Out Of Routine

Sierra had an extra dose of Cisplatin and Doxorubicin this Sunday and Monday, instead of getting it after her surgery, she now has one less chemo to do after surgery. She handled this round of chemo fairly well, she did have a few episodes of nausea and vomiting, but not nearly like the last few times on this protocol. We gave her a few anti-nausea meds this time round the clock, she was getting meds every 3 hrs, plus one that she got twice a day on top of that. The 2 meds were Ativan and Benadryl. She loves being on Ativan because it makes her dizzy and loopy, she can be soooo funny on this medication, the benadryl however makes her incredibly moody and grouchy. So, needless to say, we had a few days of ups and downs as far as Sierra's behavior goes.
We are still in the process of getting everything worked out for Sierra's surgery to take place in Portland. At this point her insurance should be covering the cost, because they recommended that she go to Portland, but we are trying to cover all of our bases because Sierra HAS to get this surgery and it HAS to happen on time. After her MRI, and the doctor thinking he may still see growth, she has also had a PET/CT scan done, which the doctor said looks like there are definitely some spots that have been killed, but that some spots may still have growth. We wont know anything for sure until the tumor comes out and they run all of the pathology on it. So no firm answers until a few weeks after surgery.
We are very blessed by our family, friends, and community. A pizza place in town, Pete's Pizza, threw a fundraiser for Sierra yesterday, and donated half of the whole days profits to her benefit account. We were able to stop by, since Sierra had gotten out of the hospital earlier in the day, and it was so amazing to see all of the support first hand. We had several people come over and say that Sis and our family were in their prayers. She wasn't feeling very well, and was in a pretty grumpy mood so we didn't stay long, but it was nice to be able to stop in and eat some yummy pizza. Sierra actually ate a bit, which is always nice.
Sierra is feeling pretty good now, she is happy to be at home, and was really excited to get to sleep with Gram-me-ma, my mom, last night. She did have one bought of puking, but other than that had a good night. We are expecting her blood counts to drop over the next few days, and we will likely be back in the hospital when they hit rock bottom. She  always seems to get a fever and need to be on IV antibiotics until her counts recover. For now we will enjoy getting to spend a few days together as a family.

Here is a group pic from Sierra's birthday party:)