Ambrosia finished her chemo medicine earlier than expected on Saturday. She did great again and had no issues. She still played and giggled and was generally in her good mood like usual. We made it home around 5:30 last night. So far we have had no issues since being here either. Let's hope it stays that way.

Tomorrow I have to call the clinic and make an appointment for Tuesday for them to check her numbers. They will decide on Tuesday whether or not she will start her neupogen shots that night or not. Then we will also have to go back to the clinic on Thursday for her to get a chemo medicine called Vincristine. She has had them inject this into her line during her last clinic visit. It is a chemo medicine that helps slows the growth of the tumor in between her normal chemo visits.

Beyond what I have said above, I don't know the schedule for her next chemo round. I will be asking questions on Tuesday during her appointment about when her next round will be and if it will affect Christmas plans or not. I am hoping to have everything wrapped this week while Braeden is in school so if Santa needs to come earlier than Christmas we can be prepared for that. As much as I would like to be home for Christmas, I know that putting Ambrosia's health first is more important. Braeden won't know the difference if it's before, on or after Christmas.

We should be home for at least two weeks if all goes well. So let's hope that is the case!

They started Ambrosia's chemo medicine yesterday while I was gone to get Braeden. She seems to be having no trouble with it so far. It will run through tomorrow afternoon and then we should be able to go home. I don't know how long we will be able to be at home. All I know is I will be frantically wrapping presents while Braeden is in school next week so I can get that out of the way!

Ambrosia is still playing and smiling and being her cute self. Physical and Occupational Therapy have come by to evaluate her to make sure she is where she needs to be. I feel as though she would be sitting up on her own already had all this not occurred. She was really close before we found out about her cancer. So we are taking steps to make sure she doesn't fall behind. I need to try and work out a schedule of feeding her baby food and giving her tummy time. It's hard to feel like I can have a routine when we are in the hospital with as many interruptions as there are throughout the day. It's something I will be working on when we go home hopefully for a couple of weeks.

I really don't have anything else to update about at this point. Other than things are going well.

Ambrosia had surgery today to replace her chest line they use to draw blood and put her chemo medicine through. She also had the line they used to collect the stem cells taken out of her neck. They put a catheter in and also had to replace her feeding tube as it had come out some during the night and was no longer where it was supposed to be.

Tomorrow we start chemo round number 3. This round will be the same medicine they used in the first round. It only lasts three days which means as long as there are no problems we will be going home on Saturday. I will be watching her closely with this round as the first time she had it is when she ended up being intubated and back in the PICU. We will hope all goes well now that she has had progress and will have no problems this time around.

I can't wait to be home so I can put her in all her cute Christmas outfits! While she has the catheter in I can't put any pants on her. Here she is showing Santa some love!

Around 3:30 Monday morning, Ambrosia woke up. She usually wakes up around this time so it wasn't anything new. I got up to nurse her and she was really fussy and didn't want to latch for some reason. The nurse came in to draw blood from her for labs from her line and was able to do so. Ambrosia was still fussy, so I moved her to the opposite side and I noticed there was bleeding at her chest line site. I called for the nurse and she got x-ray to come to the room to check the placement of her line. It had in fact moved from where it was supposed to be. I don't know if during the night Ambrosia had rolled over and tugged on the line or when I picked her up to nurse her if I tugged on it some, but it now has to be replaced.

The nurses that were going to be collecting her stem cells came around 10 am. It took awhile to get started as things they had requested be done hadn't been done yet. They got her hooked up to the machine but they needed her to be still so the machine could do its job. They gave her 4 different medicines to help make her sleepy and she STILL wouldn't go to sleep. I ended up having to nurse her to sleep. From there she stayed in my lap until the process was over. The process didn't take as long as they originally told me as they could only take so much from her. Once they reached that level they had to stop. Later in the afternoon, we were told they were able to collect enough for two transplants but they wanted to have a little extra as back up. So they are back this morning to collect more from her.

Last night after getting Braeden from school, we all went to the family room to play some games. After Wes got here, we went back to our room and Wes noticed a little blood on her line. I thought it was from earlier and just hadn't been wiped up. Wes and Braeden left and I took a closer look at Ambrosia. Her chest line had completely come out on it's own. She was bleeding again but not a lot. I told her nurse and we put pressure on the entry site for a good 15 to 20 minutes to make sure the bleeding stopped. Surgery was notified and so was the resident. They all came to look at her and said to just watch for more bleeding but they wouldn't replace it until Wednesday when it was already scheduled to be replaced.

Tomorrow, her line will be replaced and then she will be starting her next round of chemo. So we will be here in the hospital at least through the rest of this week. Her chemo this time is only 3 days and then we will hopefully be home for a couple of weeks. Dr. Cheerva promised to do everything she could to make sure we were home for Christmas. As long as we don't have any issues happen after we return home that should be the case.

Here she is waiting for them to get started this morning. She has a diaper wrapped around her right hand to keep her from pulling on the lines in her neck. We don't want any more issues with lines coming out! She also has a board taped to both arms to kind of limit her mobility again to help keep her from pulling on the line. It doesn't bother her one bit and she is playing like normal!

Here is a website about the stem cell collection: http://www.lymphomainfo.net/therapy/transplants/stemcell.html

Ambrosia had her surgery this morning to place the line they will use to collect her stem cells tomorrow. She went upstairs slightly before 8 am and the surgeon told me it should only take about 30 minutes to place. Then she would be in recovery for about 45 minutes. After they placed the line, the surgeon came to tell us that everything went fine and the lines were working as they should for them. So we (my parents and I) went back to the room to wait. I left to get Braeden as Wes had to work today. While I was gone, Ambrosia came back to the room and my parents said she was only a little fussy but was playing already. She definitely is a little miracle.

The latest I have heard today is that the collection will take place upstairs here instead of down in the PICU. That may change again in the morning. They seem to be going around and around about that. Let's hope they get everything they need tomorrow so that we can go home, even if for a few days before the next round of chemo.

I brought a saucer toy from the playroom into our room yesterday and Ambrosia has been enjoying playing in it. Even today after having the line in her neck. She doesn't even seem to notice it's there!