Long Haul

Yesterday was a bit better for Sierra. She is wanting to be awake more often, watching TV and playing her Ds. Her attitude is much better now that the steroids are circulating out of her system, her doc said we are going to try taking them out on her next round and see how she does without them. The bad news of the morning yesterday was that Sierra has C-diff, which is a tummy virus, so she is on contact precautions. Basically, that means that she cant leave her room and all doctors and nurses have to wear gowns and gloves when they enter her room. So far being quarantined hasn't been an issue since she hasn't felt well enough to leave her room anyway, but now that she is feeling a bit better it may get a little more frustrating for her.
With Sierra feeling so badly, her mucositis is really bad, the doctors are predicting that she will be staying in the hospital this time until her counts have dropped and recovered, which is usually 7-10 days after chemo. Generally we would've been able to go home the day after her chemo was done, but since she is needing so many antibiotics and still needing IV pain meds, they said to just plan to be here until her counts go back up. They are giving her a daily med called Neupogen that helps
to recover her white cell counts more quickly so hopefully she wont feel too bad for too long.
With the pain from her mucositis, getting her to eat anything is nearly impossible. Her lips are swollen and scabby, so I can only imagine how her mouth and throat must feel. I was able to convince her to drink a few ounces of pediasure, carnation instant breakfast, and mama milk  yesterday, but she is definitely starting to lose some weight. When I talked to the doc about what their plans for intervention would be, he said around day 4 of not eating that they would put her on IV nutrition and that they wouldn't put in an ng tube at this point because her throat is so raw, they wouldn't want to risk opening up any little areas for infection when inserting a tube.
Yesterday her ANC was at 2000 and with giving her the Neupogen it jumped to 9000 this morning so we are hoping that will help her mucositis to heal more quickly so we can get her eating again.
One blessing in this whole situation is that Sierra likes being at the hospital, she never complains that she would rather be at home. They do a great job here to keep the kids happy and entertained and Sierra loves all of the attention she gets. She often presses her nurses call button and will ask for her favorite things all on her own, a warm blanket and fresh ice water. The nurses say her voice is so cute over the intercom. So atleast for now, she isn't feeling to upset about having to be here, mommy on the other hand is ready to sleep in her own bed tonight and let daddy have a turn on the hard hospital bench.