New Year and a New Way of Life

We're home from our 4 day stay in the hospital. It was pretty tough, but Millie made it through. I had a hard time with the limited sleep, the fold out chair that I slept on, and the constant nurse visits. Millie was being flushed with large amounts of fluids, so I was on constant bedpan duty. It would seem that I was just asleep when I would hear her start to rustle. I would jump to task, but was unfortunately too late on a few occasions and would have to call the nurse in to once again change her sheets.
We had some nice visitors in the hospital, which took some pressure off. Millie was entertained with games and activities that our friend Joel brought (he also brought some chocolate liquors for mama!). She also played several games of "Zingo" with her Uncle Erik and read books and watched movies each night with Tricia.

Now that we're home, the chemotherapy drugs are kicking in strong- and Millie is struggling with the effects. She woke me up at 4:30 this morning saying that she was so thirsty but couldn't drink. I tried to have her suck a washcloth, and I took drops of water and ran them across her mouth, but nothing helped. We just curled up together in bed and waited for morning. Every now and then she would dry heave into the bin we have for her.

The administration of the medication is a challenge- Millie fights tremendously the 3-4 medications she has to take each day. It is heartbreaking to employ "tough love" techniques to get the anti-nausea medicine and other medicines down, but the positive effects are dramatic. She is not eating, but at least she isn't throwing up.

Last night I went to Petaluma Market to try to pick out some higher calorie items that she might eat. There I was, on New Year's Eve, shuffling through the market wearing sweats, UGG boots, and a bulky cardigen sweater- clutching a half gallon of ice cream, eggo waffles, and hershey's syrup. The only thing missing to complete my look would have been several boxes of Meow Mix for the assumed collection of 20 cats.

A home care nurse came over today to make sure we were ok with our more complicated medical procedures. Every night we must administer an injection of GGCF into a pinch of skin on her little body. This is done with an insulin needle, and we have to draw the dose up from the vial to measure it and get rid of air bubbles. (Another case of "tough love".) We also have to flush out her broviac tubes every day and draw blood twice a week. We have 2 large brown shopping bags full of medical supplies and perscriptions for Millie already, and this was just to "tide us over" until we get the big delivery next week! Brian and I are working on an organization plan for our new inhouse pharmacy.

But today, we're just relaxing with a Looney Tunes marathon and trying not to get too ambitious.