Dr Broccoli

First of all, I have to post something about last night. Finally a good story to share. Jerad, as many of you know, is one of those people that is always the life of the party. He has always been that way and it is a good trait to have (most of the time). Last night, he decided to bring a few pumpkins to the hospital to carve with Ally....not knowing if she would participate, but just to give it a try. Well before long she had half of the kids on the floor in her room. Dave, Braden, Amanda, and Ally....all congregating with finally something to do. They ended up carving three pumpkins. I had actually brought Ally a green pumpkin on Saturday that I had picked from my Dad's pumpkin patch. She had a fantastic idea to make it into the shape of a piece of broccoli. See....her dr is named Dr Broxson, but sometimes we refer to him as Dr Broccoli. (thanks to Vicki Giambrone who told us that) Ally did the carving herself and I think she did a really good job. The kids just thought it was hilarious and the nurses keep stopping by to see it. Lots of snickers about Dr. Broccoli. Even the resident said he had heard about it before he even came into our room this morning. When Dr B was doing rounds this morning, he got a good chuckle out of it. He is just the sweetest man you can meet....always looking at our girl with these eyes like he has true empathy for her. So I am glad we could provide a few smiles around this place. I was proud of Jerad for having the party and the boys are already planning on coming back into her room tonight to carve more pumpkins. Who knows what they will come up with next.

Ally did work on the pumpkins (no talking though) but shortly thereafter she spiked a fever of 101.5 around midnight. I was worrying about this as it was slightly higher when I left at 9pm. They started her on yet another antibiotic and she hasn't shown the fever since. Hoping it was a fluke. Her ANC was at 40, so there is no chance her body can fight anything off right now. Her methotrexate level was finally .08.....11 days after treatment. So they removed her from the big bag of fluids. This was crazy considering she cleared the level within two days the first two times. She did end up needing a bag of blood this afternoon too. We just finished with that. She has an amazing amount of pumps and lines going into her body.

Lots of machines pumping lots of stuff and this was AFTER they took her fluid away

The good news is that she started speaking again today. Minimally, but she was speaking more than she has in six days. I am hoping that is a sign that she is turning the corner. She has also done a few more things today, and they are taking her morphine down just a little bit to see what that does. I am so hoping that she has turned the corner and will start to improve. We would love to be home for trick-or-treat...although lots of these kids won't.

And I can't believe we have to do yet another round of methotrexate again. One more time. I am scared to death, but trying not to think about it until the time comes. One thing at a time...for now we have to get her over this treatment.

Ally at 4pm today, no smiles, but UP.