Tuesday, June 21, 2011

Mama Bear

When I worked at MT Cancer Center I had a co-worker that called me Mama Bear. I think it was somewhat of a derogatory term because she wasn't interested in having kids and I was "so young" (21 *gasp*) and pregnant with Annabelle. (Just for the record...I was married and it WAS planned) Anyway, I didn't mind the title and this week I think it has been quite appropriate for me! Nobody messes with this mama bear's girl. NOBODY.

We had a few bad encounters with some nurses and a tech that brought out my claws. Nothing that seriously harmed Annabelle, but things that are NOT acceptable. 99% of the staff here is AMAZING, which only makes the bad few seem even worse! Annabelle has been miserable the past few days so I have probably been a little grouchy too. Fevers, very bad mouth sores, bone pain, reaction to blood transfusion, reaction to Vanco (an antibiotic), etc... She spent a couple days heavily medicated with oxycodone and morphine and had to get Benadryl before getting every dose of Vanco so she was either sleepy and grouchy or quite happy and loving! Thankfully we are past the worst of it now. As soon as you walk in her room you can tell she is feeling better. Today when Dr Barnette (an Oncologist) was here she took the TV remote and tried to turn him off. Those of you that know Dr Barnette can understand why that is so funny! He LOVED it and left the room laughing histerically about it. My spunky Annabelle is back!

Today is a nice beginning of the end of this hospital stay. Her fevers are getting fewer and farther between, her ANC is 300 (up from being zero for days), her mouth doesn't hurt as bad, she hasn't needed morphine, and we made an executive decision about next week. Josh is coming and I have been pretty bummed out that Annabelle and I were going to have to come back for her 5 day set of chemo instead of getting it done before he comes. But this afternoon Dr Barnette and I decided to not have her start cycle 4 until next Friday, July 1st. That will give us most of the week to be with Josh, and Annabelle should feel GREAT the entire time. Her counts will be up and stable and no chemo so she shouldn't get any fevers. It is going to be great! Such a good ending to this chapter. I can't wait to be back with Layla AND have Josh here. It will almost be like normal, except we'll be at my in-laws and Josh won't be working, so kind of like a vacation. A vacation from the cancer scene for a few days. Sort of.

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

YOU GO GIRL!! You make me proud. Keep those people on their toes! I love the remote control incident. I am so glad that you are going to have some good quality family time. We saw Josh on Sunday and he is very excited to see all three of his girls. Love, Auntie Penn