Back to the Clinic Today

Sarah woke up this morning with not much fever at all, if any. But as the morning progressed, it started inching up. We still had high hopes of not having to go in to the clinic at the hospital though so I took all three girls to Hannah's dance class at 10:30am, while Jay did some much needed errands, but he told me to call him at any moment and he would come. When we arrived, another teacher, not Hannah's normal teacher, was waiting for me to tell me that this week was costume fitting week and so most of the class would be for talking to the parents about the recital and fitting costumes. (as she talked I had to keep taking Sarah's temp. which was staying high) Well, since we just arrived in this country two months ago and since Hannah just joined this month, it was too late to order a costume and therefore she can't be in the recital. We knew all of this before, but I had no idea about today's class so I wasn't able to prepare Hannah. The sub teacher did a little intro. with the girls in class so I asked another mom, who I have met once before, to hold Rebekah as she was whining and squirming to get down, while I kept taking Sarah's temp. which was again high so I had to call and report this to the clinic. They said I would have to bring Sarah in for more IV antibiotics. I was prepared with the numbing cream in my purse for Sarah's port and I also brought the press 'n seal. So, as I was trying to get the cream on is when it was time for the parents to come in to the class to start recital discussions so Hannah was having to come out by herself and the mom holding Rebekah had to give her back to me. Hannah was a bit sad about it all and cried a little telling me she just wants a pretty costume and wants to dance on a big stage. Rebekah was flattening her body to be able to get down on the floor and play and Sarah was whimpering that the cream and press 'n seal was itching her skin. At this point, I was on the verge of tears in the middle of the dance studio waiting room.

As we drove to the clinic, I did call Jay, but said that although I was in tears at the moment, everything would surely be better once we got to the clinic. The girls talked me into McDonald's drivethru (ya, now you know how much of a basket case I really was!), since it was lunch time and we got to the clinic where the great nurses helped so much and set us up in an infusion room with a crib for Rebekah and a TV with World World on! Sarah did great with accessing her port but poor Hannah might have nightmares tonight as she watched the huge needle being pushed into Sarah's skin and moved around to find the right spot for blood to come out and antibiotics to go in.

I am so glad that a dear friend brought dinner tonight as another did on Monday or else our family would be eating cereal more times in a row than usual.

We are all home again tonight and very thankful for that. Sarah's blood counts were unusually high, 10 for white blood cell, which made me worry. A kid with Leukemia doesn't have numbers like that. But the doctor just said it was her body probably trying to fight whatever infection she has and it wasn't a relapse. I just keep my mind on the hope side of that - sometimes using lots of my energy to do so.

We did have a fun time tonight on the living room floor as a family just playing around and Rebekah took 4 steps! Now at least I can not worry so much about her lack of walking:)

Oh, and Hannah got some mail today. Since Sarah gets so much these days, Hannah is having the normal issues of middle child plus being the sibling of a cancer kid. So we signed her up for SuperSibs, a program for siblings of cancer kids. She gets mail every now and then and today she got a package with a trophy with her name on it and and inscription praising her for being so brave and loving ,etc. I have attached a picture of her holding her trophy. It is not sleeping beside her (hopefully not in the actual bed) as she wears a huge smile.