Bone Marrow

BONE MARROW IS CLEAR ... CANCER IS GONE ... AND IS STAYING GONE!!!!!

We got the official call Friday afternoon, we let most of the family know, but I haven't had a free moment to post an update. It's a good busy though. It's a playing with the kids, rocking them to sleep, or reading them a book busy. Life is good.

So, yes, her bone marrow looked great and as long as her labs stay normal we will NEVER have to do another bone marrow aspiration again! I spent most of the afternoon Friday trying to figure out how to get Chelsea to take her antibiotics. Remember the meds they gave her when her blood culture grew gram postive rods last Thursday? Well the medicine is a capsule we have to break open and mix with some sort of food. If we were to give her the liquid form, it would be A LOT 10ml, and even when flavored the doctor says it tastes awful. I believe her. The capsule ... I'm not sure I've ever tasted anything worse. Seriously.

With my first attempt, I sneaked the dust into a bowl of applesauce. A staple of childhood right? Chelsea loves applesauce. Not on Friday. I thought she just needed a nap, so I put her to bed and decided to try again after nap. I decided next time I would mix it in her drink, something she would never turn down, fruit punch! Ummm, the kid literally heaved her cup at me after one sip. Yes, my innocent little girl tossed her cup across the kitchen in protest. I took the lid off of the sippy cup and took a swig to see what all this madness was about. The fruit punch went down, but the taste lingered for the rest of the night. I was rummaging through the refrigerator like a drunk looking for a chaser. I grabbed the milk jug unsuccessfully trying to wash the flavor out of my mouth. Then I tried brushing my teeth, but my mouth still tasted like I swallowed acid. It was 4:00 on Friday and I knew the hemonc nurse would be leaving soon for the weekend. I called to express my concern.

"Seriously, have you tasted this?"
"no"
"Do you understand, there is NO WAY I am going to be able to get her to take this."

She reminded me how important it was for her to get the medicine, it has a broad coverage, and since she doesn't have a line anymore we can't give her IV antibiotics ... unless we admit her and do it through a peripheral IV. Well you know it would be a cold day you know where before we do that, so I took her suggestions and promised to try again ... even if takes two of us to get it down her.

My third attempt was the powder mixed in one bite of chocolate ice cream. She can't turn down chocolate ice cream can she? Ha, yep, that came right back out. I waited for Ryan to come home from work before attempting again. Finally, 4th time is a charm. Clindamycin powder mixed in straight chocolate syrup. Yes it was forced, but it was swallowed. And like Mommy, Chelsea chased the drug with a few big swigs of milk from her sippy and some Dora the Explorer tooth paste. (Actually I used colgate, not Dora tooth paste). You get the point now. There is nothing in the world that can disguise the taste of this medicine, so we just have to do it. We just have to. We did trade the chocolate syrup for grape jelly last night, and while she fought us, we were successful at administering that dose.

Do you know how hard it is for me to do this? I am completely serious, it is like child abuse to force this down her throat. You couldn't pay me to swallow it. I just can't do it, it's disguisting!

And just think, I get to do this three times a day for 8 more days!