A Moment of weakness

I realized after I finished writing the following post that it might be a little scattered. 

Hence the title.

But for what its worth, here it goes.

As my friend text me telling me she bawled her eyes out as she watched her one year old baby girl get put under general anesthetic for a minor surgery, my heart broke for her. 

It seems like yesterday that I was in her exact shoes, holding Jaidyn's hand as she lay on the operating table about to go limp as the Dr's and nurses prepare her for what would be the first of many procedures and surgeries to rid her body of this horrible disease. 

She says to me "how do you do this all the time? Does it get easier?" 

It makes me mad. It angers me big time. When I answer her. Saying "yes, it does get easier." 

I think?

Why am I ok doing this? Why has this become normal? Has it become easier?

A billion questions start filling my brain.

But the answer is actually really easy.

Having a child who is very sick gives you no choice. You have no choice but to be their strength, their rock, their everything. Its not a decision you get to think about. You fight, you figure out a way to make life as easy, and as comfortable and as safe as possible. So that their tiny little bodies can beat the terrible disease that they have unfortunately had to live with. 

We have been reassured that the stage of chemotherapy that Jaidyn is currently in "Maintenance" is the easy stage. The safe stage. Where life can start become normal. so we have been doing our best to make it as normal for her as it can. Swimming lessons, dance class, daycare and so on. 

First day of Ballet this year

Passed her fist level of swimming!

Other than every evening that she takes her oral chemo and the once a month we go in to the to the hospital for blood counts and different drugs in her line or in her spinal fluid, cancer is easily ignored.

Most people who meet Jaidyn, comment on her cute hair cut, and that I was so brave to cut it that short. Little do they know its just the results of chemotherapy causing all her hair to fall out. People are shocked if I tell them about it. No one believes me because she seems so "normal".

And that's what brings me to the next part of this post.

It is rare for me to not speak out when I'm struggling. It's something a lot of people have a hard time with because they are afraid of rejection or looking stupid. It's something I admit has been lacking on my part over the last year. It may be because I wasn't even sure what I was needing help with because support for parents with children with cancer shouldn't even be "something" that needs to happen.

It wasn't until I was speaking with another mum from the clinic who's daughter has the same cancer as Jaidyn, that we realised something needed to change. As we were both in the same boat with living out of hospital, feeling the lack of support, since we aren't around other families going through the same thing. Feeling isolated, sometimes literally as low immune systems cause said isolation. Both wishing for more resources in the community to get through the tough times and the different transitions we face as parents living with a child with cancer. 

A Facebook page was created that has honestly been a life saver for questions that can be answered by other parents. Advice you can get from them, since they have been through it or are currently going through it. 

Because we are local, we sometimes always feel disconnected from the community or "family feeling" you might get when living in the hospital or such places like Ronald McDonald House (RMH).  Not that we are complaining that we get to sleep in our own beds every night, but we do feel removed.

Being able to sit down with other families facing the same battles, sharing stories and advice while in the midst of treatment of this horrible battle, would be such a life saver. As much as the online chats help, the thought of being able to do this once a month together as a group, have dinner, share in person how we might be able to help each other could probably help more than anyone thinks. 

Being a single mother for the most part of the treatment has been lonely. Especially when her counts were low and we couldn't even go out to the grocery store to get food for dinner. Not saying we didn't eat dinner every night., but having some sort of program in place where dinners were provided or other families could get together as stated above would be more beneficial then words can express.

Who knows, there may even be such programs in place. And this is kinda my point. I have no clue about it. And I don't think it should be my job to find out what support I could be receiving. Because my job is to be the rock. The strength, though the treatment. Those other things should just fall into place for families like us. 

15 months of living with Cancer, I wish I had voiced how I felt earlier. I wish that I had thought of this simple thing like this Facebook group 15 months ago. A lot of things might have been much much much easier.

I guess I was a bit preoccupied. 

But everything is worth it when I get to wake up to this face every day.

Modelling her new lipstick (self applied)

Heading to Walmart. Jaidyn wanted to fit in

Photo Fundraiser for Jaidyn

Extremely long over due update coming soon... 


So as soon as I find a second you all will have lots of reading material to catch up on.


But before I forget I wanted to announce this amazing fundraiser that our good friend Bri Oliver at Luvuphotography has put together.


Bri was the one that took my maternity shots, and also Jaidyn's new born photos. She is also the photographer that held the contest a few months ago that Jaidyn won, thanks to all your votes.


We are so thankful that out of kindness of her heart she has put together this fundraiser for all of you to participate in to help with Jaidyn's treatment and the costs this Leukemia diagnosis as put on Jaidyn and our family.


Photo's are a great way to create amazing memories, and are far to often delayed. Get your updated pictures done here whether they are of your family, or your kids or groups of friends.


You can read more about the event here


Book soon as it is only being held for one day and spots are filling up fast. 


And thank you again Bri for your generosity, and for putting this event together.

Pure joy, no matter what.

I had to get some blood tests done last week. Jaidyn was actually really excited that I was getting mine done since its always her getting it done. We waited in the waiting room where she continuously let me know its going to be ok. When it was my turn she told me exactly what to do: sit down and pull your sleeve up, then the lady will wash it with the wipe. I kinda laughed as the nurse looked at me kinda confused. Then Jaidyn told me "don't worry Mommy, its going to be ok. I'm right here and I will hold your hand." It was so sweet and innocent.


Funny enough it actually was reassuring. I'm such a baby when it comes to getting my blood done, only because they some how manage to ALWAYS blow my veins. Which by the way, they did again.


As we were walking through the waiting room, Jaidyn stops me and says in the most excited voice for everyone sitting there to hear, "Mommy you were SO brave you didn't even cry!"


Yesterday, we were driving, I had the music playing but I could hear Jaidyn talking really quietly in the backseat. So I turned the music down and listened for a minute, and couldn't help but smile.


She had her baby in her lap and was playing doctor with her. But not just any "doctor" game a 3 year old would play. Her little baby was getting prepped for a spinal tap. As she went into detail explaining to her baby that "don't worry you will feel a little dizzy, but its ok because you can just watch Dora on the big TV" and, "after we are done, we will wheel you back to your room and your mommy will be there to take care of you." She also attached her baby's IV pole to her butterfly line and started giving her fluids.


It made me so sad and happy at the same time.


Sad because my 3 year old knows what a spinal tap is and can walk you through it step by step. But also happy in that she is capable of making light of such a terrible disease. This is what she knows. This is her normal.


Luckily was feeling good enough and her counts were high enough she was able to go to school and ballet on Valentines day. So for the first time Jaidyn and I made home made valentines for all her friends. She signed each and every one of them and even made Miles (the dog from school) a matching Birthday card. She was so excited to get there and pass them out.

We have good days and we have bad days. Unfortunately we also have really bad days. Days when nothing makes her feel better, when my patience and strength is depleted, days I am ready to throw the towel in. But then there are days as mentioned above when I realize I can't give up. When I realize there is a little girl depending on me to be her rock and to make it ok.


As ok as it can be.


But I'm only human.


Ive never really experienced what its like to be truly burned out.


Having the feelings where I'm so mentally exhausted, sleep just doesn't help anymore.


Thankfully the results from the blood test for me came back normal, and my doctor has said "you're just burnt out, you need a break, you need time for yourself."


However, taking breaks, and time for myself is few and far between these days. Jaidyn has always been a lot of work to begin with. When adding in this treatment and illness, it makes the hard days that much harder. We're learning how to get through the hard days.  She does take "acting up for her mom" to a whole other level. But she will be going back to the Psychologist at Children's soon. Where we both will learn to deal with her frustrations and anxieties.


Because there are just some days when I just don't know what to do anymore.


And then there are days like this where we go to the park with Uncle Tay Tay, that make me remember, everything will be ok as long as I can continue to see this smiling face. Jaidyn has taught me so much throughout all of this. As hard as it may seem, and as rough as some days are, there is always a way to smile. Sometimes I just need to remember that more often.

 

Pure joy. No matter what.

Sears Great Canadian Chill 2012

This weekend Jaidyn's dad, Andrew and his sister Ashley will be participating in the Sears Great Canadian Chill- Stopping Kids Cancer Cold!


Feb 18th 2012, Andrew and Ashley will be joining hundreds of other people by jumping into the freezing cold ocean at Second Beach, Stanley Park Vancouver BC.




Click here to help sponsor Andrew to raise money to end kids cancer and improve the lives of thousands of children and their families. This cause is all to close to our hearts, experiencing it first hand. Jaidyn is thankfully doing wonderful in her treatments, but she wouldn't be getting the care she does if it wasn't for the donations and fundraisers that have taken place to find a cure for this horrible disease. 


Please help in anyway you can. No person, no family especially no child should have to experience this. 
Every dollar counts, and if you can't help financially please be there to cheer everyone while they jump into the chilly waters this Saturday.

Jaidyn and Andrew, Cawston BC October 2011

Day 10

In no way am I complaining when I write this post, its more of an ironic thing.


Today, was 10 days post Chemo for Jaidyn. Day 10 is normally the worst. Meaning your counts are usually the lowest which leads to possible admission.


Jaidyn is in the last "intense phase" of her 2 year treatment before we start the year and a half of "Maintenance" which is once a month Chemo. This last phase where she got the Ara-C four days in a row, usually lands kids in the hospital around day 10. Luckily we were already going in today for follow up blood work, to check her counts and transfuse if necessary.


Last Friday Jaidyn received a platelet transfusion for the first time. Let me just add that normally when kids are diagnosed with Leukemia, a tell tale sign is bruising. Caused by low platelets. Another sign of low platelets is called petechia. Petechia is tiny little red dots that appear on the skin. Jaidyn never showed any of those signs when she was diagnosed. Nor has she shown any, almost the whole time through treatment. Her platelets have always stayed well in the hundreds. At some points even being over 500. A transfusion only happens when its under 10. 


Except things changed last week. She fell and cut her knee. No big deal, happens all the time. But by the time I picked her up (5 seconds later) she had already bled through her jeans. So I rolled up her jeans to see what was going on, there was blood dripping down her leg, all coming from a tiny little cut. I cleaned away the blood, and luckily due to Jaidyn's current obsession with band aids I had some in the car. By the time we got home she had bled right through it. Not putting too much concern towards it we changed it and she went to bed.


The next morning we were heading to the clinic for a blood count check anyway, which was kind of perfect timing. The bleeding had stopped over night but started again on the way in and she had bled through her tights. I also noticed her knee was purple all around this tiny cut. She also had a giant blue bruise on her foot. Clearly her platelets were low for the first time. Blood work was done and yes that was the case. Her hemoglobin was still normal but her platelets were 28. Since it was Friday and they didn't want us to have to come in over the weekend, they decided to transfuse at 28 instead of waiting till it got down to 10.


Thankfully platelets only take an hour, but are a funky yellow colour and it freaked me out a bit at first.
Just enough time to play dress up, do some arts and crafts and some contraction work. After that we were free to go.

Platelets, Mermaid and Construction Worker. She does it all.

Drill to the eye

So back to my current topic. Today was day 10. Knowing she would probably have really low counts and possibly might have to stay today, I decided to be prepared, unlike most of the days we ended up staying for 8 or 10 hours. So I packed a bag for the clinic, filled with entertainment for myself and Jaidyn (even though they have every toy/electronic/movie available to them in the clinic), along with lunch and some paper work I needed to do. I also packed a couple days worth of clothes for her and myself, just incase we were admitted.


I wasn't going to get stuck unprepared like I have a few times before.


So we got there and went upstairs to the lab, got her blood drawn, and went back down to the clinic. Her vitals were done and then we were able to go to the playroom while we waited for her blood counts.


As soon as I started to get my computer out to get some stuff done, Jaidyn's nurse April came over with a big smile on her face and said "well... you guys are good to go!" A little confused, as I looked at her counts and they were pretty much normal. Low of course, but still nothing compared to what they were expecting. Her platelets were over 200, and Hemoglobin was at 100 (normal is 120). So we went into Dr. Rod's office to have our usual chat about how things were going and as he looked at her counts he again laughed like a couple times before. He couldn't believe that her platelets had gone up over 200. I was under the impression that it was normal since she had just had a platelet transfusion, but I was wrong. The transfusion would have at best brought her up to maybe 50, it was her own bone marrow producing plateets on its on. Jaidyn must have some pretty damn strong bone marrow, chemo can't even stop it.


So that was AWESOME news.


As prepared as I was to be admitted we got to go home. It was kinda ironic but we were ok with it none the less. 


On the subject of being able to go home, there has been some concerns about the fact that we have been "out patients" for almost all of Jaidyn's treatment. But now that I think more about those concerns, it's more than enough to be its own post. I will get to that late.

For now, I will enjoy days like today. Crisp sunny days in February where we get to go to the beach and throw rocks, and eat Gelato and enjoy each other's company without the burden of more blood tests, vital signs every couple hours, constant beeping and uncomfortable hospital beds. 

Throwing rocks

The windup

White Rock, BC

Happy girl, enjoying the sun

Enjoying her Gelato

Blood Orange and Tirimisu

And the winner is....

JAIDYN LYRIC!!!

We did it!!!

(how bad is it that I can't say or hear that phrase without automatically starting to sing like Dora "we did it, we did it, we did it YEAH!!!)

You can see the announcement here

We're so happy, excited, thankful and every other positive feeling out there. Well more so all those feelings are describing me... Jaidyn doesn't really have any clue what I'm talking about.

The photo means so much to me because it was taken about a week before she was diagnosed with Leukemia. It is such a beautiful picture, reminding me just how innocent these little kids are. It is also one of the last pictures taken of Jaidyn before our lives were turned upside down.

July 2011

Another one from that day- hair blowing in the wind

I'm so looking forward to having Bri Oliver take Jaidyn's pictures again. We'll most likely do the photo shoot towards the end of May or early June. Around the same time I try and get her photos done each year and also lets hope by then Jaidyn gets over her hate for the camera. This is partially because I have been constantly taking pictures of her over the last 6 months. Not that the first 3 years I wasn't a little camera crazy either.

So much has changed over the last 6 months, who could blame me.

But anyway, WE WON!!!

So thankful to everyone that voted, unfortunately the contest was ended early as it got a little too competitive for some people and things got a little out of hand. But proud to say Jaidyn must have a lot of fans as we won by at least 100 votes.

I'll post the pictures as soon as we get them done. So stay tuned...

Cute Kid Contest

So I decided to be "that mom" and I entered Jaidyn in a Cute Kid Contest. But I justified it with the fact that its hosted by an amazing photographer Bri Oliver at Luv U photography, who we have worked with before. She did my maternity photos and Jaidyn's new born photos at 10 days old.

I would LOVE to have her take Jaidyn's photos again, so PLEASE go vote for Jaidyn at the link below and share with all your friends.


VOTE HERE


ONE VOTE PER IP ADDRESS. 


Thanks everyone who takes the time to vote and spreads the word!

Part two of Phase two of Delayed Intensification

So I pretty much won an award for "Mom of the Year" on Jaidyn's second week of Delayed Intensification Part 2.


And I'm being completely sarcastic when I say that. 


Read further you'll find out why.


Day 1: Jan 26th


Today was the first day of the second week. It was scheduled to just be a quick visit with only the Ara-C administered. We were in a rush out the door (as usual) but made it to our appointment on time. Once we got there we had to wait a bit which was fine because it was Uncle Tay Tay's birthday today so we had to make him a card. So out the paints came and painted him a giant card.


Jaidyn's favourite volunteer was there today. Her name is Jackie, she is an older lady from Jamaica and she the sweetest thing I've ever met. She sits and plays with the kids, its amazing her patience. Jaidyn always talks about how Jackie came and read Jaidyn books when we were first admitted back in August. She read to Jaidyn for over an hour so I could go get some much needed food.


Today they played with the ambulance. Jaidyn told her all about her ride in the ambulance back in August.

Her Ara-C was given, she sucked back an entire bottle of grape juice and then we went home.


For those of you that aren't from around here, the hospital is about an hour drive from my house (dependant on traffic) and its all highway. So we were about half way home Jaidyn said "mommy I don't feel very good." Thinking that her tummy was hurting, which is a normal occurrence lately, I reassured her it was ok and we were almost home.


Ha, not the case.


Within seconds she was projectile vomiting all over the car, all over herself and all over her brand new car seat that was purchased YESTERDAY!


Panicking because we're on a major highway I pulled over to the shoulder, while she is still vomiting and it is not letting up. Thankfully, there was a blanket in the backseat that I was able to clean up as much as I could, as well as trying to comfort her. I couldn't figure out why she was throwing up like this. She has fortunately, never got sick from any of the drugs she has been given, so this was not something I wasn't  used to. And either was she.


Then it clicked. All last week she had the same drug but didn't get sick and there was a reason for that. She had been given Ondansatron, a powerful anti nausea medication. She takes that prior to getting her chemo.Normally if she doesn't take it orally before we get to the hospital, the nurses administer it by IV.


Except for this morning. "Mommy of the Year" over here, forgot to give it to her and I was paying for it by having to clean up grape flavoured vomit!


I felt horrible. I almost cried. This was my fault she was getting sick. It was the worst feeling.


We raced home and I carried her upstairs and put her right in the tub. In the time I walked from bathroom to laundry room I could hear her screaming from the tub. I ran back to the bathroom and she was vomiting again. Poor baby.


Once the disaster was cleaned up, I got her in bed and convinced her to let me give her the Ondansatron to make the vomiting stop. Funny enough the Ondansatron is grape flavoured and she knew that. Nothing like taking grape medicine after vomiting up grape juice for the last hour.


We managed, and she was fine after that.


Moral of the story?


Never forget Ondansatron.


Day 2: Friday Jan 27th


Along with Jaidyn's Ara-C she had a scheduled Kidney ultrasound to see if she might have a Kidney stone and that's what was causing the blood in her urine. Andrew had drove down that morning so he met us at the hospital.


Everything went smoothly with her ultrasound and we headed to the Oncology clinic for her chemo. And it is now evident to me that we watch too much TLC at home, since during the ultrasound she wanted to know if they were going to find a baby in her belly. :)


Her Ara- C was given and we went home. The Ondansatron was NOT forgotten today.


And of course we had a photo shoot with the bear outside the main entrance of the hospital.

Day 3 and 4: Saturday Jan 28th Sunday Jan 29th


These two days were uneventful, we went up to 3B got her Ara-C and that was that.


Sunday night we went to my parents house for dinner to celebrate my brother's birthday. Jaidyn had a blast and enjoyed putting the candles on the cake. Which was as you can see from the pictures a Family guy DQ ice cream cake. Jaidyn took one look at it and said "hey that's Stewie!" I love that my 3 year old knows who Stewie is. Thanks Taylor.

Blowing out candles is serious business

She loves her Tay Tay

pure excitement

Jaidyn and her Stewie cake

Isn't it so funny that when Andy comes down and nothing goes wrong. Its Murphy's Law or something like that. He leaves and she pukes, or gets admitted, has to be transfused, has a 10 hour chemo day at the clinic or gets a UTI. Why can't it just be smooth ALL the time?


Oh well. Even if he was here when something like that happened, its not like I wouldn't be there either. Even on days where he could take her in by himself, I find it very hard to stay home.


I guess it is what it is.  Such is life.


I'm just glad this part is over. So we don't have to drive to Vancouver almost every day for 2 weeks.


Next up is a follow up visit on Feb 2nd for possible transfusions of red blood cells or platelets. This is the time in treatment where Jaidyn's counts will drop significantly and she will most likely be admitted for neutropenia and fevers. We will see how it goes, take it easy and pray everything goes as it should.

Part one of Phase two of Delayed Intensification.

That probably means nothing to most of you but to break it down: 


It is the first week of the second part of the last most intense phase of Jaidyn's chemo. 


(say that 3 times fast)


This part of this phase is a month long consisting of two 4 day in a row chemotherapy drugs. You think thats a lot to remember, you should see all the new info that is stored up in my brain. They pretty much have you qualified to become an Oncologist through out all this. Maybe you hear these terms if you know someone with cancer or maybe it goes in one ear and out the other, but with a child going through this it is your job to remember everything. Probably more than you should... or that just might be me and my strong interest in medicine. Especially in Children. Anyway... back to the topic on hand.


Jaidyn's Neutrophil count was up to 1.1 on Wednesday so we were able to finally start the second half of her Delayed intensification phase which has been postponed for the last 2 weeks due to her Neutropenia.


Day 1: Thursday Jan 19:


This phase started out with an all day session at the clinic. We started it off with a Lumbar puncture, which for the first time I was able to stay in the room during her procedure. This was so exciting to me since she's had it done 15 or more times I never really knew what happened during it. They start it by giving her the IV Ketamine which takes effect right away she gets quite dizzy and wants to lay down. Normally kids just lay there watching Dora, Backyardigans or whatever highly obnoxious video they choose. But Jaidyn was a chatty Kathy. She just kept looking at me saying "hi mom, hi mommy, hi, HI, mommy? hi mommy? are you there mommy? hi, I love you mommy..." and so on. It was so cute, yet kind of broke my heart at the same time. knowing she was so doped up. I asked if she does this when I'm not there, they kinda laughed and said that last time she told them all about our new kitty cat... Which by the way does not exist.. I'm not sure where she got that from. They were laughing and saying this might be a preview of what to expect for her teenage years when she comes home drunk for the first time.


During the procedure, they place a needle in her lower spine and drain out out a few different vials of spinal fluid which they said is clear and looks great, then they inject the Methotrexate directly into her spinal fluid and then its done. All together takes about 10 min and she is then wheeled back to her room where she has to lay flat for an hour to decrease the chance of headache from spinal fluid leaking.


Once she finished her hour of laying flat, she started on her 2 hours of IV hydration. The reason for this is because she was receiving a new drug called Cyclophosphamide.


This drug has known side effects of being quite hard on the bladder. So they make sure that your urine is at a specific gravity before they can start administering the chemo. By extra hydration they can get your urine to that specific gravity faster.


After the two hours Jaidyn had to pee in the hat, which is like the most exciting thing to do ever to her. Her urine was tested and she was all set to go to start. The chemo was given over an hour, and once it is done she is then hydrated for another four hours. As well as her urine is continuously checked for blood, since the drug can make the bladder bleed. This obviously concerned me, but they assured me it was quite rare for anything like that to happen.


So we went about our day, entertained ourselves with puzzles, iPads and painting amongst other things.
They really do such an amazing job to keep that playroom full of everything a child could want.

When it was time for Jaidyn to go to the bathroom, her urine was dipped and low and behold it showed Large amounts of blood. (The scale goes trace, small, medium, large). So that kinda had everyone concerned, but soon after a little investigation Jaidyn's #1 Nurse Kristy realized that her urine from BEFORE the chemo had blood in it as well.


So that opened up a whole other book of questions as to why she had blood in her urine in the first place. Bladder infection? UTI? Kidney's? Jaidyn hadn't been complaining of any pain when urinating or any back aches in her Kidney region. So why was there large amounts of blood in her urine.


They checked it again, and again, and a few more times and it continued to show medium to large amounts of blood. So they decided to give her a drug called Mesna which helps coat the bladder. As well as that drug, Jaidyn would also be getting another 2 hours of hydration. So all in all Jaidyn had an LP, laid down for an hour, 2 hours of hydration, 1 hour of chemo, and another 6 hours of hydration. Plus a quick dose of Cytarabine also known as Ara-C. This drug takes 5 min, and is given over the next 4 days. Nothing like putting in a 10 hour day at the clinic.

Thank goodness for paints and popsicles!


Day 2: Friday Jan 20th


She was started on IV hydration right away, she hadn't been feeling that well so all she really wanted to do was lay on the couch and watch Backyardigans on the little DVD player. Kristina- the lady who is in charge of Child Life and the playroom is Jaidyn's new best friend since she brought Jaidyn a pillow and warm blanket for her belly. Jaidyn pretty much relaxed the whole 5 hours. They dipped her urine a few times, all of which still showed large amounts of blood in her urine, with trace amounts of white blood cells. That shows there is a possible infection. They weren't going to continue testing her urine over the weekend unless we could visibly see blood in her urine. Her Ara-C was given and we were off.

Day 3: Saturday Jan 21st


Since it's a Saturday, the oncology clinic isn't opened, Jaidyn gets her chemo on the 3B Oncology ward. Andy took Jaidyn himself today, since it was JUST going to be Ara-C, and would only take 5 minutes it didn't need two of us there. Basically they were in and out with no complications.


Day 4: Sunday Jan 22nd


Andy left to go back to Keremeos, so I took Jaidyn in for her quick appointment. We played in the 3B playroom for a while, since she hadn't been up there since the summer. (All of her appointments are done downstairs in the clinic.) 

After her Ara-C was given, and we decided to venture downtown and meet up with a few friends of mine. We went out for lunch with a friend, and within an hour she went pee 3 times. Didn't really think much about it, but thought it was kind of odd. Then we went to another friends house and were there for about two hours. Within those two hours she went pee 5 times. So now I was a bit concerned. So I asked my friend what she thought, was I being overly concerned? Given that the last few days showed blood in her urine, the excessive urination over the last few hours and we were still in Vancouver, I figured I should just put a call into the on-call Oncologist just in case. Based on what I told them, they agreed it didn't seem right and asked me to come into Emergency right away so they could check her out. Unfortunately my visit with my friend was cut short and we were once again on our way back to the hospital.


We were admitted to the ER and the asked the routine questions. No fever, no burning with urination, just constant peeing. The doctor came in a few times giving us different options and what she thought it might be. The urinalysis still showed the blood and based on the fact that in the last few days there had been slight elevation in white blood cells she was going to treat as if it was a UTI. IV antibiotics were started and she called up to the Oncology floor to see when we could get a room. I was kind of surprised she wanted to keep us overnight, and she even felt weird doing it since Jaidyn seemed so fine. No fever, still bouncing off the walls, just peeing a lot. After a couple hours of antibiotics she came back in and said that she was going to let us go home and we would just follow up in Clinic with Dr. Rod tomorrow. To me that sounded much nicer than staying unprepared in the hospital overnight. Jaidyn was quite pleased to go home as well. She gave me an oral dose of antibiotics, that I was to give Jaidyn at 5 am, and we were on our way.


Day 5: Monday Jan 23rd


Jaidyn conveniently woke up at 445am (a regular occurrence lately) so I was able to give her the antibiotics without having to wake her up. That however, backfired as she projectile vomited as soon as I gave it to her. After a quick shower, and sheet change, I was able to get her back to sleep.


April, our lovely nurse that follows us on a regular basis phoned me a few hours later to see how Jaidyn was doing. I let her know the oral dose of antibiotics didn't exactly happen as planned, so she suggested we head back into the clinic to get an IV dose of antibiotics and that should be enough to get rid of whatever was hanging out in her Urinary Tract. 


So off we went back to Children's for the 5th day in a row. They quickly hooked her up to her IV pole and started the antibiotics. Luckily they had kept in her butterfly for all 5 of these days so she didn't have to get poked each time. It was short and sweet today, but suggested Jaidyn get a ultrasound on her Kidney's just to make sure that's not where the blood was coming from. That will be done on Thursday, as well as she will start week two of the 4 day Ara-C dosage. Lets hope that its quick and easy like it should be.