I was concerned about today because Kaitlyn was scheduled for a full load of chemo and a lumbar puncture (spinal tap)--I thought it was going to be just a long, rough day. Her chemo is administered like this: 10 consecutive days of Ara-C over 5 minutes (they call it a 5 minute push because the nurse just injects it into the tube instead of having to hang a bag to drip in over a longer period of time) twice a day (every 12 hours), 5 consecutive days of Etopocide over 4 hours, 3 days every other day of Donorubicin over 6 hours. So some days she has 3 chemo drugs and some days 2.
The good news is that a couple of the anti-nausea meds are working really well for Kaitlyn at this point and she ended up feeling really well almost all day! The spinal tap was in the afternoon and they put her completely out for that which she has no problem with at all. In fact, she says that she likes to have the spinal tap because being put out makes the day go by faster. She's pretty much been on Saipan time since we arrived here and I think that this was the first day that she was on a more normal schedule where she actually slept during the night.
Uncle Bob and Aunt Kathie came to visit in the morning. They brought her a stuffed toy dog named "Patches," but she tells me that she is changing the name to "El Patcho." Yeah. I don't know. That's Kait. :) I told Casey that by the time Kaitlyn leaves here she'll probably have her weight in stuffed toys. (She looooves them!)
We got to meet another one of the team yesterday as well:
Hillary - Child Life Specialist. We'd been hearing about the hospital's "awesome" Child Life program since day one when Kait received a brightly colored blanket and pillow case from them down in the ER. Although we haven't had much other experience with it yet, I have to admit it does sound great. Hillary talked with Kaitlyn about things she could do before her hair goes like having a professional beautician come in to try fun haircuts or crazy colors. She also told her that they have a program called "Deck My Room." Kaitlyn will fill out a form telling about things she likes, etc., they'll send it off to the program where volunteers will go shopping for things, then they will come in and completely decorate thee hospital room according to Kaitlyn's favorite things! I wish I had someone that would do that for my house!
Hillary went down with Kaitlyn for the lumbar puncture.
Blessings:
- Child Life
- Bob & Kathie
- Prayer, Priesthood, & Promises
My name is Peter Miller, I'm John and Heather Miller's youngest son. I last met some of your family about 20-something years ago when I was a little kid and visited Maine on a family vacation.
ReplyDeleteMy mom was the one who alerted us to the situation with your daughter and asked us all to fast and pray on her behalf. I’m working over here in Afghanistan and I just wanted to extend from my corner of the world my greetings and well wishes for not only your daughter but also for your family as you all pull through this.
If there’s anything at all that I can help you out with, don’t hesitate to shoot me an email and let me know about it. You can get ahold of me at seepetey at gmail.com.
Tell your daughter that Pete from Kandahar says to hang in there!