Count Recovery Day 9

Sunday, October 18th

Avery was finally able to rest on Saturday night. She only got up once and required one extra dose of pain medicine. She slept soundly the rest of the night, and she even slept through the 4am platelet transfusion!

Her hemoglobin was good, so no blood was needed today. Her platelets were 35 which required a transfusion. Her ANC was up to 350!!! Her pain is lessening, and we were able to go down on her morphine drip. She didn't require any extra doses of pain meds during the day today. She has also remained fever free for 24 hours now. We are giving her one more day without feeds to allow the colitis more time to heal and the inflammation to reduce. Her g-tube is continuing to have some drainage which is irritating to her skin. We plan to have the wound care team come by tomorrow to recommend a cream or powder to help with the irritation as it is causing some pain and burning.

She played with Legos and puzzles and did some painting today. The afternoon was a little rougher on her, but she was able to get a pretty good nap in and woke in a more playful mood tonight.

Today was also port access day. I was unsure how Avery would handle it this time given the pain she has been dealing with, but she did great! Since her med schedule is so full, she could only be deaccessed for about 30 minutes(long enough for the numbing cream to kick in).

Tuesday is scan day and a day that brings a lot of anxiety and fear. We are praying to see good response to the chemo and to see her tumor burden reduced significantly.

Wednesday she is scheduled to have her anesthesia simulation for radiation planning. Since we will still be inpatient, they should be able to wheel her over to UAB for the appointment. We should also receive a definite date to start radiation which will tentatively be the following week.

Please continue to pray for:

- Counts to continue to rise

- Pain to continue to lower

- No more fevers

- G-tube heals quickly

- Improved scans

- Upcoming radiation