On the Road Again

By Stephanie

Okay, so this has been a VERY long week and I haven't accomplished nearly what needs to be done.
It started out on June 14th when they did a lumbar puncture (aka spinal tap) on Avery hand found the pressure high so they put in the shunt.  Things were going pretty well, just one night in the hospital and we came home on Friday....only to return on Saturday because she had a fever over 101.  Anytime a chemo patient has a fever over 101, you take them to the ER.  They check the blood to see if they are low on anything.  She was low on red blood cells. So they admitted her. Red blood has to be given VERY slowly.  So we were there overnight.  She did great and we came home Sunday afternoon.  Monday was good too (my sister Amy came to visit, HOORAY!).  But Tuesdays she got another fever.  I took her BACK to Seattle.  When we were in the ER we noticed she had a rash on her back and shoulders.  They did all her blood work again, and she was good.  So why the fever?  Probably a virus. They were worried the shunt had an infection.  That would have been BAD.  Because they take it completely out and put a new one in.  We did NOT want that.  NO way!!  She was also shaking a lot.  It looked like she had Parkinson's it was so bad.  
After three cultures, three rounds of antibiotics and four nights in the hospital, they really didn't have any more answers than when we came in.  But she is doing much better.  Not 100% normal.  She did sleep til noon today and is eating super small portions.  But she is looking much more like herself and the shaking is mostly gone.  I'll take it at this point.  


My sister was awesome and totally took care of my other three kids and did some packing for me.....yep Chris has been in Vegas since June 7th and missed all this fun.  
  
We do MAJOR packing tomorrow, load up Tues, Clean Wed and leave Thursday morning.  As long as there are no more medical issues to address.