Sunday, August 27th
Unfortunately, there isn't a lot to add to Claire's current health status or hospital re-admission today from Chris' posting last night. We are experiencing, for the first time, the very scary and ugly downside fall into the real 'black hole' of chemotherapy. It hits patients approximately 7-10 days post treatment start date. The fatigue, nausea and lack of appetite associated during the inital receipt of chemotherapy is always thought to be the worst part, probably because people can assimulate to this stage and it's visual, but I think the fall afterwards is just, if not more, devastating. Children, as we all know, do everything faster and much more dramatic than adults ....which can be wonderful when watching or measuring Claire's neurological advancements, but can be absolutely overwhelming when seeing her precious body stripped of all the necessary and vital "good" cells she requires to fight off any viral or bacterial infection. The drop of all "good" cells can happen quick and hard in children, easily hitting rock bottom within a 24 hour period - like Claire did, (for you medical professionals she went from 1900 to only 20 white blood cells over night) and sadly the ability to grow new and "good" cells and help fight off any infection in her body does not occur as rapidily. The next few days and test results will give us a better idea of the type of infection she has currently (which is likely as she incrementally spiked some bad fevers last night) and how her body will hopefully start to recover and climb back up to normalcy. When she is not on fire though, she smiles big while constantly requesting food items to be added to "her grocery store list" and when raving about how much she loves her Ryan and Reese-ee. And although, I spent a lot of yesterday on the floor in the hospital ward hallway frightened and requiring several boxes of tissues, PLEASE don't get down or lose any of your positive thoughts or momentum - its needed and continues to assist us during this difficult journey. As Claire's physician stated this morning Claire has already broken or exceeded all records or predictable outcomes to date, her re-admission now and quite possibly post chemotherapy in the future is actually expected and normal, and it's OK when Claire reacts like everyother child with cancer (as most of the pediatric hospital ward is housed by sweet and young children post chemotherapy then during their treatment cycle), an awful fact we learned first hand yesterday.