Day 2 & 3 brought a ton of visitors for Harper, and began to reinforce to us how special this little girl is to so many people. I won't recount all the names, as I'm sure I would forget someone, but it was a steady stream of friends and family, a ton of cards and gifts, and things to keep Harper occupied.
The end of Day 2 got interesting (as if we needed more excitement). The nurses kept checking and re-checking Harper's blood pressure. They didn't believe the results they were getting with the automated BP monitors. They even brought in the old fashioned manual ones to make sure the automated machine was accurate. Unfortunately, it was.
Her blood pressure was way up. One reading was 210/140. They called in a nephrologist (because the growth is on the kidney) who started administering intravenous meds to try to control her HP. Based upon the extremely high readings, and the multiple meds it was taking to bring it down, they decided to transfer us to the Pediatric Intensive Care Unit (PICU).
After moving, we came to realize just how lucky we were to be in the Oncology unit at Kosair. In the PICU we don't have a private room, and there is noise coming from everywhere. The nursing is more intensive, which is what we need, but that means they are in every hour, there are beeps and alarms, etc. Also, all we have is 1 convertible chair for both Melissa and I. Since we're now used to a King bed, this takes us back to College days...
There have been more needles since we go down to the PICU as well, which has not been fun. But, Harper is slowly adjusting. She is still fighting us, but she's getting braver, and her fight is more verbal - we don't have to lay on top of her and hold her down anymore. I hate holding her down.
The girl in the next bay has been pretty noisy too (understandable) and that has been freaking Harper out. The continual crying out and screaming is starting to wear her down. I think the little girl goes back to surgery today, which will at least offer Harper a short reprieve. Right now she has headphones in and is watching a movie to block out the noise.
We are this morning (Day 4) waiting for them to come get Harper and take her for her biopsy. We've been avoiding talking with her about the fact that they take tissue through a needle. Fortunately, she'll be under anesthesia, so she won't see, hear or remember anything.
We're expecting her to be away from us for something like 3 hours. It will be excruciating, but we are so anxious to know for sure what we're dealing with.
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