A quick post

I am going to try to make this a quick post due to the sheer exhaustion that I am feeling. But I know that everyone is wondering about our girl too. So here goes. The fever is gone now. It didn't appear at all today. They took blood cultures and said (although it is still early) nothing is growing infection-wise, so that is good. The fever could have been caused by the darn mouth sores. These are really hurting her again and she is on the morphine pump. She is also on another eating strike, which is not good for recovery. If she eats, and the sores get a bit better, she can come home. Of course, I am hoping that is tomorrow, but don't want to get my hopes up too much.

All day we offered her any kind of food...ice cream, slushies, cake, soup, mashed potatoes...anything smooth. Nope. She wanted chili. All day long, just wanted chili and never wavered. Don't ask me why, but she did. She wanted my homemade chili too, nothing from the cafeteria, etc. I called Jerad and taught him how to make it over the phone. Jerad cannot cook. AT. ALL. But I told him and he was ready to try when all of the sudden Pam Booher calls and says she is bringing over a pot of chili. Now how weird is that? Some divine intervention or something?! Jerad brought it down and she tried to eat it. She really tried..five bites into it she was crying in pain and we had to hit her morphine pump. She was gonna try again though. At least she felt hungry.

She set up a nail salon in her room today. She made several signs and posted them in the hallway and in the kitchenette.
She was busy almost all day long. We had people in our room almost all the time. The kids, the nurses, the PCA, a few of the moms...it kept her busy which was good. One of the nurses even brought her a laminated sign for her door that read "Ally's Nail Salon" For some reason I think it added to my exhaustion though as I talked to people all day long. Of course, I love to talk though...but it always amazes me how tired I get and I am really just sitting around. That goes to show you that the mental anguish part of the day can just take all the strength out of me. Talking to other Moms...hearing about how the horribleness of cancer has affected them. Oh, it breaks my heart. Over and over and over again. This is Ally's little friend Ashley, who has been having a really rough time lately, but was so thrilled to have a bigger girl paint her nails. (she just turned five) Taken with bad cell phone camera today since my regular camera battery was done.
We were lucky to have one of Ally's all time favorite nurses today: Nicole. She went part time recently and we hadn't seen her in a while. (not sure how since we practically live there) She was trying to help me to get Ally to eat and offered up herself...Ally was allowed to spray her with a syringe of water if she ate something. Ally did eat a little bit and Nicole got wet. She really cares about our girl...as do most of the people that we work with. I don't know how they do it. It takes a very special person.

I am really hoping to deliver good news tomorrow that Ally is even better and coming home. We could really use a weekend where we are all just together. And with that, I am practically falling asleep at my desk and will just say goodnight.