Road Map #3 Kick Off! – Entry #31

We were officially fried after the last stent in the hospital.  13 nights and 14 day…almost sounds like a dream vacation, right?  It was a long waiting game that was filled with the fear of what ifs and when our Ollie would rebound.  We missed Passover and Easter together as a family.  Quinn had caught a cold so we couldn’t have any more visits from the sis.  Our 9 year wedding anniversary came and went. It seemed like the numbers were never going to budge.  We were stuck, she finally got to a level that was safe to go home and continue the waiting game.  We left on a Tuesday plan to check labs Thursday but in all likely hood treatment would not resume until the following week.

We bust out Tuesday late afternoon.  Olive and Quinn are reunited and just are bouncing off the walls with excitement.  Adam makes the claim that “this is all she needed, she will make her numbers by Thursday”.  So here we are Thursday afternoon another emotional drive into the hospital because the fear of the PORT is back.  Once accessed Olive is settled and fine.  We go home to wait and wouldn’t you know three hours later we get a call, Olive has more than tripled her counts!! “We need you to come in tonight for pre-treatment hydration”.  Chemo Friday is a GO!! Now it is Thursday night.  I just finished laundry and unpacking our bags after two weeks in the hospital and I am packing my bags up again, but excited, how wonderfully twisted is this abundance of emotions.

Olive was a proud girl when she grasped the level of leaps and bounds that she had taken forward.  Quinn was pretty upset.  We tried to reassure as best we could that Olive would be home quickly this time around.  Bags packed and we are gone.  olive enters the floor and even before we are completely off the elevator is yells”Helllooooo”.  Just as if she is greeting her best of friends that she is back.

We have a decent night sleep before another big day.  Olive is not allowed to eat before this procedure so we do facetime with her class for an hour to try and pass some time by.  Once ready to head to the pediatric ICU Olive starts to state her fears.  She knows she will be getting put to sleep and is not happy about that today.  She is growing up quick and it is hard to always put a happy spin on what any adult would greatly fear.

With Annie playing on the I pad Olive falls asleep cuddled in my arms. She is in the hands of some amazing doctors and nurses that have truly become our angles.  Olive had another intrathecal treatment today followed by a 24hr chemo transfusion.  The following three days she will have IV fluids to continue to “rescue” her after the transfusion.  She is tired but content.  We hang the rest of the afternoon playing games, reading some funny books and of course found our movie of the admission, chicken little.

Olive will have a wonderful night playing and cuddling with daddy.  Quinn has recovered so we will all get to have a visit tomorrow.  We lookforward to a quick recovery and bringing Olive home by Monday.

You may wonder how does one spend two weeks in the hospital in one room??

Dress up, Katie Perry dance/sing-alongs, yoga,  chess, Face Time almost everyday with her class, cat scans( she was clear!!) Arts and crafts galore, movies, apply chapstick obsessively, one weekend the hospital unit cleared out so we were able to sneak out one night and make believe we were in a restaurant at the nurses station, Olive had the white linen cloth and all! Played doctor, Olive now assists with everything that needs to be done with her care minus chemo tranfusions, but everything else that girl is on it! Give her a paycheck!  Olive had fun, mom and dad were run into the ground. Whatever it takes to keep our bug flying.

Your GONNA HEAR ME ROOOOAR!