Blood Anyone?

I was so impressed today, we got Chelsea's blood right at nap time, which is what I always request we do so she'll sleep through it. Usually though we have a hard time getting the blood to the floor. Not today! I'd like to say it was an uneventful blood transfusion, but you know with us, that's never the case. The last couple of days we've had a student nurse, which is really nice, b/c it's like having two nurses (which is good b/c I'm one high maintenance mama!) Since she's graduating soon, she's been doing most of Chelsea's care under supervision of course, and she started the blood. I was sitting next to the crib while she got her started and was taking her vitals, when I heard her say, uh-oh, there's a leak. That's not exactly what I wanted to hear. At first I thought Chelsea had pulled the tubing out of the bag, but that wasn't the side of the tubing she had been playing with, whew...it just for some reason was leaking where the tubing connects to the bag. There were drops of blood all over the floor, it was pretty gross. I was just thankful it was someone else's blood dripping on the floor and not hers coming from her Hickman. They got some new tubing and changed it out easily, but we're still stumped as to the problem. I was worried about infection getting into her line now, but they assured me that won't happen. Thankfully we got it all cleaned up and she was still able to take a nice long nap. She woke up right as the blood was done, so no chasing her around with the pole!

Speaking of that darned pole. She's been drinking really well the last few days and hasn't had to be hooked to fluids since that night we were up nursing a beeping pump. But yesterday the nurse mentioned that she hadn't been peeing as much a she had been drinking. I'm sure you know what my first thought was...the trashcan, but there's no way she could have been throwing her diapers in there, I mean why would you throw a diaper in the trash, the trash can is for toys! Seriously though, she gets a kick out of walking her diapers down to the nurses or care assistants so they can weigh them. She feels like she's being oh so helpful. She needs 1085 input (or fluids in) each day in order to stay off of fluids at night, so today she had well over 1,000, but had only peed 400 something. Where is the rest of the fluid going you may ask? One CA suggested she may be losing the rest of it in drool. I can say with little sarcasm that this is a likely scenario. In fact I think I just wiped 50 cc's of drool off my neck after rocking her to sleep. Yuck!
**For those of you who know a little about chemo and how it effects your organs, I've already asked them about her kidney function, and according to her labs, everything looks great, so we're not concerned that the chemo has damaged her kidneys.

A couple of side notes...
First, we have a new CA in training this week who I just learned attended Truman State University with my sister Hannah. Truman is an elite university for those smart kids. I'm not sure what's going on with their graduates though. My sister, a Truman grad, is wandering Spain right now, with no concrete plans for when she returns (or for the rest of her life for that matter), her boyfriend Mark, also a Truman grad, also jobless (sorry Mark ;) and now I meet Noah, who's working nights changing poopy diapers and God knows what else! Do you see the trend? It does look like Noah does have a plan though, it's medical school for him next year. (And please don't leave me a nasty comment about CA's and dirty diapers, I do very much appreciate the work of our CA's and am in no way insinuating that their job is less important than anyone else's. I don't think we'd survive our stay without them!)

Second, I'm trying to contact Deb Minner ... I can't find your email address, please email me, enseno153@aol.com Thanks!