Outpatient Day 1.....

Today started our first day of outpatient work up to prepare for the Bone Marrow Transplant. Ariauna had to start today off fasting for some of her tests. So there was nothing to eat or drink after midnight last night. We started the day of at the Journey Clinic which is the main clinic for Bone Marrow kids. Our first appointment was at 9:00 a.m. and was to go over her history, have a physical exam, sign all of the consents for work up week, have her lab work done and to review our busy calendar for the week. Here we are at the University of Minnesota Amplatz Children's Hospital and the Journey clinic.

While we were up in the Journey Clinic they also did the EKG test on her heart. Here she is all hooked up.

While I was doing all of the other talking and signing papers, Tara (the Child Life Specialist in clinic) took Ariauna to do some fun things. When I got done, I went to pick her up and she had been painting, started her Beads of Courage necklace (where she earns special beads for different milestones of her journey here) and then she had a new friend named Sam that helped her learn a little bit about her Hickman line she will be getting placed at the end of the week.

Here she is having her blood drawn. I can not believe how much blood they took from her. I have never seen them take that much blood from someone before. They took at least 5 full syringes of blood, I am surprised they did not have to do a transfusion right after because they took so much. Thank goodness she still had her PICC line in from home so she didn't feel any of it.

At 10:30 we met with Dr. Miller (one of the BMT doctors). He checked her and went over the EKG with us. He talked a little bit more about the plan this week and the importance of getting a baseline of where all her major organs sit and how they are all working before transplant so they can make sure after transplant they are working just as well. Then we had a short break, but Ariauna couldn't eat because of her tests this afternoon so we just went outside and got some fresh air. At 12:45 we had to check in with the pediatric imaging. Next she had an Echo cardiogram on her heart.

After that test she had to prepare for a chest/Abd/Pelvis CT Scan. Before being able to do that she had to drink some contrast mixed with sprite. Here she is getting that CT Scan done as well as a CT Scan done on her Sinus'.

After those tests, we had another consult with Dr. Brad Miller who discussed her growth and bone development. After that appointment we went back downstairs to wait to have x-rays done. Ariauna was exhausted and we had to wait awhile, so when they finally came to get us this is what they found.

I ended up having to wake her up to finish her x-rays. They did an x-ray on her chest and an x-ray done on her forearm that shows her bone growth. It showed it was the growth of a 8 year 11 month old child, so pretty much right on. Yay!

By the time we finished our appointments it was 5:00 and Ari had not eaten since last night. So she was starving. We headed down to the cafeteria and $20 later for two of us we headed back to the hotel. I couldn't believe dinner was that expensive. They need a local Taco Bell, because I am not going to be able to afford to eat at that price 3x a day while we are in the hospital. Ugh! We got back to the hotel and laid down for a bit. Then Ariauna wanted to go on a walk, so we decided to go find out what else was around the hotel. We ended up finding a Dairy Queen while we were out so Ari got an ice cream sandwich and I got a smores shake. It was delicious.

We came back, face timed with the family at home and crashed. We have another long day ahead of us tomorrow.