Day 16 - Cycle 2

Thursday, October 17th

The day started out a little rough with Avery getting sick shortly after midnight and then again at 5:15 am.

All of her labs looked good this morning. She needed no transfusions, and her ANC was 4310! This made a huge impact on her overall mood and energy today. Her mucositis is clearing up quickly, and she is not having any pain. She is completely off of IV pain meds but is still receiving some through her NG tube to slowly wean her without side effects.

Her labs needed to determine her readiness for stem cell collection provided very poor numbers. They decided to give her a new medicine tonight to try and improve that number. They will rerun the lab tomorrow morning, and if it is still not sufficient, we will have to delay the stem cell collection.

Because her ANC was so high, we left the unit today and joined the Lego event being held as a part of Super Hero month. Avery absolutely loved seeing Emmet(from the Lego Movie), coloring, and receiving a new set of Legos. She put on a show playing and dancing with Emmet. It was a side of her we haven't seen in a while, and one that the Child Life Specialists have probably never seen

As soon as we returned to the room, it was time to be transferred to the Bone Marrow Unit. The fun and excitement of the day(and lack of sleep) quickly took its toll on Avery. She would never quite let her guard down enough to fall asleep, even though she desperately needed a nap. This made for a difficult rest of the night.

If Avery is able to go through apheresis tomorrow, she will have to have a vascular catheter placed in her groin area for the process. Given that, we had to follow pre-surgery steps to prepare her. This included a bath and getting wiped down with CHG wipes, neither of which she was thrilled with. It took Shon and I both wrestling and holding her to get it done.

The last daunting task of the day was two simultaneous injections. She needed a Neupogen injection (to increase her neutrophils) and Mozobil injection( to help mobilize stem cells into the blood stream). A large group of nurses came in and got the job done quickly(luckily we got to be hands off this time). Right before falling asleep, she got sick once again. They were able to give her something to help though, so hopefully she can get some rest tonight.

Please continue to pray for:

- No more nausea and vomiting

- She is eligible for stem cell collection tomorrow

- No pain and quick recovery from the catheter placement

- Peace and relaxation during the apheresis process(4-6hrs)

- A good night's rest