Day Nine - Bad News/Good News

Last night was pretty hard on Kelby. We gave her a washing and changed her dressing on her catheter like every day, but she was just so feisty. When we started the transplant, they made us change the type of dressing. It can't be taped to her skin during all of this, so it isn't very secure. Her skin is very sensitive and is peeling off a little. So, the exit site has been getting red and sore the last few days...probably because there is more movement of the tube. Last night when I changed her dressing the tube was loose and could have been pulled out, so they had to put a stitch in to hold the tube in place. This did not make her happy. They gave her lots of drugs to calm her through the stitching, but nothing would help. She has so much fight in her. Then they had to do an x-ray of her chest to make sure that the catheter was still in the right spot by her heart. Everything is okay there...I assume. She really had a hard time cooling down after all that. They gave her a new drug last night that is an anti-fungal. They gave it to her because she still had the fever. They don't know that she really needs it, but they do it anyways because they can't figure out what the fever is from. The drug has side effects though...it causes a fever, makes her have chills, and can hurt her kidneys. They are going to give her a different anti-fungal today that doesn't have as bad of side effects, so that will be better. Mike said that she did get a higher fever and bad chills last night. So here's the good news... Once she settled down last night she slept really good. Her ANC came back today at 138!!!! This is exciting. She should start feeling better soon. Once her ANC gets above 500 (hopefully by tomorrow) they will start taking her off the anti-biotics and etc. They take one off per day. We will still be in the hospital for a while longer, but we are getting closer. They will wait for her to be off all her medications and to start showing an interest in food before they will let us leave. After her counts are above 500 we can take her outside for a walk. That will make her so happy. She seems to have less goo in her throat also. She is still sleeping this morning, so I don't know how she is doing emotionally today yet, but hopefully she is feeling happier today. Yesterday afternoon Kelby was being much more vocal. She asked to be rock-a-byed. She wanted to hold Tegan too. When I asked Mike to take Tegan from us, Kelby got really upset...she wanted her baby! She was really interested in Tegan's pacifier too. I gave her one to play with and she kept sticking it in my mouth. She even walked a few steps yesterday! Shawna