04/03/07
10:12 am Just a quick post so that there is something on this site--Susan's mom pointed out that when the new month rolled over, all our content rolled over into the archives as well and she was left staring at a blank page. Not that our life has been a blank page!
Sophie did well last week with her treatment. Because the veins in her hand have not been holding up well lately, we were going to try the chemotherapy injection and blood draw in her foot. Sophie seemed very squeamish about that the whole time, and when it came time to draw the blood, was reverting to her old kicking and screaming self. Unfortunately, after all that drama, there was no blood and there was to be no chemotherapy injection. Sophie kept crying over and over again, "I want the blood to come out! I want the blood to come out! I want the blood to come out!" But it never did.
Dr. Gold came and took a look at Sophie's veins on her feet as well as her hands, and we put the numbing cream on both feet and both hands. We also put warming pads (warm, wet washcloths) on her hands to try and "plump up" her veins. Everyone agreed that we would try the hands first, and on the very first try (with no kicking and screaming), we had a successful "stick." Everyone was happy.
Sophie managed to do very well on steroids last week. She turned into an eating machine, but she was mostly cheerful. She and Elisabeth got into it a couple of times--that's normal, but it gets magnified when Sophie is on steroids (I think Sophie's mood affects Elisabeth's as well). We have two more clinic visits for chemotherapy and two more 5-day steroid treatments.
A fellow South Africa pilgrim (hi, Nora!) pointed out after the monster list of side-effects I posted last time that although what Sophie is going through (what we are all going through) is a big thing, God is even bigger. Thanks for the reminder. I have noticed that we get so bogged down in the details of Sophie's treatment some times that we lose sight of the bigger picture, maybe out of necessity. It's nice to know that so many of you continue to keep up with us and continue to encourage us and pray for us--we certainly need it still!