Fingers Crossed

Fingers crossed. Holding my breath. Don't even really want to say it for fear of jinxing it....but I think she has turned the corner. I thought this a little bit on Monday too, so that is why I am a little bit tentative to say it, but I am hoping it is true. Monday was decent. Tuesday was bad. Wednesday, right after I wrote the blog actually, she started doubling over in pain. Crying. I could wait no longer and took her right down to the hospital. This time...I was the one crying too...all the way down to the hospital, to the blood lab, in front of the xray tech, and then for the nurse in the Hemoc clinic. (none of which has ever seen me breaking down) They took six more vials of blood (from her ARM too!)...the xray determined that she had nothing in her stomach...(not rocket science since she hasn't eaten anything in forever)


We waited. I told Dr B how I had been researching. How I couldn't just sit idle and let this get the best of her. He chuckles. He always chuckles at me. I said...well I am not trying to be a doctor here, I trust you all the way.....but what about Hepatitis?? He chuckles more and says Janel....that is what we are already looking for. I just wish he would have told me and saved me all that research.



The bottom line on what he is thinking now is that she had a virus. A really really bad virus. (like a hepatitis or nasty intestinal thing, etc) One that could have entered her body from some bad water. (she is not supposed to ever have well water, even if treated, and she accidentally did) The virus resulted in the fevers (almost a week) and the two trips to the ER. What is left now are elevated liver levels, as her body processes some of this and gets it out. And it probably also resulted in some of her red blood cells breaking down...which is part of that original Hemolysis assumption. All of the viral tests that he ran came back negative so far.


Tomorrow we are going back to the hospital (the fifth time in 10 days). They are running more hepatitis tests on her. They are also going to check those liver levels....they did start to come back down on Wednesday, which is a good sign. He wants to make sure they keep on heading downward.


They talked about putting her back on the TPN: IV nutrition. Because she hasn't eaten in so long, but we decided to wait a while longer and he put her on an appetite stimulant instead.


She did start eating a tiny bit today. 2 squares of Marions Pizza for lunch (tiny tiny squares)...but it was something. She actually went back to our pool for the first time in two weeks. This was a very very good sign. She ate a few snacks, a small bit of dinner, a good portion of ice cream. It is the most her body has seen in a long while.


Thank you so much to all of you who have prayed and so many of you who have reached out to us in this time of worry. It seems like possibly the longest and scariest 10 days we have seen yet. Because for a long while we thought the cancer might be coming back. It is a horrible fear that eats parents alive. And the unknown is so much worse than anything else.


Special thank you to Reid and Susan Murphy, good friends of our family from Florida, who were up at dawn this morning and calling in to check on us. (She just wore her Mote Aquarium hat yesterday too!)


Thanks to the Dan and Marcia Schmitz....who live up towards our lakehouse and helped me out with a little research and caring thoughts for our girl. Can't wait to see you on the 22nd.


And thank you to the Special Wish organization for giving us a little news to brighten our day...the Wizards are back into taping their fourth season. We may be going to Hollywood sooner than we thought. And also thank you to Special Wish for allowing Ally and her siblings a special visit with the Blue Angels Airshow team tomorrow. We are quite excited for that.


In amongst all of this stress, we had Jerad's birthday too. And a lot of you know the story of Jerad's "epic" celebration, but a lot you don't and I am going to save that long story for another post....stay tuned. It is a memorable story. Possibly the most memorable story I have written yet. Happy Birthday Jerad!