There's No Place Like Home

Yesterday's clinic appointment was stressful to say the least. I'm still not recovered. We couldn't feed Chelsea in preparation for her bone marrow aspiration (which requires sedation), so she hadn't eaten since dinner Tuesday night. She slept in on Wednesday, so I didn't wake her to feed her. Our appointment was scheduled for 12:30. We were a little late, but they were backed up, so it didn't really make a difference. We had to entertain our hungry 2 year old for 2 hours. It was 21 1/2 hours since she had eaten by the time they did the procedure. I felt awful. While we were try to entertain her in the play area, she kept running into the hallway area so we closed the door. Everytime we closed the door, someone opened it. A couple of nurses were thoroughly annoyed with us, but we were seriously annoyed with the entire situation.

Her ANC was 1,440, her platlets 400,000 +, hemoglobin 11.2, WBC, 2.89. Things are looking good. After they did the bone marrow aspiration, they drew blood cultures of both lumins in her picc line, then they pulled the line! Chelsea cried when they pulled it. It was probably partly b/c she was a little crabby coming out of sedation, and partly b/c it was uncomfortable. The line goes all the way to her heart, so I can't imagine it feels great coming out. She has a super tight bandage on her arm where it was and they told us not to get it wet for a few days. I know our doctor told us before we were discharged that she could go swimming the next day, but the attending and the nurses said no way. They reminded me the line leads right to the heart, so should any infection get into the open wound it could be very dangerous. It's just not worth risking. It worked out fine, today was cool and rainy so Logan didn't even ask about swimming. I'm sure by this weekend they'll both be ready to get in the water though.

We actually had quite a few tornadoes roll through the area again tonight. Last night's tornadoes went through my former college campus destroying many buildings and causing devestating damage to many homes. When the sirens began going off here tonight I was in the pharmacy drive thru with Chelsea in the back seat! I was freaking out to say the least. We quickly parked and I ran into the store with her in my arms. We were drenched from the downpour and we ran through the store to the back where employees were directing the customers. The entire store closed down and everyone was waiting out the storm together. Ryan called and told me the tornado was pretty far south of us and I had time to get home. Actually, he told me to come home. Like him, I didn't really want Chelsea and I hanging out at the grocery store for the next hour. So once again I trudged through the puddles and loaded her into her seat. I drove as quickly (and safely) home all the while the tornado sirens were alarming. My heart was racing. I couldn't get through to Ryan on the phone and I didn't know where the tornadoes were as I hadn't seen the TV weather reports yet. Luckily we made it home safely and Chelsea had no clue what was going on. I actually think she enjoyed the rain and thought it was funny that her hair was all wet.

Ryan had dinner ready so he sat us down to eat upstairs with the weather on the TV in the background. Once it started moving closer I drug the kids downstairs and we waited it out. Nothing hit close to us, thank God. I just really don't think I could handle anything like a tornado hitting our house right now. Just another day in Kansas I guess you could say. When we went upstairs, Logan surprised, said, "our roof is still here!" I guess he thought b/c the sirens were going off that meant our house was going to get hit by the tornado. He seemed a little disappointed. I think he didn't realize what the sirens meant b/c usually when they go off it's in the middle of the night and he's sound asleep in our arms when we race to the basement.

We did get in some quality park time today before the severe weather hit. My friend was in town from Texas with her kiddos. Her daughter is 6 weeks younger than Chelsea. Wow, that was an eye opener. She's TALKING. It's so weird to see a 2 year old talking, it's been a while since I've really spent time with a 'typical' developing toddler! She also listened to her mom, and held her hand when walking, which is a skill Chelsea has yet to master. Her little boy is 5 months. When I told Logan we were meeting them this morning he asked if the baby had Down syndrome. I told him no and he replied disappointedly, "aww, I like kids with Down syndrome, because my sister has Down syndrome." Isn't that the sweetest. My friend said she was sorry to disappoint ;)

Well I'll leave you with a couple of pictures from today. I better go, David Cook is on Jay Leno. Do you see that orange bracelet he's wearing, could it be Miss Bailee's leukemia bracelet??? ;)

Can you guess how this ends?



Need I say more?






And my two darlings while riding the train.


In case you're wondering she's wearing the babyleg on her arm to keep her from picking at the bandage. I promise the tubies are gone, I'm just not ready for her to pull the bandage off yet. Maybe tomorrow night!