So when we last left on with our heroine she was getting some much needed uninterrupted rest. She had walked around the cancer ward for the first time. And was looking like her visabuelo hanging out in the recliner with her hospital gown open exposing her belly lol. Is still surprising how quickly the days go by. Its hard to focus on anything besides Isabel naturally. But with the good days you just want to soak up each smile and twinkle in her eyes. Each little laugh or sly smile or her clever wit gets you true the troubling moments up ahead. You want to start researching all the medicines she will be taking, and bracing yourself for the side effects. But at the end of the day you can read up on it, and mentally prepare yourself for them but you just don't know. You dont know which ones she will get, how bad it will be, their is no way of knowing in advance. So you just have to be knowledgeable of what to expect and not get to wrapped up in what you find out. Long term vision is a must when dealing with something of this magnitude. But taking it day to day ensures your sanity. Anyways on to the updates..............
Friday: Of all the days this one being the 10th. I would say it was the most pleasurable, but anytime in here can't really be labeled that. You could say it was the ray of sunlight shining through the dark clouds. Isabel was able to stay off her IV during the days now. So it was alot easier for her to move around. Which she quickly took advantage of by lounging out in the recliner. A little later on in the day after lunch she headed over to the sofa by the window to take in the view from her room. She took a nice long relaxing nap. I came I would say around the middle, and excused myself to the parent lounge room you could call it. When Isabel woke up she was in a great mod. Maybe the small taste of freedom off the IV and not being hooked up to the other monitors lifted her spirits. She was her bubbly self, with a smile that lite up my heart. I asked if she wanted to go to the playroom instead of being in the room. She looked excited while nodding her head up and down, while putting on her slippers. We walked over to the playroom and she went straight to the dollhouse. Watching her play it was like being at home. She was making up a story and singing, its almost like she forgot where she was for that moment. One toy after the other briefly entertained her, but their was another exciting event to take place later. Earlier in the day the nurse had reminded Isa that today was dog day. They bring in specially trained dogs for the kids to pet while in here. Their was also talk of a dog that could ride a skateboard. Isa was a bit skeptical about the thought of that. She had a wait and see look on her face. We went back to the room to lay down for a nap before the dogs were to arrive. Some how we lost track of time, because as soon as we layed down I looked at the clock and realized the dogs were expected to be here in 20 mins. No more then 5 mins later the art therapist came in to have Isa paint some paper pumpkins. They gave her three to decorate with eyes and color on. Each one was given a distinctive look with a different nose and mouth. No sooner did she finish the pumpkins we got a knock on the door. Isa was excited that she was going to get to pet the dogs, but when in front of them she started acting shy. That was until she saw the little dog on the skate board. A little bit of a disclaimer although the dog was "on the skateboard" it wasn't doing it unassisted. They had a pole attached to it so they could maneuver it. Isabel didn't seem to mind, but alas my excitement was all but lost lol. Oh I forgot to mention earlier in the day before I came over after work, Isabel had a hearing test. Most of us when we think of a hearing test its a simple 5 min test. The one they gave Isabel was a bit more intense. First of all they attached who knows what to her ears and monitors on her head. She also had to be slightly sedated since the test took about 1 1/2 hours. At first our princess warrior put up a good fight to stay awake, but she eventually succumbed to the sedative and went to sleep. The rest of the day was more relaxing and nothing else too exciting.
Saturday: Another solid night of sleep. I think she was practicing her warrior fighting technique in her sleep cause she was moving her arms a bit as she dreamed lol. She was scheduled for her first Cat scan after having started her Chemo. This would go a long way to determining how effective the first cycle of chemo was. How much it would shrink the tumor. So their was a weird sense of excitement at the thought of finding out her tumor was now smaller. We had a sense that it had shrunken somewhat since her face was less droopy, and her smile was coming back. But the Cat scan almost didn't happen. For them to get an accurate picture they needed to her to stay still while she was in the Cat scan. The two previous ones that wasn't a problem, and she actually slept through them. But today not only did she have to drink the lemonade contrast. When she got downstairs to do the Cat scan, they needed to inject some contrast in her IV. This did not go over well with are Warrior Princess at all. She began to try and get up out of the bed they had her laying in. She started crying and getting really worked up. The technician said that if she didn't calm down we would have to wait till tomorrow and get sedated. I told them to give us a minute so I could calm her down. It took a minute or two but she finally calmed down enough to start the initial Cat Scan with just the liquid contrast. After that was done we had to wait on the doctor to come to give her the IV contrast. That was going to be a more daunting task trying to keep her calm after them injecting it into her IV, seeing as how them just touching her IV tube gets her worked up. The doctor came in and she already started getting worked up. They had a look on their face like they were ready to send her back upstairs. I looked at the doctor and asked her to give me a minute so we didn't have to wait till tomorrow. I told Isabel that I would be honest with her, so I proceeded to explain they needed to put something in the IV and that she had to stay still after. If she didn't stay still I told her we would have to do it again tomorrow and she would have to do it again and again till they got their picture they wanted. With a stiff upper lip our Warrior Princess put her game face on and told the doctor "Do It". Phew we got through another procedure. Afterwards we were able to relax and rest. She had her cousins come visit later that evening and she was in a good mood again. Day 12 had come to an end.
Sunday: Today began the second cycle of her Chemo treatment. This was going to be the more aggressive cocktail, since the first one cycle was three drugs, the second cycle was up'd to 5 drugs. Also on average the other ones were giving for about 1 hr on her IV. This round their was one that took 4 hours to administer. But the effects of the more aggressive treatment wouldn' be known until sometime next week. Most of the side effects take about a week to show. So as everything else its a wait and see approach. Luckily the day of she is still in great spirits. Isabel and I got to Tango (a cell phone Skype) while they were giving her the chemo in her IV. I made funny faces while Isa looked on and made some back at me. It made me feel better about not being able to be there to hold her hand. I was at the shop trying to make up some hours. I will say again that watching the Redskins lose doesn't have the same effect it did last year. Its a quick disappointment and instantly forgotten. Don't get me wrong it would have been great for a win, but I was in for a much more satisfying surprise later in the day. As I was in the midst of anger and disappointment with the Redskins letting another game get out of their grasp. I reached a phone call from Ivey, she had just talked to the oncologist at the hospital. They had looked over her Cat scan from Saturday, and their was a reduction in the tumor. I was ecstatic this was the news we had been anxiously waiting for. Not knowing how well the tumor would respond to the chemo was worrisome. But the news that it looked to be a 40% reduction was shocking to say the least. Being a typical Cuban I still had my reservation, until I could see the Cat Scan and with my "doctor" degree compare the new ct scan with the old one from last week. Although I know that the doctors wouldn't have told us that it was such a reduction with out being sure about it. So many questions popped into our heads. What did this mean? Where they expecting such a large reduction? Would the treatment plan change now? Did she still have to go through 6-8 months of chemo? Could they now be less aggressive? Was the first reduction the easiest, and the rest still be hard to shrink with chemo? But for the rest of the day a smirk was never too far from the surface. It was just the next line of good news that we have received since the first day the tumor was discovered. Tonight would be a good night, the mind would be at ease knowing that Isabel our Warrior Princess hasn't, won't and will never stop fighting.
So as we come up on two weeks in the hospital, the love, prayers, positive thoughts and support is as strong as ever. All the nurses love seeing Isabel smiling and coloring. Her room is one of the most decorated on the ward. The teddy bears are overflowing and the balloons are flowing in the air. As the saying goes "All is well that ends well", and we couldn't have asked for a better ending to the week. I will leave you with this...................
"Those who bring sunshine to the lives of others cannot keep it from themselves." - James M Barrie
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