Valentine Party Day

Wow it doesn't take long to go downhill. Two days into this cycle Ally had had two days worth of chemo. In this phase, they do it back-to-back like that. During the night at the beginning of the third day she could no longer sleep. She was having horrible joint pain primarily in her legs, hips, and jaw. She could not get comfortable. Her back was also sore from the spinal tap. Once again, there wasn't too much we could do except try to console her and give some pain medication. It was a long night. By that morning, we realized she really couldn't walk without being in a great deal of pain and tears. Jerad was carrying her 70 pounds around but that is hard.

I was sad because we had three Valentine parties that day for all the kids. I didn't want Ally to miss it. She had spent f.o.r.e.v.e.r making her box/Valentines. For me, Valentines was the best "school holiday" because I loved the mail exchange and sweet treats. I knew she couldn't walk into the school. I was asking her what she wanted me to tell them....have the teacher pass out her Valentines....or wait til she was better and she could pass them out then....and then in a very matter of fact voice she said "I want to go" I was really shocked she wanted to go, but I remembered that I thought the school had a wheelchair. A few phone calls to the school office and they had very nicely set everything up for me with a special back door entrance.

The school nurse told me that she went down to Ally's class and told them she was coming, but in a wheelchair. She said the whole class broke out into an applause and it was quite touching to see. Once we got there, she lasted about a half an hour and then she was done. Done to the point that she cried most of the way home because it hurt. But I was so proud of her for going and trying to make the best of it.

We got my Mom's old wheelchair for her and she used it to get around the house most of the day. I also upped her medicine to some Vicodin and that really seemed to help. By the end of the day, she was feeling well enough that she asked to go to the WSU game and it was pretty simple to wheel her in and wheel her out. Her ANC was high so we decided to try it. Her little friends were sweet and came and sat with her at the game. She made it the whole time!

I do think (hope) that this pain will be only temporary. The vincristin does this to kids joints and we have seen it happen to her before, although never to this point. I think it should go away within a couple of days. And her next scheduled date is not until Friday...a week from now.