Cycle 6 is underway

Summer was admitted to the hospital yesterday. Her platelets were up to 94,000, her ANC was about 1700 (from my calculations), and her hemoglobin was 7.6. She is getting blood today to bring her hemoglobin up. The "normal" range is 11.4-13.9. She will not get it until this afternoon a couple hours after she gets her first dose of chemo - Carboplatin. She gets it over an hour. Tomorrow, Sunday and Monday she will get Iphosmafide and Etopside which are the "bad" drugs in my opinion. Of course all of the chemo drugs are good and bad. They are all poisons/toxins, but they help to kill cancer so she needs them. The drugs she gets over the next three days kind of mess with her mind which can be pretty scary if she is awake. Well, its scary when she is asleep too. Thankfully, they keep her pretty sedated after she gets them so she will be mostly sleeping for the next few days starting around noon (give or take an hour). I already have a few people lined up for relief everyday so that is AWESOME!!! I will be forever grateful to them for letting me keep some of my sanity. What isn't already lost anyway. LOL

Summer was riding the tricycle when I left this morning. She has had the best time on that thing the past two days. Last night we went to the rooftop garden after my mom & Tre left. She wanted to ride the tricyle, but it was hard because they have artificial grass out there which doesn't allow for smooth sailing. The hospital halls are a different story. I don't think I've ever seen her have that much fun on a tricycle. She rode it for about 30 or 45 minutes straight. She kept telling her Barney shoes to go faster. It was funny! They have a few "hills" in the hallway which are really her favorite part. She almost crashed a few times (they are not that steep) which made my heart pound and hers too. But, those were her favorite times. She absolutely LOVED them. Haven't seen her enjoy herself so much in a while so I am really treasuring those memories right now.

Not sure what the rest of the day will hold for her. But I see a few games of "Pretty, Pretty Princess" being played. We played twice last night. I won the first time and she won the second. Of course, I think she took a few extra pieces here and there in that second game. :)

What she wore grocery shopping....avoiding looking at the camera as usual.

She has been eating great the past few days. I have made a couple of middle of the night grilled cheese sandwiches. Then she would get up and eat them for breakfast too. I doubled the cheese in each one. Can't have too many calories!! She got up this morning at 4:00 and told me she was done sleeping. I cut on cartoons and told her I was going to keep sleeping which she seemed fine with. She also said she was hungry and asked for an Oreo which she ate half of. A few minutes later she was ready for bed again. PTL! Her food palette really changes all the time. She will get stuck on something and eat it for days. Then never again. The other day she wanted these snacks when we went grocery shopping: Oreos, cupcakes, cotton candy and peanut butter crackers. She also wanted some rice krispy treats, but I didn't know what she was talking about. She kept asking for the stuff with the marshmallows so I should've figured it out, but all I could think of was hot chocolate and that wasn't it. Oh well. I think my aunt is bringing her some tomorrow. Did I mention how I love visitors????

We went to the zoo the other day with some friends - Alicia, Liliana, & Laila. We also had Lexie with us. It was fun even though Summer got bit by the pony at the petting zoo. He barely nipped her elbow. The bite could have been mistaken for a nibble from my mouth it was so small. Luckily, she forgot about it after we left that part of the zoo (as had I until now). I think Summer's favorite part was the carousel. She wanted to ride twice, of course.

Please pray that the next few days will be uneventful for Summer. Can't wait til Tuesday! Then cycle 6 will be over.