Tuesday, June 3, 2008

Bloodwork appointment today...


Today we had our first post chemo blood work appointment. But of course we couldn't have a normal bloodwork appointment, we had to have a vomiting, antibiotic, and bloodwork appointment. We had vomiting issues again for the past 12 hours and nearly brought her to the ER last night but we decided not to. We literally write down the weight of every diaper, record every medicine, record every sleep pattern, and every vomiting session. At today's appointment we asked they give her more fluids and zofran for the vomiting. They did and she was immediately better. The great thing about this appointment is we went into it thinking we wanted them to put in a feeding tube but we left with a better plan. Instead of us stressing about getting antibiotic meds into her orally; (typically you can give meds directly into a feeding tube) we were given the option of a 1 time a month nebulizer/antibiotic treatment. We did it and it was AWESOME! So now we don't have to give her 8 doses a week of oral meds for any potential upper respitory infection, we just get a 20 minute nebulizer treatment once a month.

We think we might have the magic dosage right for vomiting too. 4mg of Zofran every 6 hours. Thats a big dose for her but it seems to work pretty well. We'll see how the night goes tonight.

I must say that having your child go through this is the most difficult thing in the world to experience. One day you think you know what to expect and the next day its totally different. Our emotions are on a huge rollercoaster. Right now I'm happy because she's walking around putting tape on the windows but in 5 minutes she may vomit and collapse to the floor. Look at these scars. One for the liver surgery, the other for the port insertion. -- April

2 comments:

Andrea said...

Oh sweet, dear Ashley. Such a hard thing to go through. I'm glad there is a better solution to the oral meds. As always, let us know if there is anything we can do.
Andrea

Unknown said...

Who knew you could get the antibiotics once a month?! Whew. What a relief for both you and Ashley. Hang in there April and Tony! All our love, Susan...