Day #1 of Chemo

Yesterday after surgery and after we got settled in her room, we spent most of the afternoon and evening snuggling in Brynlee's bed. She was very snuggly and quiet, but we finally got her some real food for dinner, and she ate it up. The poor thing was starving. I ordered her a strawberry smoothie that she finished off and loved as well as some crackers and some macaroni and cheese. This room service type of ordering is awesome. I kind of wish I could order from this menu. It looks pretty good.  

 

Her first night in the hospital went fairly well. She did get a fever last night and was given some Tylenol and started on an antibiotic for a possible infection. The fever was short lived, but her urine sample did show some blood cells, so now we are looking at a UTI. They obtained another urine sample for more tests via a catheter, so we are waiting to see what's going on with that. Also, she still has her chest tube in that drains blood and fluid out of her chest, and I am hoping they can take that out soon as she is confined to her bed until that comes out.

 

Ever since surgery yesterday Brynlee has not been able to open her right eye as wide as her left, so we are also looking into that. They are talking to the surgeons and someone from surgery came to look at her, but hopefully they can figure it out or it will go away and be normal again. I am trying not to panic about it, but I am a little bit upset about it. I hope it gets better.

 

We started chemotherapy today. Brynlee will receive the same two chemo drugs for all five days, and it will be the same for each round of chemo that she has. She receives Cytoxan, which she has had before, and she also receives Topotecan. I snapped this picture after the Cytoxan was started (it's that tube in the background with the bright yellow and pink stickers).

 

 

And then I took this picture because I thought that she looked way too excited about getting chemo in that first picture and that this one was more reflective of how we feel about the necessary evil of chemo.

 

Brynlee has already won over the hearts of everyone caring for her, and everyone who cared for her last time is sad to see her back here. She loves talking to everyone who comes in and she assists the nurses by moving her blankets so they can scan her badge and access her tubes. For the most part, she is being a really good patient. She does want to go home, however, and see her sisters, and her sisters are really sad that she is in the hospital. We are going to try to get some Skype dates set up with the girls to hopefully help with that. Her sisters cannot come to the hospital right now because of the really bad flu and RSV season that we are having. We will be doing our best to protect Brynlee from all of the sickies out there and will be going into seclusion again.

 

Thank you for your continued prayers for Brynlee and our family!