Just Two More

The past 5 days have been so all over the board that it's hard to know where to begin. I guess I'll start with a recap of the bath situation:

Bath #1 - Tried a shower at the nurse's suggestion. Big mistake.
Bath #2 - Oversized infant tub + video + rubber ducky = success
Bath #3 - Same formula, different result. Screamed through the whole thing.
Bath #4 - Alas, strike 3
Bath #5 - If there were 4 strikes, this would be it.

Ironically, she played for 1/2 hour in the tub tonight at home. She splashed water everywhere, giggled hysterically and cried when I finally said the bath was over. Jeff and I just shook our heads and enjoyed her smiles.

Now to back up to the chemo. We arrived at the hospital at 9am on Friday only to be told that there were currently no available beds but they were expecting some to open up that morning. Jeff got the BRILLIANT idea to ask if we could go home while we waited. They agreed to call us when a bed was ready. At 4pm (yes, 7 hours later, good thing we didn't wait there), we got the call, jumped in the car and headed for the hospital. We were literally turning onto the hill to OHSU when we got another call saying they had to give the bed to an emergency patient. So we were re-directed to the clinic where she waited until 7:30pm to be admitted. Her chemo didn't start until 9:30pm.

The two nights of chemo went well. She played heartily during the day and had minimal side effects. She was to have a stem cell transplant 48 hours after her last chemo treatment and we were obliged to wait that out at the hospital. Both days the nurses unknowingly teased us with the idea of a 4 hour pass to go home only to have the doctors veto the idea. Finally the wait ended and the transplant was scheduled for first thing this morning.

We were told that the transplant would be similar to a blood transfusion. Just a 4-hour drip through her line. But when the nurse arrived in the playroom this morning with 3 different pre-meds, I knew this was going to be different. Though medically the transfusion went normally, it was far from routine for us. In order to take her vitals every 5 minutes, they attach a blood pressure cuff to her leg and oxygen monitor to her toe (which is no more annoying than a band aid). The oxygen monitor posed the first challenge as Lillian screamed throughout the procedure that she wanted it off NOW. Undoubtedly exacerbated by the fit she was throwing, Lillian also vomited throughout the last half of the transplant. Apparently they treat the stem cells with a preservative that some kids don't like. And we have found that Lillian generally falls into the category of "some kids" or "infrequently" or "every so often". Fortunately, the doctors also exaggerated the length of the procedure and about 45 minutes later, the transplant was complete and Lillian drifted into a medicated slumber. All I could do was look at Jeff and say "just two more."

After all that, we're home happily looking forward to sleeping in our own beds. Though that was the longest I had been apart from Ched, I will gladly wait another 17 days to see it again. Good night!