Update from Kristin: March 22nd, 2008

It looks like Taylor will have the opportunity to celebrate Easter with all of the patients here on 4 West at Children's Hospital. Taylor has been battling severe mucositis this week and it causes her to gag and often throw up. The doctors said that they can not send her home until she stops throwing up so often. We are really disappointed because we really wanted her home for Easter. However, she has no white blood cells and we suspected that even if we had taken her home, we would have ended up back here in the emergency room with a fever on Saturday night. As it turns out, we never would have made it out the door today even if they had been planning to let her go, because she spiked a fever at noon and has been battling one all day.

When the attending came by, he told us that since she now has a fever, we will not be able to go home until her blood counts improve. If the last chemo cycle was any indicator, it looks like we may be here until next Friday. If it isn't one thing for poor Taylor, then it is another.

I am not sure that I have ever seen anything as frightening as her mouth looked today. It is filled with bloody mucous that gets lodged in her throat and gags her. I have heard it said over the past few weeks that the head and neck are terrible places to have radiation and I am starting to understand why.

They also chose not to give her the weekly vincristine injection today. Her eyelid has been drooping and that can be a side effect of the vincristine. Although we would prefer to be as aggressive as possible with her treatment, it is nice to think that her body will get a week of rest from all chemo and radiation. Perhaps this time next week, we will all be home again...but I think that I said that last week and probably the week before that!

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