Almost Done with Chemo

So it's been a pretty rough week with Isabella in the hospital. Thankfully, Isabella hasn't had as much nausea as she had in previous cycles (although it was a little worse today). Actually, the worst part has been her frequent urination. Because of some of the toxic effects of the chemo on Isabella's other organs, they are also hydrating her with a lot of IV fluids. They are giving her so much fluid that she has to go to the bathroom every hour or so, which really makes getting any sleep tough on everyone. So the lack of eating plus the lack of sleep has made Isabella really weak (which in turn has been very difficult for Julianne and me to deal with).

Isabella did have a nice pick-me-up yesterday, when two of her teachers from school came to visit her. They brought her a bunch of gifts and activities and also some cards that her classmates made for her. Isabella was very excited to see them as she gave them a tour of the pediatric floor and played games with them in the playroom. That was certainly the highlight of her week.

Well thankfully we're almost done at the hospital. Friday will be the last day of chemo and we're looking forward to being discharged on Saturday. We don't have much planned going forward and don't know what we're doing for Christmas yet. We're just planning on staying home for the next couple of weeks and hoping that Isabella doesn't develop a fever. Since we expect her white cell count to drop significantly, her immune system will be severely compromised, so if she does develop an infection, we'll need to go back to the hospital for at least another week. Our doctor has told us that we should expect her blood counts to bottom out right before Christmas, so we really don't want to take a chance that we'll be in the hospital for Christmas, so we're going to keep visits to a minimum.