Monday, June 15, 2009

Light at the end of the day

Summer has finally attempted to eat. This evening she had 25 spoons of chicken noodle soup broth. She also had a few bites of popcorn. Yay! She has drank tea and water today so I am thinking she is okay in terms of hydration. NO vomiting since 2:30 a.m. She has had 3 doses of Benadryl today so maybe that is helping her to not be so nauseated. She slept a lot today though so maybe it just helped to sedate her. Still hasn't taken her belly or allergy meds. She wants me to mix them with water, but I know that would taste terrible so I'm not even going there.

She complained of a headache a little bit ago. She did yesterday too. She says it is in the back of her head, at the base. Guess I'll mention that to the doctor tomorrow although it is probably just a side effect of the chemo. I found out that Ifosphamide is derived from mustard gas. Scary, huh!?! It was in this video which I ran across while youtubing with Summer: Chemotherapy Video. Summer is on all three of these drugs not in the same combination as the patient in the video, but still the video says a lot, painting a somewhat scary portrait of chemotherapy. Unfortunately, it is scary.

Not to leave on a bad note, here is a video that reminds me that miracles are possible....it also brings tears to my eyes, but I have been told it is okay to cry. McKayla Keelan has been cancer free for 1 year - same cancer as Summer, but stage 4 instead of 2. Anyways, thought I would leave with a brighter video than I started with. Through God all things are possible!!!

5 comments:

Susie said...

Good to see that she is doing a little better. And yes there is miracles, so keep believing.

Bridgett said...

Chemo is scary.
Along with the positives, it brings a lot of negatives.
But as Summer's mom, you know what's best for her.

I'm sooo glad to hear she's feeling better and eating a little more.

One way to check her hydration...lightly pinch the skin on her arm. If it goes right back into place, she's hydrated. If it doesn't immediately, she probably needs a little more fluid. It's called the skin turgor test and it's pretty reliable. I used it a lot in my assessments in nursing.

XOXO

Molly said...

I'm glad that she's at least eating a bit of something. Does she like grape juice? That's a pretty strong flavor that can be good for taking medicine.

Another trick, to assess hemoglobin level: look under her lower eyelid (with clean hands of course). If it is paler than it should be, she probably needs red cells.

Hang in there--doesn't "halfway" sound awesome?!

JC said...

Molly - Yeah, halfway does sound awesome. How many more cycles does David have? How many did he start with before it came back? I have been wondering....always praying for you!

Thanks Bridgett~!

Rylee & Aedyn's Mommy! said...

im glad summer is doing some better, it was good seeing her the other night.
but it was weird seeing her with no hair, it was the first time i had.
i try not to feel bad for her bc i know shes beating it.
but just to let you know shes in my prayers everynight-seriously :]
and i would love to get all the girls for a play date :]