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October 30, 2006
By Margot | October 30, 2006
We are still in the hospital. Sammy’s ANC was 60 on Saturday went up to 70 on Sunday and then was at 14 on Sunday afternoon. I guess it tends to bounce around a lot when we are that low. We were hoping it would go up yesterday afternoon even a little (which is why we did an extra blood draw) and we would be able to go home but no such luck. Today’s ANC is not back yet but the white blood count is only 0.7 so I don’t think we’ve hit 500. I’m sure they’ll let us out if we’re even close. We have to be out by Halloween.
We went to the Halloween carnival on Friday night downstairs in the hospital cafeteria and the kids had a good time. Sammy was in his Wolverine costume, Andy was in his Captain America, Charlie was in his pumpkin, I was in my Captain America suit and Neil wore his Wolverine suit. It was quite a picture. They had some fun games for the kids. Before Neil got there I was with Sam and Andy and Charlie, pulling Sam’s IV pole and holding Charlie and Andy freaked out because there were clowns. He is terrified of clowns he always has been. Joanne, our favorite parent liaison came and took sleeping Charlie from me and then said, “Andrew, you know what? In your Captain America suit, you have super powers and you are much more powerful than clowns.” His little face brightened and he stopped crying and he said, “Oh Yeah!” and then he marched inside and yelled something at the clown that I couldn’t hear. Thank you, Joanne. What a savior.
Uncle Matt has been here all week and I don’t know what we would have done without him. He’s been helping out so much. He stayed and played games with Sammy yesterday all afternoon and early evening. Sammy loves to beat him at everything. I came in last night and had bought him a new UNO game because he loves the one they have in clinic. So he and Matt and I played UNO. He is so cute; he loves to give Uncle Matt “draw two” and “draw four” cards. He puts the card down and then looks at me and shrugs his little shoulders and starts to laugh. It just fills me up.
Sam’s mouth is still a mess. We do the magic mouthwash before he eats anything and then we’re lucky if we can get ten spoonfuls of oatmeal, applesauce or anything soft in before it becomes too painful for him to eat. Uncle Matt brought him and ice-cream sundae from Baskin Robbins last night and he got fifteen spoonfuls in before he didn’t want anymore. He said it still hurt but it was worth it.
Andrew and Charlie came both days this weekend for most of the days and it was complete chaos in our eight by ten little hospital room but the boys are good for each other. When Andy is having a meltdown Sam starts being goofy and makes him laugh and Andy was making Sam and nurse Jen laugh yesterday until they couldn’t stop. Neil got Sam unhooked yesterday for a little while and went out into the garden to play hide-and-seek. Sammy and Andy found a great hiding place behind the fountain and after I finally found them it was Sam’s turn to count. Andrew said, “I’m going to hide here again.” I said, “Well don’t tell us where you are going to hide. “Ok, but I’m going to hide here again.” Sammy laughed and gave his great eye roll that he does so well when his dad or Andy say something goofy and then started counting.
I took Andy and Charlie to the MyGym Halloween party on Saturday afternoon for a little while and then Matt and I took them to the beach. It’s been beautiful weather here with the Santa Annas and Andy actually put his wetsuit on and ran around in the water for a while. Mrs. Gage came and visited Sam on Saturday. Thank you Mrs. Gage! That really made his day.
So here we are doing the “count dance” as the nurses say. I’ve been doing it since Thursday and I feel like the Indians in New Mexico doing a rain dance during a drought. Come on counts! We need to be out of here for treat or treating.
Just when I’m bone tired and I think I can’t take the racing back and forth to the hospital and watching Sam struggle with the mouth sores my kids do something to keep me going. I get a first little laugh out of Charlie, or I see Sammy give me his big grin with an eye roll or he and I crack up about something or Andy just plain cracks me up. It’s cheap therapy.
Hope everyone has a great and spooky Halloween.
October 25, 2006 4:22 pm home with Andy and Charlie…
Neil just called temp is back down to 98.3.
Breathe.
Topics: Progress Reports | Comments Off on October 30, 2006
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