SURPRISE!

We're home! Actually we've been home since Tuesday night ... I'm sure you're wondering why the secret right? Well today, May Day, is my mother in law's birthday ... Happy Birthday Carolyn! ... and we surprised her for her bday. She was expecting a quiet dinner with her hubby, Ryan and Logan, and out of nowhere Chelsea and I popped out to surprise her. It was totally worth keeping it quiet from you all ... sorry. I love surprises!

So the scoop is, we were kicked out Tuesday night. When I say kicked out, I mean kicked out. I insisted I would prefer to stay the night in the hospital (can you believe it?) since Chelsea had just gotten her picc line a few hours earlier, but her dr. said she had no medical reason to keep us. Ha! What a crock. Did you know most kids don't go home on IV antibiotics? Most kids with line infections or anything that requires IV have to stay in the hospital for the duration. BUT, since we've done them at home before, she insisted we leave. I was just nervous, b/c well, while a picc line is no big deal to the medical professionals, it's still a centrally placed line, and THAT'S a BIG DEAL to me! We survived the night though and have been fine since going home. I swore to Ryan if anything went wrong we were getting a new doctor. I know that they assign 'fellows' to the patients because they need to learn too, but I'm sorry, I just hate the idea of somebody LEARNING on my child with CANCER. (Okay, I'm done ranting, and I'm sorry to any medical professionals who read this, please don't be mad ;)

Wednesday we were hooked up with a home health nurse, and surprise number two, she showed up ... as planned! Do you remember way back after round one when we were supposed to get a HH nurse to come and do labs on Chelsea and finally at 4:30 after calling back and forth they told me they couldn't come, so I had to take her to the dirty, germ infested hospital to have her blood drawn while her ANC was ZERO?! Well since then, I've lost a lot of faith in HH agencies, so this was a pleasant surprise. (My lack of faith in the system was another reason I preferred to stay at the hospital. Chelsea needed a dressing change on her new picc line 24 hours after it was placed, and I was afraid if nobody showed up I'd have to drive her back up to the hospital anyways). The nurse was actually awesome, she used to work at the office of MY old pediatrician ... years ago. Small world. She did a great job, changed the dressing and was on her way. She'll come back Monday to draw labs. Grandma "Bawb" is done doing labs I'm afraid. Not that she can't, I felt she was too nervous after all these dangerous infections so I didn't want to pressure her into anything. This will work out fine as I trust Dana, our new nurse. Oh, and did I mention she was super impressed by Chelsea and thought she was quite the charmer? But you're not surprised are you?

We have 3 more days of IV antibiotics ... then ... back for more, you guessed it, CHEMO. We'll start on Wednesday. Excited? To get it over with? yes. To return to the hospital and poison my baby? no. But we'll fight it out and survive just as we have the last five rounds. And when it's done, it's done! All that will remain is one itty bitty bone marrow aspiration ... and weekly labs for a little while. Just think, come next fall this will all be a thing of the past! I better get some sleep for now. I have to give her vanc every six hours and it runs over an hour. That means I'm available from 3-4am ... maybe I'll do the laundry then.

And off topic now, I'm thinking tomorrow will be a good day for a little contest, care to join me?