Friday evening was relatively ok and so was Saturday , the only side effects being the fatigue , headaches , some dizziness and sometimes tummy pains .
However , at 3am Saturday morning we woke up { still don't know how , perhaps instinct} to find a very hot Vanya lying next to us - her little body felt as if it were on fire . She had been sleeping with her sister Jaydene but had a bad dream about lots of injections being stuck in all over her body .
We realised again that we need to arrange a session with the resident clinical psychologist at Panorama hospital , and also immediately discovered an alarming temperature of 38 .7 - remember we had been warned at that point to get to hospital immediately {from 38 in fact} .
Mom called the hospital who advised to wait another hour and then act accordingly . We gave Brufin as she is not too partial to Panado syrup and says its getting boring and yuggh.. Dad did the first 2 hour shift staying up to monitor her temp every half hour and with a luke warm face cloth and opened sheets we got it down to 37.3 . Dad decided to sleep a bit asking Mom to try keep watch - I think we all slept for a while .
Dr. Stefan called on Sunday morning having checked that we called in to the hospital and wanted to know how Vanya was doing . We updated her and found out that we should not have given Brufin as it can lower the blood platelets - oops , sherbert ! We were told that if she reaches a temp of 38 again we should come straight in and do not even give panado syrup yet , as it was infection setting in and she would need an antibiotic drip , blood tests and maybe a transfusion . Thank God for the catheter with all this activity going on - it's pain free and no needles .
Fortunately the rest of day went ok besides the head and tummy aches { chemo working } . Her appetite for now is great { thanks to day 15 of 36 steriod tabs} - she eats like a baby horse and her cheeks are getting chubby with her tummy always solid like a barrel . We have to monitor her bowel movements too , and have discovered that she has been holding in her urine and that could cause infection so we have to monitor that too.
On Monday we met Dr. Keeting and Dr. Louw who discussed the bone marrow extraction procedure with us but were concerned about the low blood counts in certain areas . After consulting with Dr. Stefan they decided to go ahead and while under also do the sore chemo injection , it's called a laspar injection{ no. 2 and Vanya is counting and asking if she can't sleep for all those ones , but no ..} - we will try increase the pre-med a bit for the others .
It took about an hour for her to regain full consciousness again and was immediately hungry asking for a pie and ice tea and had lots of water . Then came the wait for the blood to arrive as a transfusion was on the cards . It arrived at 7pm and took about 3 hours to complete , this time without reaction { I wonder if the last lot was in fact filtered and radiated blood as it should have been } , as opposed to regular blood they use in emergencies .
Mom did the night duty last night and its Dads turn as soon as todays blog is done , I am on my way together with the munchies from home that Vanya ordered . I guess I'll get updated from wifey on arrival .
Hope to come home tomorrow , but on this journey as we all know by now the route changes by the day and we just adjust our sails accordingly and ensure that it's only forwards we go . . day by day , treatment by treatment , the next one being scheduled for Thursday and it's the sore bum one .
Our whole family once again express our innermost gratitude for the warm support ans wishes along the way
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