We're home

Ok so she has a urinary tract infection and a nasty cough, but her temperature went down and her levels are high so we got to come home, with of course, a plethora of new antibiotics (this is of course on top of the ones she already has to take in order to prevent any kind of pneumonia from the line insertion - and yes don't think that on top of everything else, this bothers us the amount of antibiotics she takes, but hey you do what you have to).  Although we have to stick close to home (like we ever go anywhere these days) as they are still testing her blood cultures and if those amount to anything we will have to go back.  But all that aside it is good to have everybody at home.

We will have to go back on Thursday for our regular clinic day and then back in the following Monday as she will most likely need another blood transfusion along with platelet's.  But hopefully with any luck we can be home until then.

I have posted some pics of her on her b-day and in the hospital.  I hope everybody has a great weekend.

Love The Sterks

Some more bumps in the road

Well Gracie has not fully recovered from her "hell" night and has been sleeping most of the morning, however her fever continues to climb.  As well as she has managed to pull out part of her line, so they are trying to determine if she will need another surgery to repair it.  "Argh", they really need to come up with a better port/line system for the little kids.

So because of the fever we are now in isolation and no idea as to when we will be allowed to go home, I anticipate Monday.  So have a good weekend all...

The Sterks

Round 3

Well we are into our 3rd session of our 4 day chemo.  This time she has not had it as easy, with last night being pretty hard on her, she was up getting sick every hour throughout the night, but she didn't have much to bring up as she has not been eating all that well.  She now has a fever of 38.5, so we are hoping that this is only because of last night and not anything else.  If it does not come down it is doubtful that we will be going home today, but will wait to see what her Oncologist says later on. 

We are still unsure as to how the next few months will go for us, but will keep this updated as we find out.  This has to be the hardest part, the not knowing what will happen from moment to moment.  It makes planning even the simplest things hard, as it is most often we end up cancelling.

Thanks for reading..

Love The Sterks

After a long day

Well after a long day of audiology tests and getting Gracie's new central line put in (lets hope this one doesn't break so we don't have to do that again!) we have decided after some lengthy discussions with Dr. Campbell that we will wait until Monday to start chemo.  This way Gracie can have a normal 2 yr birthday with her cousins.  God I think back to her b-day last year and it seems like a lifetime ago.

Anyway as usual Gracie troopered through this surgery and is doing fine.  Dad has gone for a beer and I am going to bed.

Love
The Sterks

Another setback

Well the results of the PET scan are in and we do not have what we wanted in order to proceed to radiation.  They need almost a complete response before they go ahead with radation as it is most effective that way and because it is such a harsh treatment they don't want to have to do this more than once.  We have improvement but not the response everyone was hoping for.  So we will be proceeding to two more rounds of DHAP chemotherapy starting Thursday and being in hospital until Sunday.  Happy 2nd b-day Gracie :(.

Keep your fingers crossed that we will get the results we are so deperately wanting.  We will now be looking forward to mid-end June before we will know.

Take care all and we will keep you posted.

Love The Sterks.

Health Care in Canada

Down time over

Well our couple of weeks of down time is winding to an end.  This week starts the beginning of the endless testing and appointments, beginning on Thursday, with Friday being our longest worst day.  Friday she has to have her kidnesy's, ultrasound and her PET scan.  It will be a long long day as she will not be able to have anything to eat or drink for the better part of the day, or at least until the PET scan is over which hopefully will be around 3 p.m.  The PET scan results are big, as if she shows alot of disease then we will be unable to proceed to radiation and if it shows minimal, then well we proceed to radiation, kind of damed if we do and damed if we don't kind of feeling.  We will hopefully get those results early next week, so keep your fingers crossed. 

It was nice to see who we were able over the last couple of weeks but now it is back to business!

Take care and we will keep you posted.

Love The Sterks

Grateful

Driving home last night from the hospital I was actually happy, go figure.  I realized that I now really live day to day and yesterday I was so grateful that even though we had an 11 hour day up at Children's we got to come home, we didn't have to be admitted and spend the next four days up there. 

This led me to think about the other things that I am grateful for.  One of our Nurses, Ellen, told us about this man from Vietnam who was so thankful and appreciative that his son was getting treatment and that he did not have to grease the palms of the powers that be in order to get that.  He was sad because his family and friends back home would not be so lucky. 

I am so grateful to live in a developed country where Gracie can get treatment for a disease that without would end her life.  Even more grateful that in Canada most of this we do not need to pay a dime for, if we were in the States, depending on medical coverage, we would be broke, probably have lost our house by now as the cost of the chemo drugs is SO expensive, not to mention the diagnositic testing. 

I am grateful for the nurses and doctors up there, even though we have had our frustrations with the system, the individual people we deal with are amazing.  I am grateful to the nurses up there who see you at your worst and still manage to give you a hug at the end of the day and tell you all the things they appreciate about you. 

I am grateful that I have a partner in all of this who is as invested as I am.  Lastly I am greatful to be blessed with Gracie in my life, such a big personality who teaches me every day how to take it moment by moment, and laugh at any chance you get.  However that being said I think we will need a visit from Nanny 911 when all of this is over :).

Be grateful for the greatness in your life as it is all around you...

Christa

Another clinic day

Well our suspicions were right and after getting Gracie's blood work back at 1130 this morning she had barely any platelets and her hemoglobin was minimal at best. So here we sit. Her blood didn't come in until 345, although we were able to vet her platelets done at 3. So the good news is that she is not nutripenic and no temp, so we will not be admitted, we just won't be home until tonight at around 8 or 9.

Ciao for now...

Nice day in Calgary

Well we have been allowed to be fairly normal this week as Gracie's levels were well over 16,000, which in laymans terms means she has a stronger immune system than most average people.  This of course is all due to a drug which we inject nightly called GCSF.  I suspect that she is tanking today, being Sunday and that we will require another blood transfusion of plateletts tomorrow as I can see she is brusing quite easily and her lips aren't quite as pink as they should be.  This is how it went her last round of chemo though, so I am not too concerned.  We will go back into clinic tomorrow am for blood counts. 

We met with her radiologist on Thursday, pretty good for the most part.  I kept laughing though as my cousin Chris (who happens to be a ER doc) gave me some great advice last week, some of which was "be prepared as people who go into radiology do so because they don't like people".  He was a really nice guy, but fairly odd.  If you can take humour out of a crappy situation then you can appreciate that I had a hard time not laughing as I could hear Chris' voice as if she were sitting beside me.  So we should be good to go starting May 4.

Other than that is has been a great weekend with a TON of snow yesterday, but that turining today into one of those steller snowy spring day in Calgary.  Which if you haven't experienced it, the city is beautiful with the trees hanging heavy with snow and everything being white, this along with a bluebird sky, the sun shining hot makes for things in fairy tales.  I love days like these, I just wish Winnie and Kurt were here so we could spend the day building one of their great snow forts.  We will setlle for playing on the slides into snow banks and sled riding.

All the best to everyone!