Monday, August 07, 2006

+6

Last night one of my homeschool friends, Andrea, and her 2-1/2 yr old son, Ethan, were admitted two rooms away from us. It's one big happy family on 2 North. Anyone else want to join us? Ethan has acute lymphocyte leukemia. His WBC was as low as David's. Andrea and I frequently run into each other at Stanford. I'm sorry we ran into each other in 2 North last night. Please pray for Ethan.

David's voice was hoarse yesterday, but today he has no voice. The Dr. Argawal said it may be a virus. They will watch him. He does not have a fever so they are not worried. Michael has sensitive vocal cords, so maybe with the dry air and the chemo, David's are sensitive too.

He's been feeling great otherwise. He ate his usual breakfast of cheerios, whole milk, and eggs. Lunch was 1/2 avacado and Odwalla Superfood drink (flash pasteurized). Breastfeeding like a champ. Maintaining his weight. Sleeping well. Playing. He hasn't lost his hair. No mucositus or mouth sores. His central line, as it exits his chest, looks red and maybe infected. Since he has no white blood cells (his count was down to 0.1) he has no way to fight infections. The doctors will be by to look at the site later. He needs a platelet and red blood transfusion today because his numbers are low. We don't expect the numbers to start climbing until weeks from now. We expect more transfusions during our stay here. He had diarrhea yesterday so they want me to save the next diaper for testing. They look for rotavirus and Epstein bar virus. I expect the test to be negative since he feels so good.

Still no luck with the oral meds. The dose is only 1/4 teaspoon. It does not matter what we mix it with, he still fights. The nurses said he is smart b/c he figured out how to bubble it back up. Last night we were successful by giving him the breast, taking him off, squirting the meds down, and putting him back on the breast. This worked well, however, when the nurse told the doctor, she said not to do that because he will begin to associate the breast with meds, and may start to reject the breast. So, we are back to square one.

We're enjoying the birds and "honey" bird as David calls hummingbirds. The PT came by to play with him for 30 minutes. I slipped out to Andronico's. I found the most delicious green seaweed and sesame salad and bought some Odwalla juices to boost my immune system.

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