I may be premature in writing this as the day is not over, but it's definitely been a hectic day!
Dr. Lucas came in early this morning to see Ambrosia. He told me what I had already been told about Ambrosia's gallbladder. I asked him what could be done about it when they would be able to. He said there was medication they could give that could help take care of it, but they would talk about it in rounds and make sure it was compatible with the other medications she was receiving. He said the sludge in her gallbladder is a common occurrence from the chemo she received.
Awhile later the nurse practitioner came in to see us and let me know what changes and things were going to happen today. They ordered a heart echo because of the results from her EKG the other day. The EKG had showed some abnormalities so they wanted to do the echo to get a really good look at things.
She said that Ambrosia had tested positive for a certain fungal infection that can be particularly dangerous. She said they had been testing for it everyday and thus far the results had been negative. She said the antibiotics that Ambrosia has been on could have skewered the results and made it have a false positive. So tonight when they draw labs they will be getting enough to do a more specific test for this fungal infection. If this test comes back positive then they will have to do a CT scan to see where a fungal infection may be in her body. In the meantime they switched one of the antibiotics they were giving to another that treats the fungal infection to err on the side of caution.
They decided to give Ambrosia some Lasix, which helps her urinate out a lot of the fluids she's been receiving. She said the fluid retention could be a partial source of some of her pain. The nurse practitioner also asked if I thought they needed to go up some more on her pain medication. I thought maybe they should as Ambrosia was still grunting like she was in pain even after receiving doses of the pain medication from me pushing her button. So that was done as well. She said that the results from her pancreas enzymes test came back normal. I believe that was all the information she gave me this morning. It was a lot to remember!
Later the technician came to do Ambrosia's heart echo. She did it while I was holding her and she was able to do it fairly quickly. I think it was the quickest heart echo she has had to date. Some time passed and I received a call from my husband. He had left home to get some lunch for him and Braeden. Unfortunately, he said he had been noticing the last couple of days that he thought the transmission on his car might be slipping. He was on his way to get it looked at and I could hear in his voice that he was stressed. A short while later he called back to tell me that they couldn't look at his car until tomorrow, but of course that meant he would have no way home. I ended up leaving the hospital to go pick them up and they drove me back here.
I wasn't gone very long, but in that short amount of time Ambrosia's nurse apparently had an allergic reaction to something and had to give herself an epipen shot! So I came back to a different nurse. Things have been quite hectic here for the nurses as well today I think.
Dr. Lucas ended up popping back in before leaving for the day. He told me the results of Ambrosia's heart echo were normal He asked me how I thought Ambrosia was doing since they upped her pain medicine again and I told him she was still grunting like she was in pain even with me pushing her button as often as I could. He decided that they should up it again. He said she may have a higher tolerance for it and just need a bigger dose. He then mentioned that they were going to do another chest x-ray today. It wasn't something the nurse practitioner had mentioned earlier but he said it was part of today's plan. So that has now been done but I have yet to hear any results from it.
I have had visits from the child psychologist to check and see how Ambrosia and I are both doing. She also gave me a new bead to add to Ambrosia's necklace and it represents strength. It's a small acorn and the card says, "Acorns are symbols of great personal strength and survival." The music therapist also came by the room today and asked if I thought having a CD player with some soothing music might help Ambrosia relax some, especially at night. I thought it was worth a shot and a short while later he brought some music and a CD player. I will be trying it out tonight. He also offered to play live music for her if I thought she might enjoy it sometime. One of the Child Life people also brought a star machine that projects the night sky on the ceiling for Ambrosia to look at when she wakes up and hopefully will settle back down afterwards.
Our nurse that had to go home today commented to me earlier about how much of a good mom I am. I know I am, but it's nice for it to be affirmed by other people sometimes. Our other nurse today said it was hard to see Ambrosia feel so bad, but that usually when you feel bad like that it means the chemotherapy is doing it's job. We are so hoping that is exactly the case!
I received more Cheer cards today. It's nice to take a moment out of the day to read from everyone who is thinking about us. Thanks for that!
Hopefully we only have a couple more days of Ambrosia feeling yucky and then she will be back on the mend!
Dr. Lucas came in early this morning to see Ambrosia. He told me what I had already been told about Ambrosia's gallbladder. I asked him what could be done about it when they would be able to. He said there was medication they could give that could help take care of it, but they would talk about it in rounds and make sure it was compatible with the other medications she was receiving. He said the sludge in her gallbladder is a common occurrence from the chemo she received.
Awhile later the nurse practitioner came in to see us and let me know what changes and things were going to happen today. They ordered a heart echo because of the results from her EKG the other day. The EKG had showed some abnormalities so they wanted to do the echo to get a really good look at things.
She said that Ambrosia had tested positive for a certain fungal infection that can be particularly dangerous. She said they had been testing for it everyday and thus far the results had been negative. She said the antibiotics that Ambrosia has been on could have skewered the results and made it have a false positive. So tonight when they draw labs they will be getting enough to do a more specific test for this fungal infection. If this test comes back positive then they will have to do a CT scan to see where a fungal infection may be in her body. In the meantime they switched one of the antibiotics they were giving to another that treats the fungal infection to err on the side of caution.
They decided to give Ambrosia some Lasix, which helps her urinate out a lot of the fluids she's been receiving. She said the fluid retention could be a partial source of some of her pain. The nurse practitioner also asked if I thought they needed to go up some more on her pain medication. I thought maybe they should as Ambrosia was still grunting like she was in pain even after receiving doses of the pain medication from me pushing her button. So that was done as well. She said that the results from her pancreas enzymes test came back normal. I believe that was all the information she gave me this morning. It was a lot to remember!
Later the technician came to do Ambrosia's heart echo. She did it while I was holding her and she was able to do it fairly quickly. I think it was the quickest heart echo she has had to date. Some time passed and I received a call from my husband. He had left home to get some lunch for him and Braeden. Unfortunately, he said he had been noticing the last couple of days that he thought the transmission on his car might be slipping. He was on his way to get it looked at and I could hear in his voice that he was stressed. A short while later he called back to tell me that they couldn't look at his car until tomorrow, but of course that meant he would have no way home. I ended up leaving the hospital to go pick them up and they drove me back here.
I wasn't gone very long, but in that short amount of time Ambrosia's nurse apparently had an allergic reaction to something and had to give herself an epipen shot! So I came back to a different nurse. Things have been quite hectic here for the nurses as well today I think.
Dr. Lucas ended up popping back in before leaving for the day. He told me the results of Ambrosia's heart echo were normal He asked me how I thought Ambrosia was doing since they upped her pain medicine again and I told him she was still grunting like she was in pain even with me pushing her button as often as I could. He decided that they should up it again. He said she may have a higher tolerance for it and just need a bigger dose. He then mentioned that they were going to do another chest x-ray today. It wasn't something the nurse practitioner had mentioned earlier but he said it was part of today's plan. So that has now been done but I have yet to hear any results from it.
I have had visits from the child psychologist to check and see how Ambrosia and I are both doing. She also gave me a new bead to add to Ambrosia's necklace and it represents strength. It's a small acorn and the card says, "Acorns are symbols of great personal strength and survival." The music therapist also came by the room today and asked if I thought having a CD player with some soothing music might help Ambrosia relax some, especially at night. I thought it was worth a shot and a short while later he brought some music and a CD player. I will be trying it out tonight. He also offered to play live music for her if I thought she might enjoy it sometime. One of the Child Life people also brought a star machine that projects the night sky on the ceiling for Ambrosia to look at when she wakes up and hopefully will settle back down afterwards.
Our nurse that had to go home today commented to me earlier about how much of a good mom I am. I know I am, but it's nice for it to be affirmed by other people sometimes. Our other nurse today said it was hard to see Ambrosia feel so bad, but that usually when you feel bad like that it means the chemotherapy is doing it's job. We are so hoping that is exactly the case!
I received more Cheer cards today. It's nice to take a moment out of the day to read from everyone who is thinking about us. Thanks for that!
Hopefully we only have a couple more days of Ambrosia feeling yucky and then she will be back on the mend!
RSS Feed