Take a Breath

There are (at least) two types of running - Sprints and Distance. The past 11 days have been one of the longest sprints of my life. Tomorrow may begin one of the longest distance runs I'll ever experience as well.

We really had hoped that we would get to go home today, but a number of very good reasons have delayed our departure.

First, Harper's temperature continues to spike at times. Personally, I believe a lot of it is psychosomatic. Not that Harper is expecting her temperature to increase when she is stressed, but that her temperature increases as a reaction to her stress. She doesn't (and understandably so) like it here at the hospital. She doesn't like needles, the sight or mention of blood, nor even the appearance that nurses are putting on gloves.

Second, Harper has been retaining more fluid than she should. Now, that could partially be due to the fact that they've, at times, been drowning her with IV fluids (for good reason - don't want chemo hanging around in the bladder too long). While I think the tumors are likely shrinking, the fluid being retained was replacing them to take up available "space" in her abdomen. Plus her ankles and feet have been swollen. It looks so uncomfortable.

So, a couple of things happened today that I think move us closer to discharge. 1) they switched her antibiotic - if it IS any type of infection causing her temperature spike, my hope is the combined spectrums of the two new drugs (clindamyacin and cefipine) will take care of it; and 2) they added Lasix - which should take the fluid off of her.

But we still have the issue that her oxygenation is measuring low when she's not on oxygen. It's not dramatically low (running 88-92%) but low enough that the nurses were just in here messing with it. I don't really want her to go home on oxygen, but at this point, I'll take it if it gets us out of here. Plus, they gave her a transfusion today - some extra red blood cells can't hurt.

I'll also be thrilled for a night without nurses coming in constantly. Honestly, I like the nursing staff here, but their insistence of coming in and messing with kids while they're sleeping for what really feel like goofy things is starting to wear me down. For example, yesterday, the nurse came in at 10:30 pm to weigh her. Really? 10:30 pm seems like a good time to do this? Are you serious? Yes, you are on night shift, but we're doing our best to let Harper rest. Go away.

Melissa gets mad at me for getting mad at them. But, so is life.

Today, though, I got a chance to catch a breath. With not a lot going on in the afternoon, and Harper resting, I went home to spend a few hours with Cadence. We played a game, watched a movie, and ate a delicious dinner provided by a neighbor (Melissa had dinner delivered to the hospital which I hear Harper liked too - score!). It was nice to sit and relax for a few hours, even if they ended up feeling like very short hours.

But, I think it was a needed break. Sometimes you have to just sit and catch your breath, so you can run the next leg.

Marathon - here we come.