Happy Valentine's Day

Chemo - Day 8

Valentines Day. Madison and Noah drew Jordan cards, it was very sweet. Roger brought the kids to see Jordan. He also brought roses for her and I, with cards. It was very nice.

I went to work today again, until about 3pm. Jordan is doing fine by herself during the day. Today she went down to the lobby for a Valentine party. She went with Trisha from Child Life and they had two little boys make the trip with them. Jeffrey and Jonathon are both about 4 years old.

Jordan’s blood pressure has continued to stay high. They have given her medication to bring it down. They are also going to stop the Decadron because they believe that is what is causing the high blood pressure.

She did vomit several times today. Her blood counts are still fairly stable at this point, which is a surprise to the Doctors after 8 days of Chemo. They expect them to plummet in the next day or two.

There is talk of stopping the Motrin now too. They need to see if Jordan is running a fever at all, because if she is, the Motrin is masking it and they are not aware of it. She really shouldn’t need the Motrin anymore because the Chemo should be dissolving the tumors on her back that were causing all the pain.

We met the Homebound teachers that work at the hospital today. We should be hearing from Jordan’s actual Homebound teacher by the end of the week.

Jordan’s principal called again today and talked with her this time. He called sometime last week, but I didn’t write it down.

Jordan met Melodie today. She is a girl about her age that also has Leukemia, but she has ALL. She came in for Chemo. Tylee introduced them to each other. I’m hoping Jordan will make some friends while she is here. As of right now though, she is not interested. She doesn’t want to be associated with other sick kids, because she says everyone will know she is sick too. I think in time her feelings will change about this, but you cannot rush her into acceptance. It will come when she is ready.

I met Debbie (Carlee’s mom) tonight. Carlee is a four year old little girl who was diagnosed with ALL (another form of Leukemia) on January 11th. She was admitted to the hospital that day and hasn’t been able to go home yet. She has suffered from every possible side effect that can occur from Chemo. Right now she has some sort of infection in her intestines and hasn’t been able to eat or drink anything for over 2 weeks. She is getting nutrition through an IV. Her mom said the Doctors tell her this condition is extremely painful, which explains why Carlee is hooked up to a Morphine PCA. We have seen them walking the halls occasionally and Carlee complains or cries during the entire walk, because she is in pain. Debbie said that Carlee had a bunch of bruises on her legs one day and within a couple days they were gone, so she didn’t think much of it. But on a Monday morning, Carlee woke up with an enormous bruise covering her elbow. She didn’t go to bed with it, so Debbie knew something wasn’t right. She went to the doctor and the doctor felt her stomach and said her spleen was enlarged and when he looked into her mouth, it was completely white. She didn’t have any red blood cells. She was admitted that day and was quickly diagnosed with ALL. She is in remission now and still has all her hair. They just need to get rid of the intestine infection so she can eat and drink, which will allow her to go home.