Touch of Comfort.

A while back I remember seeing a commercial for Downy Touch of Comfort and thought it was really neat. Well this past week when we were in the hospital one of the Child Life Specialists came in and gave Mimi a super cute quilt, that is so perfect for her! On the back of it is a tag with the makers name on it and the name of the quilt. We went online and registered her quilt and read some stories of other kids that got quilts also. Such a great program!

P.S. Check out the hair on Mimi's head!

Chemo on Hold.

Quick visit today. Finger prick and counts, we were in and out in a half hour!

Mimi's neutrophil count is low, she is neutropenic, so chemo is being held until next week when we go in for counts and hopefully they will go back up enough to continue. I am hoping for some SUN because being quarantined inside the house with three kids at home gets a bit nuts to say the least... I am lining up some indoor activities right now.

Today's Counts:
WBC -
Hgb - 10.6
Platelets - 177
Neutrophil - 290

Happy.

Big Hugs. Yellow Sponge Bob Ice Cream. Horses and Horse rides!

Strawberry Ice Cream. Slimy Giant Tadpoles. Hungry Lamas!

Gumball Eye balls Sponge Bob Ice Cream. Ride on Daisy. Making Wishes!

Fantastic All-Girl Kind of a Day!

Waiting for Discharge Papers.

Yes!

So the bacteria is believed to be a contaminate. The second blood cultures that were taken (on Wed.) have not grown any bacteria which is reassuring. She will have a blood culture done at some point next week just to triple check but that will be done at the clinic. No extra meds for home and continuing with nightly chemo pill. Oh and we are also watching for any chicken pox spots in the next couple of days since Mimi might have been exposed on Monday while she was in the playroom, although she was wearing a mask, has had the vax, and was only there for a couple of minutes.

Mimi looks great, her ears look alot better. So I am waiting to sign my name on dotted line and take my Mimers home to see her fellow monkey sisters!

Request for tonight: Ravioli and Movie Night.

We got a little plan.

So the plan is we are going to wait until tomorrow to see which gram-negative bacteria is growing, to make sure we have the correct antibiotic to treat it. Also to see if the blood culture from yesterday has grown anything, so far it has not, it might be because the original as contaminated or the antibiotics she is getting for the ear infection are helping. Infectious Diseases wants Mimi to stay overnight and more than likely discharged tomorrow.

The question came up, How serious is this infection? Reality is that if we know it is in fact in her blood, and once we know which one it is, the doctors will know which antibiotic will get rid of it and she will be fine. Another question if she does have this bacteria, how did she get it? She is a kid and could have gotten it anywhere, being immunosuppressed she has a higher chance of catching things.

She looks fine, she is eating, and had loads of energy, she has been having tricycle races all over the 4th floor, it is quite fun to keep up with her IV pole, come on down and try it.

Waiting for a plan.

Late this morning we found out from the doctors the bacteria on the blood culture is gram-negative, right now we are waiting for Infectious Disease (sounds scary) to go into the lab and I guess confirm that. If it is in fact that, I believe the plan is that Mimi will go home and a nurse will come to the house and teach us how to administer the antibiotics daily to Mimi through her port. But we are still waiting for a definite plan.

Mimi's counts have dropped since Monday, when we came in her Neutrophils were around 3500 right now they are around 700, which probably means her body is trying to fight this, all chemo is on hold so she can have something to fight this infection with.

Positive Blood Culture.

We were SO close on going home. But NO GO.

This morning Mimi's Blood Culture that was taken on Monday night turned out to be positive. It could be one of two things a bloodstream infection or false positive caused by skin contamination. We have to wait until tomorrow morning to see exactly what "grew" on that culture. Also another blood culture was taken this afternoon to see if it will have the same outcome but we are hoping it was just contamination. (If this is all confusing, check the link above, I just learned more than I probably needed to about blood cultures from the hospital and from Google)

Mimi was ready to go home and I think her sisters are ready to have her home but hopefully tomorrow. Iza and Magi came to visit for a while and got to play dress up and doctor on the hospital play deck with child life. She is running around the halls with her IV pole and chatting it up with the hospital staff, she looks so much better than yesterday.