BMT Day +10

Today's daily picture is brought to you by another one of Ariauna's best friends Maddie and her sister Kylee. Thanks girls for the cute shot!

 WBC- 0.2
Hemoglobin- 10.4
Platelets- 5
ANC- not available right now
Weight- 52.58

Ariauna had a rough night last night. After I left to go to the RMH for the night they came in and hooked her up to the monitors and she was fine for awhile. Jerry got her all tucked in for the night and they both went to sleep. She slept really well, but the nurses were watching her stats and her oxygen level kept dropping below what they like it to be. They came in and woke her up and listened to her chest and her lungs and they did not sound very clear, so they ordered an x-ray of her lungs. Because it was the middle of the night, they actually brought the x-ray machine to her room and took the x-ray. They ended up putting her on some oxygen to help her little lungs. Once they gave her a bit of oxygen she did fine, and her levels came back up. They kept her on the oxygen for the evening just to make sure there was no more issues. They figure she just got into such a deep sleep that everything dropped. When I got to the hospital and heard this, I was freaked out. I knew the minute I left, something would happen. This is exactly why I do not want to leave her. People keep telling me I need a break, and I need to leave but seriously this is why I don't. I want to be there when there is a problem. I want to be there if the doctors come in worried and concerned about things. During rounds this morning they said her lung x-ray was fine. So the garbage they are hearing is probably all just the mucusitis building up. Her oxygen levels stayed fine the rest of the night so they have taken her off of the oxygen but are going to keep her hooked up to the monitors for a day or two just to watch her.  They ended up giving her another bag of platelets this morning. They are still trying to get her up to the 30,000. Her fever was still a little elevated, but the steroids are definitely helping to bring it down. Her temperature this morning was 100.3. At 9:00 her school teacher came in but we could not get Ariauna to wake up to do anything with the teacher. It is so hard because she is on so many different medications and very strong narcotics, then to top it off they had to treat her with Benadryl to give her the platelets and the Benadryl always knocks her out for about an hour. I feel so bad because the school teacher keeps trying to come in, but Ariauna just can not even keep her eyes open. The teacher says this is very normal and sometimes they don't get much school work done at all for a few weeks. At 9:30 a.m. Physical therapy came in to play with Ariauna, she was still sleeping but they are not so nice to just walk out and let her sleep like the school teacher is. We finally got her aroused a bit and then she was excited to get up and show her dad how well she does at bowling. Here she is rolling some strikes!

Physical therapy really focus' on getting them in and out of bed and there biggest focus is trying to get them to do some squats, therefore they make her help pick up the pins, reset the pins, etc. That way it gives her more time to bend and squat, strengthening her leg muscles. They said it is unbelievable how many kids can not walk out of the hospital after transplant. So there job is to make sure these kids stay strong so they can walk out of here the same way they walked in. Ariauna got to open some more presents and packages today. She loves, loves, packages and gifts.These pictures are 2 of the 5 birthday presents the RMH left in our room for her (I couldn't carry them all back to the hospital with all my clean laundry), so she only gets to open 2 of them for now.

They gave her a really cute purple fleece blanket, a teddy bear, the American Girl doll book "Julie" and the Hair-tastic Color and Design Barbie. She absolutely loved them, and I think we are going to be renting a U-haul to come home. The next gift was from Uncle Jeramie, Jen and the girls for Ari's birthday. She absolutely loved it and can not wait to wear the new clothes, and we definitely have plenty of snacks for awhile.

Ariauna's cousin MeKenzie sent us each a nice little note and then she bought Ariauna a zipper bracelet and got me a Pay it Forward rubber bracelet. Now I need to think long and hard and find something to do for someone else to "Pay it Forward".

At noon today her fever was going up more and was 101.6. She also needed platelets again this afternoon so they treated her again with Benadryl and Tylenol. It wasn't long after that, the Benadryl kicked in so Ariauna and I laid down and took a nap, it was so nice to get an extra little bit of rest.

 

 This afternoon daddy went back to the RMH to have dinner there and to do a load of laundry. Ariauna's favorite stuffed animal "Piggy" has been needing a wash really bad but it needed to be done during the day so she could have it to sleep with. So he went to do that, Ariauna and I just hung out and played a few games, read some of her book about Pippy Long Stockings, and watched some Disney channel. Daddy ran in to a few problems with the laundry, of course the one washer he tries to use breaks down so then he has to take sopping wet clothes and find another washer. Anyway, long story short he didn't get back to the hospital until about 8:30 at night so we both ended up sleeping at the hospital again that night. Jerry said he would take the green recliner this time but he woke up the next morning with the same answer I did, that it is not very fun to sleep on. Here is Ariauna all tucked in and sound asleep for the night.

Today I am grateful for my sweet girls life, she is such a blessing to me and Jerry. She has such a sweet spirit about her and takes everything she is going through with her head held high and most of the time a smile on her face. I am so grateful for her sweet little spirit, she has brought us so much joy and happiness just as each one of our kids have. Each one of our kids is special and unique in their own little ways, and each one of them has brought us so much joy. I am so glad that kids are different and unique. I can not imagine a family if we were all exactly the same. I thank the Lord each and every day for having the best husband in the whole wide world, and for giving me the greatest gift in my life...that of being a Mother... I am so grateful to be a mom, our babies did not ever come easily and I am so thankful to have each one of them in my life. Being a mother can be the hardest calling in the world, but it is also the most rewarding.