Another Good Week Minus the Head Shaving

This week Brynlee has been feeling good, eating well, and her blood counts were definitely on the rebound by Monday morning so much that we were able to stop her Neupogen shots and we even had dinner over at our neighbor's house. Her counts were looking so good that we didn't even need to do a blood draw on Thursday. The only real problem has been that Brynlee is still gunky in her chest and has a cough, but she has not fevered. Yay! Anyone that knows Brynlee knows that anytime she has gotten sick in the last year-and-a-half she takes forever to get the gunk out of her chest because of her weakened lungs and muscles in her core.

 

The home health nurse came today to draw Brynlee's labs so that we can start chemo tomorrow, so I should know first thing in the morning if we are doing chemo this week and then we will be off for a long and oh so fun day in the clinic at the hospital. I just keep telling myself that it will be so much better to be outpatient than inpatient because we get to come home at night and that it is only for 5 days. I've mentioned it a few times, but we have had some not so wonderful experiences in the past with the clinic, so I kind of dread going there. I am also going into this week prepared with the reality that we very well could be admitted if she starts fevering or has other issues.  

 

After we found out about Brynlee's relapse I contacted my friend who takes pictures to see if she would take some pictures of Brynlee before she had to lose her hair again. I am so grateful to Patience for donating her time to snap these photos. The amazing thing about these pictures is that I am holding Brynlee in most of them and you can't see me. Please check out Patience's blog to see her wonderful work. http://www.pashspictures.blogspot.com/ 

Here are a few fun shots.

 

 

 

This week Brynlee's hair started falling out. It slowly started on Wednesday when I noticed more hair in the comb when I combed her hair and then by Saturday she had hair everywhere - in her food, all over us when we would hold her, etc. We decided to shave her hair off and had talked to her about it several times. Each time she told us no that she didn't want her hair cut. We were both heartbroken doing this, but it just needed to be done. I cried the entire time, and Blair said it was not an easy thing for him to do. Brynlee, however, just sat there and laid there and didn't move. I don't know if she was scared or mad or what. I wish I knew what she was thinking. I wish she understood why we had to shave off her hair and why things are the way they are for her.

 

Here is the before and after.

 

 

 

 

We put her hair in a bag. I don't know what I will do with it, but for now we still have it.

 

I just want to thank everyone for your love and support over the past year-and-a-half or so and especially over the last three weeks. We are overwhelmed and very grateful for our friends and family and even strangers who are doing so much for us. We are fairly quiet people and would prefer to have the attention somewhere other than us; however, we recognize that no one should go through this alone and are grateful for all that has been done for us and our family. We look forward to the day when we are able to be on the giving end more than on the receiving end.