Bad Day

Today was a bad day. In fact, Jerad and I were just discussing that it was the worst day that Ally has had yet. Her stomach pain continues and it is constant and it is a sharp, hurting pain. It woke her up about every half hour last night. She just wakes up crying in pain. It was so bad that Jerad hopped in the car just after midnight and went to CVS looking for pain relief. We've tried Mylanta, Pepto, Tums..nothing budges it. The prescription prevacid that she is on does not work either. We spoke to Dr Broxson today about our concerns. There has to be something to alleviate the pain...it is actually not even one of the side effects from the chemo or the steriod. The doctor started thinking that maybe it is because of the two antiobiotics that she is taking for her fevers and to keep the germs at bay. So we are stopping both of those. He decided to give her an infusion today of antibiotic (thru her port) that lasts about a month. If this works, we will be so much happier. And we have the added benefit of not having to adminster medicine at home every morning and every night. Please say a prayer that this takes the pain away from our little girl. Enough is enough already.

She also got two more doses of chemo today. Upon testing her blood, they found out that her hemoglobin was too low (probably adding to her general feeling of misery) so they had to give her another bag of red blood. Our quick visit to the clinic ended up being about six hours because the blood takes a few hours and that new antibiotic took an additional hour to infuse. Nothing ever goes as planned....so that is how we live our life right now. No plans...all is just wait and see. For two big planning accountant types, this is a bit hard for us to swallow. We just never know. We tell people...we may be there, we may not. Just wait and see. I guess we are living proof that life can be lived flying by the seat of our pants. (wondering where that phrase came from now?) Our good friend Kim Grant, who works at Children's, was supposed to be observing in the Hemoc area today. Coincidentally, she sat through much of our appointment with us. She was a bit taken back by all the medical jargon being thrown around and how much information must be processed. (We have learned so much in 21 days.) And, of course, how sad it was to see little innocent Ally sitting there crying and in pain. She was barely cracking a smile. She was in complete misery today, I tell you, and noone wants to see it.

I keep looking forward to tomorrow morning. Our friends, the Soins, have come up with the perfect "gift" for us. They have arranged for a massage therapist to come to our house in the morning and do a massage for each of us. We don't have to leave the kids, we just take turns. But we could really use it right now. Especially after a few nights on that hospital couch. This is quite a treat.

Finally, a lot of hair is falling out now. Ally is getting quite bothered by this, primarily because it is itchy and annoying. She is not too vain...I am not sure she will care about being bald. We will see. I don't think we will have her hair for too much longer. We are expecting a visit from the hair fairy tonight. This picture is her deposit for tonight. Apparently, she is a cousin of the tooth fairy. And if you leave your hair out, she may leave you something. Who knew?

Please just keep praying that we get through this extremely hard time. Pray for Ally to feel better....no pain. For Jerad and I to have the strength to deal with it. And for little Carly and Evan's life to just remain as normal as it can. They are dealing with the absence of their parents, both physically, but also mentally as well. Even when we are here, we are just merely getting by.