Day 2 - Cycle 1

Thursday, September 12th

Avery's first night inpatient was an uneventful one for her. The anti-nausea meds they gave her knocked her completely out so she caught up on some much needed rest. She was in such a deep sleep, however, that coupled with the heavy fluids led to some accidents. This ended up with Mommy having an eventful night making trips back and forth to the laundry room.

The meds and yesterday's chemo left her super sleepy at the start of today as well. She started the Lego movie multiple times, but only made it 3 minutes in before falling asleep. To avoid a repeat of the night time, I began setting an alarm on my phone to carry her to the bathroom every 1 1/2 - 2 hrs. This proved to be an effective tactic that we will continue with . She received IV Benadryl around 11:30 in preparation for her first chemo of the day which led to more hours of sleep.

At 12 noon, she began receiving her first chemo drug of the day - Etoposide. This drug is pretty scary as it can cause severe allergic reactions. The nurse pushes the meds and stands watch for the first 15 minutes with epinephrine on hand in case it's needed. She then checks vitals every 15 minutes for the first hour and then every 30 minutes until it finishes at 2 hrs. Luckily, Avery did not show any signs of reaction and slept through the whole thing. We will continue to keep a check for signs of a mild allergic reaction.

Next up was the Cyclophosphamide. This drug is given over the course of an hour. After its completion, she started on multiple rounds of Mesna. Mesna is not a chemotherapy drug, but it is a support drug that helps protect the bladder and kidneys from the Cytoxan.

Luckily she only had one small bought with nausea and vomiting today, and the nurse was quick to give her something to get it under control. Instead of knocking her out like we expected, it actually made her more awake but loopy. She spent the evening being silly and funny, eating chocolate chip cookies, playing games, and seeing double of me:)

We are hoping for another good night with quality rest for both of us. Day 3 is a repeat of Day 2 in terms of chemo protocol, so we hope there are no surprises.

As you continue to lift our family up in prayer, please also lift up the other families on our floor as well. There are 24 beds in this unit and the majority of them are full. It is heartbreaking reality for so many families:(