterday, though. We took a family walk at a local park in the nice fall weather. Mollie seemed to really enjoy the sunshine and being outdoors. Today is a different story- it's been pouring for 8 hours straight. I'm glad we spent today in clinic and not yesterday!

Drumroll, please....

The winners of the Light the Night T-shirts are:

Jessica Roberts
Kathy Mertz
Gail Franssen
Justin Shimek
Sally and Darryl Phillips
Anita Roberts

Be looking for your T-shirt in the mail!

We're going to have to have another giveaway soon... the random name drawing was very exciting for Mollie and Lucy!