Welcome back all. This will have been the 6th installment of the updates for Isabel. I know they are coming fewer and longer in between. But work again has picked up so I tend to forget to sit down and let out my thoughts. I've finally figured out how to more efficiently send out mass emails. All this time I should have created a "list" from my contacts. Makes life a heck of a lot easier. That way I don't forget to add anyone. Again if you would like me to add anyone to the distribution list. Just shoot me an email and I'll add them to the list. This is a story I don't mind telling or sharing. Sometimes the hardest thing to talk about are the ones that can inspire the most. As a friend told me.....sometimes god brings those closest who he wants to hear talk to him. Anybody that really knows me I'm not the most religious person. I won't sit here and front and say this will lead me to church. But I'm glad that their are strong believers and church going people supporting Isabel and sending her that love. So this is the update from 10/30-11/5. And yes the title is battle with fire breathing dragon (know its not Papi's bad breath lol). So on to the update. The euphoria we felt when Isabel was walking herself out her room with a smile like a Chester cat was priceless. It was one of those made for a MasterCard commercial. Even the bleak drab hospital hallways looked a bit more cheerful, as we strolled out the hospital like we had won this round. For you see when you can walk out and have a cancer patient smiling and joking its always a win. So as we loaded Isa in her Mami's car I snapped a shot telling Isabel "every time we leave the hospital you gotta throw up the deuces lol" that's the piece sign for clarification. I took my camera pic and set it instantly as my screen saver on my phone, and went on my way. As I drove home that night I almost didn't know what to do with myself. Rest yeah there was that, but I feared I had gotten to use to something beeping. How was I to sleep with no nurse coming in every 2 hours. If it wasn't the nurse it was the tech checking vitals, if not the tech the housekeeping. I got good at faking I was awake when a nurse or tech would come in if they needed to ask me a question. So there I was laying in bed not able to sleep, all I could think about was how Isa would do her first night HOME. Eventually I think around 2-3 i was able to doze off. First thing in the morning texted Ivey to see how are little Warrior Princess was doing. To my surprise she woke up the house wanting to play and for a lack of a better word being "Isa". Nothing could have started my Sunday off any better. I was planning on visiting after the Redskins game. Silly me though I fooled myself to thinking that Isa's positivity would transfer to them lmao. Such was not the case and the ended up getting shut out 23-0 (Ouch). So as the game wrapped up I was getting ready to make my way over to catch some rays of my sunshine. But this is where the story takes a turn and the story tale begins. When I called Ivey to tell her that I was getting ready to head over, she said wait she has a fever. Huh she was just so happy she just came out the hospital, a fever already. Just to back track a little bit when we were in the hospital when we were being discharged they gave us a set of guidelines. Things to look out for and the number one thing was fevers. For that could be a sign of a more serious infection. They even gave us a range that was considered low grade, which would just require monitoring. Or the high grade believe anything above 101 warrants an immediate trip to the hospital. So back to Sunday night. Ivey calls me and says Isa's temp is 101.5. My heart just sank because I knew what that meant........back to the kids hospital. But I asked if she took it twice. In a restrained panic voice Ivey said "Yes I checked it 3 times". I told her my famous words "calm down", call the ER to let them know a cancer patient is coming and lets get there. See when a child is under going chemo they get "VIP" treatment cause its a safety risk to have them waiting in the waiting room. So as soon as we got there we got put into a room. Here comes the dreaded part they had to place her port back in. Which meant Isa was once against faced with her mortal enemy adhesive bandages. Add to the fact that she was upset and sad she had to come back to the very same place she just left less then 24 hrs ago. We all were trying to come to grips with it. But in the back of my head I was still calm figuring they would check her give her some medicine and send us home. This my friends is where the villain of this story came into play. The mighty fire breathing dragon aka fever. And he was intending on staying for alot longer then we bargained for. When the nurse came back and said that she had to be in the hospital for 48 hours after they took her blood culture. Ivey and I'sa lot of checked temps every hour and cold wash clothes on the head. Also while this was going down they were updating us on her white blood counts we were only at 300. So in our minds it like great here goes the week and weekend most likely. But we still held out hope it would spike back up to normal levels and she could get back to being at home. So back to the day to day worry. Every time that beep of the thermometer went off we eagerly awaited the results. "38.3" Ok and that means what in F........another spiking of the fever. Yay just what we wanted two more days of hospital food and listening to TV through basically a big remote. Isa though she made the most of it. She was doing a bit of homework (writing letters, coloring, paint by numbers & the memory game) and save the best for last puzzles. But the one thing she loved most during her stay was playing dominoes. To be truthful she beat me straight up. I want to fib and say I did the daddy move and ease up let her get a few games. Such was not the case she beat me without me holding back. So finally by Thursday we started hearing better news. Her white blood count is 1200, such a vast improvement. But they still want to have her counts be higher to go home. With that news we relaxed a bit more thinking to ourselves tomorrow could be the day she goes back home. So Friday morning when I awake to the doctors telling us that her white blood count was 2,200. The tension just lifted right out the room. We knew that she could fight that fever and be ready to be home. I would go on about the hospital visit, but it was a boring week in that wasn't much procedures. Just blood drawn from the port and a medicine here and there. So I'll leave you with this. Our Isabel Princes Warrior had finally slayed the dragon. And her support group couldn't be happy to have her going back home Saturday October 4, 2011. Who else would boss the girls at Ivey's house lol. So it was a hectic week since both our jobs had picked up, but we got thru it with Isabel still smiling. These are the days of our lives...........that one was for the soap fans lol. So once again thank you everybody for the support, prayers, and positive thoughts. Their always welcome and appreciated. Isa is home and loving it. Look not mournfully into the past, it comes not back again. Wisely improve the present, it is thine. Go forth to meet the shadowy future without fear and with a manly heart.
Sincerely grateful
Aldo A Santiesteban III
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