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6/7/06

8:37 PM I think I have nearly recovered from whatever virus had me down the last few days. Today has been a mostly productive day, and I haven't had any "episodes" of tiredness, fever, or whatever. Good thing, too, since I was more or less a single parent (Susan had a two-day meeting up in the Triangle, so she spent the night up there last night). The major events in our lives the past couple of days (other than getting back home and settling in) have been that Sophie had a bad tumble last night about 7:30pm. Suffice to say she was doing something that both parents have discouraged her from doing because it is not safe, and, as we have tried to warn her, she fell. When she fell, she hit the back of her head on the coffee table and caught her upper lip on a toy stroller. The back of her head wasn't nearly as bad as her lip, which split neatly right under the nose--about 1/4 of an inch across. There was lots of blood (of course) and at least as many tears. Mostly, she was very, very scared, but the blood and the pain didn't help her feel less scared. Sophie remained out of sorts for the rest of the night. Taking her nightly medicine was a task--she didn't want anything going near her mouth, but we managed to get four pills and some liquid medicines in. Brushing her teeth was out of the question. The biggest problem was going to sleep. She could not suck her thumb. After crying for a while about not being able to suck her thumb (her substitute soothing behavior was holding a folded paper towel to her lip), Sophie said softly, "I wish this hadn't happened." I told her that I wished the same thing, but that she would feel better soon.

About 6:00am this morning, before I woke up, I heard this cheery voice from right beside the bed, "Hey, my lip does feel better already!" I'm so glad I was right!

I got Elisabeth off to school (tomorrow is her last day--pray for us!), and then Sophie and I headed off to the clinic. I was eager to have someone look at Sophie's lip (although it was already looking much better). It was a very, very quick visit today as there was no sedation or spinal tap. Sophie must have thought there was, because she barely ate anything (I thought it was because of her lip hurting). When we got to the clinic, she said, "And I can eat whatever I want when I wake up." When I told her that she could eat whatever she wanted now, she seemed confused. I told her there would be no sedation and no spinal tap, so if she was hungry, we could get her something to eat. She asked for Cheetos (suprise!). We were seen by the nurse practitioner, got a blood draw, a quick shot of vincristine in her line and we were off. Sophie's counts came back later today and they were great. Her ANC (again, a measure of her immune system) had bounced up to over 2.0, which is great. They upped her chemo drugs to 3/4 dosage from 1/2.

A cute Sophie (and Elisabeth) story from the dinner table tonight. Sophie has taken to telling long, rambling stories that really don't have much of a plot and seem to have no particular ending, other than "The End," which she tacks on about 18 minutes after she started. Tonight, she launched into another story:

"Once upon a time, there was a girl, and she had to get up very, very early to go to school, and do you know what time she got up to go to school? Forty-eight pounds!"

Elisabeth, listening intently, nearly spit out her drink and said, "Sophie, that is not a time! That's 'libs'!"

[as in "lbs."]

Now it was my turn to spit out my drink. Where would we be without big sisters to straighten us out? (hi, Sabine!)

Comments

I love you!

I'm glad the commissioning ceremony went well. I am sorry you were under the weather. I gathered from Susan's post that you get to stay where you are for a year or so. Do you know the plans for after that? It's terrific that both conferences are working with you and your family's needs. I hope you got the word on why I wasn't at the ceremony. I really wanted to attend. Sorry about Sophie's fat lip. Doesn't sound like stitches are needed - I love the fact that kids bounce back so fast. Now Sophie has a new 'war' story to share with Mom when she gets home. Tell Sophie we are sorry it happened too.
Love Jean